Forsaken World hasn’t forsaken the F2P MMO formula
[While waiting for Guild Wars 2 to launch, I took it upon myself to try out a few F2P (Free-to-play) MMOs. With my new endeavor in mind, I thought I’d try to write a review for each after I spend at least a week playing each, then reviewing them. Each review will follow the same format.]
Forsaken World is the latest offering from Perfect World, the company who created the popular game of the same name. While I’m not newbie to MMOs (having played the bulk of them since the original Everquest), I haven’t had great experiences with Eastern MMOs. This is partly because they’re a “clickfest”, and the cash shops in each game cater to a “play-to-win” style. Both of which I abhor. With that foremost in my thoughts, I downloaded and installed Forsaken World. After a very quick install and update, I was off and running.
Character Creation
As with all MMOs, you start off making your ingame persona. I created a human mage to tool around the game with because my first choice- a dwarf- was limited only to being a marksman. While I’m not against being a dwarven marksman (my main in WoW was a dwarven hunter), I’ve been there, done that. Characters are limited to specific race/class combos, meaning only certain races can be certain classes. While this is nothing new, its particularly limiting in FW. At most, any race can only be one of four4 classes (the sum of those being warrior, assassin, marksman, mage, priest, protector, vampire and bard). Coupled with only five playable races, this means you’ll encounter a lot of cookie-cutter characters.
With a couple of quick choices on the sliders, I was able to customize my character to my liking. Again, the customization options are more limited than a subscription-based MMO. But, that’s not to say I couldn’t create a great looking character. In fact, the character models, armor, etc are all very nice. Once I had created my character, I jumped right into the game.
Gameplay/Mechanics
Having played more than my share of MMOs, it was pretty easy to adjust to Forsaken World’s gameplay. The quests are very standard fare for the genre. They consist mainly of kill quests (kill X number of these guys), drop quests (get X number of these items from the world/creatures), and travel quests (go here, talk to this person). While I wasn’t particularly excited about this, the game *is* free, so I won’t complain too much about it.
Once you leave your newbie area, and venture into Freedom Harbor, the game really takes off. You’re given several quests that will send you around town to meet the crafting trainers, class trainers, and principle characters in the game’s faction and main quests. It was very tedious for me, although I do appreciate the game educating me on who to see, and what to do. Once I got out of the city, the game opened up more along the lines of WoW, Rift, etc. One very interesting feature of the game is the aut-routing feature. If you click on a green link in a quest entry, a point on the map, or an NPC’s name, the game will automatically route you to that person- hands-free. While I don’t generally trust this, it is convenient if you want to get up and grab a soda while you run.
The biggest complaint I have with the game is the difficulty. The monsters I’ve encountered are all quick kills, requiring only a few seconds to slay. That, in and of itself isn’t what bothers me. It’s the fact that the majority of the monsters are not aggressive, nor are they “social”, and gang up on you. The boss fights I’ve encountered (up to level 30) are all “tank-and-spank” types of fights, with the bosses having no real special abilities to create a challenge to the party. This makes combat almost trivial, and creates a less engaging game. The only time I’ve encountered aggressive monsters was in instances (which are usually pretty short), and occasionally in groups of other similar monsters. These died just as quickly, and with only a modest threat to my life and limb.
Economy/Currencies
Forsaken World uses three currencies: soul coins, gold and Eryda Leaves. Soul coins are used to purchase in-game goods such as potion materials, repairs and the like. It is not tradeable. Gold is tradeable to other players for goods, etc. The final currency, Eryda leaves, are used at the cash shop to purchase goods. You buy “zen” from the Perfect World store, and that translates into Eryda leaves in-game. There are lots of neat costumes, etc in the store, but nothing in there is what I would consider to be essential to your enjoyment and ability to access everything in the game. Its either there for cosmetic changes, or convenience.
Summary
In essence, Forsaken World represents Perfect World’s attempt to lure a western audience obsessed with World of Warcraft into a F2P, microtransaction-funded game. While their effort is to be applauded, the final product lacks the challenge and polish I’ve come to expect in an big budget, top tier MMO. Its almost as if the game is about looking cool and exploring, and not so much about grouping, dungeon delving, and big boss battles. That’s not to say it’s a terrible game- its not. It’s a competent enough to keep me playing occasionally to pass the time. I just don’t see die-hard MMO players sticking with this one for very long, especially when there are much better options either already on the market, or on the horizon.