New format, new game, Same old me. Welcome back to Flat Broke Gamer Review, and the first part of the review for:
BACKSTORY
Like many of the MMOs out there, the start of Forsaken World's story are with the gods. Dyos the creator and Nyos the destroyer, opposites in a balanced universe, these two followed and fought each other, until Dyos came upon the world of Eyrda, and found a tree with a giant star wheel at the top. He and other gods built up the world of Eyrda, and his children Tytan, Illyfue and Vyda created the races of the world. When Nyos arrived, Dyos had left, leading Nyos to chase him yet again. Nyos left behind a new god, Mylvada, with all the power to destroy Eyrda. Several wars ensued between the gods and their followers, destroying two continents in the process.
GETTING STARTED
Character creation follows a fairly simple progression of option pages: Race, Class, Male or Female, facial and hair options, etc. I chose to try out two of the races available, but here is the full rundown.
Human: Just exactly what you'd expect from an MMO, Humans are more adaptable than most other races, and can be Warriors, Assassins, Mages and Priests.
Elves: Falling definitely on the Anime side of the Elf scale, these over dressed, prissy, pointy eared people fall easily into the stereotypes for design. Elves can be Warriors, Priests, and Bards.
Kindred: Instead of sparkly skin, we get outlandish sparkly clothes for these vampires. Created by one of the Demigods, Kindred can be Assassins, Mages, or Vampires (don't strain your brain on this too much, but yes, vampire race has a vampire class), but always "Fab-ulous!"
Stonemen: Not only does this race have only one class, because they are created by magic, only Male Stonemen exist. These rocky dudes are Protectors, Forsaken World's hammer-wielding, armored-out-the yin-yang Tank class.
You do not have the option of joining the side of evil and trying to destroy the world, but your options are fairly good, and I think most people will find a character they'll like. Avoiding the cliched and over done, I built a Dwarf and a Stoneman. There is enough variety in the face/hair/jewelry department to find a look all your own, but not so much that you spend too long getting to the game.
The tutorial area of the world is actually pretty big, and specific to your race, with several quests that run you through the gamut of learning your skills, how to auto attack, interacting with the locals, etc. Most monsters ignore you until you attack, so I found it WAY too easy to annihilate them, especially since they don't even help each other after you attack. once you've unlocked some of your special attacks, you can usually string two or three together and kill the monsters before they even get a swat or two in. Those rare monsters that will attack you on sight have a small marker overhead, so you can either avoid them or try to take them out at your leisure. I found that the setup for the controls were comfortable, adaptable, and most importantly, easily understood. This is a user-friendly game, and the HUD is easily read and understood. One good feature the game has is the auto-direct function. On your quest menu, if you click on someone's highlighted name, the game will automatically guide you to them, which is really good since the areas are huge and the onscreen map is a little hard to follow. You train in the beginner's area until reaching level ten, and then have the option to head to Freedom Harbor, there to rub elbows with the other races and take your place in the fight to protect Eyrda.
SCORES
Playability: 4/5 A very solid tutorial system, easily used and modifiable keysettings, and a good HUD makes this game easy to learn and fun to play.
Atmospherics: 4/5 Beautiful design went into most of what you see, from the characters to the scenery, and although I think that some of the character designs are a bit too frou-frou (frou-frou: From the pig-latin freoua-freoua, meaning sissy or weak. See also: namby-pamby and pansy-boy) for my tastes, there can be no denying that they are visually stunning.
So there's the first part of Forsaken World's Review, tune in next time to see what I thought about developing your character beyond the newbie ranks and the community of players! For now this is NoCashReq, signing off!
[NoCashReq has left the room.]
