Forsaken World you are a tricky vixen. I truly wanted to despise you. To begin, the character race and class choices would be familiar to any who have played a fantasy mmorpg within the last 10 years. Relatively uninspired and borrowed models and themes hinder customizing your character looks. After selecting an effeminate male elf (though nearly all of the male choices are effeminate) and choosing the bard class (what can I say, love destroying my enemies with power of song) I started my journey. Not before I choose a birth date for my toon, which would come into play later I assumed.
At the initial launch I was surprised and disappointed that the graphics settings were already at the highest settings. Visually Forsaken World is dated. The characters glide over the terrain not planted in their virtual existence. After accepting several standard fare quests I pushed past the lack luster presentation into the combat mechanics. Not being terribly different from its competitors, Forsaken World’s combat mechanics plays it safe for the most part. However, while playing the bard a set of musical scales and treble cleft is floating on the left hand side of your screen. Using certain abilities in succession acts as notes being played and those notes can then activate a song, which imbues a temporary buff. For that I gave points for being interesting at least. The particle effects of the spells are actually quite nice, and gave me pause to really look at the concept of the art for the game. After destroying several miscreant treants, I eased up on the graphics a bit.
The aforementioned birth date is tied in with the game’s storyline and prayer function. Depending on the in game date your character may be affected by celestial events, providing in game benefits. You can also say a little prayer to gain items and experience several times a session. Though I could not tell if being under the affect of particular sign truly benefited my play it added something a little different to already typical experience.
The npc enemy designs are fairly typical and re-spawn incredibly soon after being defeated. Huge fields filled with bloodthirsty beasts, just waiting for you to destroy ten of them. Though vicious they may seem, standing in their midst did not incur their wrath, even as I slaughtered their brethren. It was after slaying a handful of creatures I was nearly ready to turn off the game. I checked the quest book to see who to turn the quest into and noticed that the npc’s name was hyperlinked. I clicked on it and my character started moving towards the npc, across the zone. The game had me at that point for some reason, call it hand holding or putting the game on rails, whatever, I liked it. I think some may argue that this can discourage some players from exploring, but it kept me playing for a little longer than I planned for some reason. Maybe it saved me the time of searching for the npc in huge city or that it cycled me from one quest, regardless, it’s a nice function for those who tend to get lost or easily distracted.
Through the auto-routing option I leveled my bard to level 10, acquired my trade skills and several pets. I would find other aspects of the game as my elf ran from place to place, exploring menu options and such. I discovered a calendar of events and planner that suggest appropriate activities based on the amount of time you have for that session’s play.
There is something charming about this game. It is not polished, groundbreaking or breathtaking. It probably won’t win any awards or be a fan favorite, but it has a thin veil of charisma. In a sea of F2P options, a little charm can go a long way.
Bottom Line: If you have run to the bottom of the well of mmorpg choices, you could do worse than Forsaken World.
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