Skyforge

This seems to be one of the more popular MMORPGs that has been released lately. Speaking of which, I haven’t been hearing many MMOs being released lately. The hype must have died. It’s all MOBAs now.

Apparently, this game uses the same launcher as Armored Warfare, so I guess they have the same publisher.

My first impressions about this game is that it has very high production values. All the NPCs that you can interact with are voiced. It seems like this is starting to be the norm. I personally feel that the money could be better spent elsewhere. Most people skip the dialogue after a while, especially if they’re on a second character; SWTOR players admit this themselves.

The graphics are also really good, but I have to dial it down cause my PC is crap. I’ve also died to a boss once because I couldn’t see the bad stuff on the ground because the grass was partially blocking it, so all the more reason to lower the graphics. This is the second game I’ve played which benefits players who play without having lots of grass. Game developers need to start to be aware of this, especially if PvP is involved.

So, on to what the game is actually about. This game features action combat, meaning that instead of tab targeting and pressing the number buttons on the keyboards to perform actions, you have to aim your crosshair onto the enemy, then press your mouse buttons or some key buttons to attack. This is another feature that’s starting to become a norm in MMORPGs, as seen in games like Dragon Nest, Guild Wars 2, Tera, and Neverwinter. I’m personally okay with this, as long as it feels good to play it. If you’re making the combat action-oriented, then it has to feel like I’m really hitting something. I loved the combat in Neverwinter, but I hated it in Guild Wars 2. Combat in Skyforge is closer to Neverwinter than Guild Wars 2, which is good.

Now here’s where the game gets a little controversial. You start off with three classes, and the remaining 10 or so classes have to be unlocked by playing the game. And it’s not like these additional classes are a “second job” or “class advancement”; they’re an entirely new class.

The game also sets a cap on your progress, which is reset every week. If you decide to have a gaming marathon and play Skyforge for 10 hours a day for three days and you hit the cap, then too bad for you; you’ll have to wait until it resets. However if you play casually, I doubt you’ll hit that cap. Furthermore, the cap limit is carried forward every week, so if you don’t hit the cap for a week, it’s going to be even harder to hit the cap the next week.

Skyforge doesn’t use the traditional open world concept as seen in games like World of Warcraft or Guild Wars 2. You can’t just walk out of town, and walk into a new zone or dungeon. In Skyforge, there’s a hub or HQ, and you get all your main quests from there. You also travel from there. While travelling, you are presented with a world map, like this:

There are three types of gameplay nodes that I’ve seen so far. Adventure, which are essentially 3 or 5 man dungeons (can also be queued solo). An open world area, which is your traditional quest zone. And PvP. You just click on what you want to do, and you’re teleported there to do it. Simple as that.

While I did say that the class system is controversial, it’s also possibly its redeeming factor. You play as one character, but that character can play as any class. However, you still need to play the class to unlock its skills; the class level is not global across all classes.

Levelling the class is not your traditional “experience” system. You level using three different types of sparks. You might have seen these sparks in the world map above. The green, red, and blue hexagons that represent those nodes are actually the types of sparks that you can earn from these places. After collecting these sparks, you use them to unlock nodes in your ascension atlas, which is basically your skill tree.

See the red, blue, and green nodes in the image above? You use the respective coloured sparks to unlock those. These nodes only give stat points, such as strength, might, luck, etc. Also, these stat nodes are global across all classes that you play on, so you can play a new class with basic skills, but have very high stats.

There are two different ascension atlases. The one in the image above is the global one, where all the nodes affect all the classes you play. There’s also a class specific ascension atlas, in which the nodes affect only that class itself. These nodes are unlocked with a fourth kind of spark; a class specific spark. Each group of nodes has a skill node right in the middle of it. These skill nodes grant a new talent or skill, and you unlock it for your class or globally, depending on whether you are using the global or class specific ascension atlas.

Overall, Skyforge is pretty refreshing, albeit grindy. It’s still unknown to me how the endgame will be like, and hopefully it will be different from what I’m already doing.

I continued this review 2 weeks later

Currently, I’m at around 5600 prestige, which is your “level” in game. Prestige is increased by unlocking more nodes, using better equipment, etc. At this point I think I have a fairly rough idea of what this game will be like for most of your time. One word: grind.

Grind isn’t inherently bad, and it all boils down to what you’re grinding for. Is the thing you’re grinding for alluring enough to keep you interested? Is what you’re grinding for worth the time? Is the grind pleasant enough, meaning that it merely takes time, and not a hair-pulling session?

Unfortunately, I have to answer all these questions with a ‘no’. At my current prestige level, there is absolutely no point to grinding anything other than the four kinds of sparks. There is no need for items, or supplies for your order (not explaining that). The way to do this is to run dungeons over and over again. If you want to be more efficient in your dungeon runs, you have to play in the solo mode. While some might enjoy the solidarity, I find it extremely boring. After all, this is an MMO, not a single player game. I would just go play Borderlands if I wanted to grind solo.

Further contributing to this problem is the fact that a major part of the game is made up of dungeons. I mentioned earlier that there are open world areas for questing, but they are far slower and terribly difficult to do. Which brings me to my next point.

This game isn’t easy. In fact, I would have to say that it’s the most difficult MMORPG I’ve played. I’ve never played Wildstar, so unfortunately I cannot compare with that. In this game, there are no classes that can consistently heal you. Some ultimate skills are able to heal, but they have cooldowns lasting a few minutes. Therefore, damage mitigation in this game is purely based on dodging attacks, and shielding that is given by the support classes. Bosses drop health orbs each time they lose 10% of their health, and trash mobs drop these orbs when they die. These orbs heal very little, approximately 25% of your health by my estimates. With all this in mind, getting hit even once is a big no no. In this game, the DPS and support should never get hit at all. Only the tank is allowed to get hit and take the health orbs. Brutal.

The difficulty isn’t just constrained to the dungeons. In the open quest areas, trash mobs hit like a truck. Playing a Cryomancer (ice mage), if I do not kill the pack of mobs before they reach me, then I’ll be dead in a second or two. What’s extremely odd is that trash mobs are more difficult than the zone bosses in the area. If the boss is melee, it’s entirely possible to kite the boss to it’s death. Not possible against trash mobs, since kiting does not prevent damage entirely; it only reduces the rate of attacks against you.

Finally, I still can’t accept the fact that we have to grind to unlock classes. I went through three phases about this fact. At first, I was rather neutral about it. Possibly slightly annoyed, but no big issue there. Then, I personally thought it wasn’t that bad. I actually do like the Cryomancer, one of the starting three classes. Liking the class that you’re currently playing helps a lot in your grind. Eventually, I did manage to unlock the Slayer, commonly known as the Rogue in other MMOs and RPGs. I found the Slayer extremely good when testing it in the training room, which is why I made it my first goal. However, when I brought it into a dungeon, it all fell apart. Melee is terrible in this game. Remember how I said that you’re not supposed to get hit at all as a DPS? Well, it’s infinitely more difficult to avoid attacks as a melee character. I died in that dungeon a lot. People say the Slayer is overpowered in PvP, so I brought him there. I was terrible there too. I did better in my Cryomancer. And this isn’t a case of bringing a newly unlocked Slayer to these places. I did put in the effort to farm class sparks to unlock all the necessary skills used in the cookie-cutter builds.

So I ditched my Slayer. A waste of all that effort. One week’s worth of grinding, all for naught. Now, I started to get a little bitter and annoyed. But I still continued. I decided to work towards my original goal of getting the Gunner, as well as to pick up the Kinetic along the way, which is supposedly the best ranged PvE class. But by then, it was too late. The waste of effort I spent on the Slayer showed itself. 85% of the people running around me in the open world zone were Archers, Slayers, Kinetics, Necromancers, and Berserkers. Almost everyone was using an unlocked class. I became even more annoyed. I just want to play what I want, damnit.

Then I thought about Skyforge a little more, after I hit my sparks cap. I’m playing this game to unlock the class I want to play. I am literally, spending 100% of my time, playing the game to unlock the class I want to play. Does that even make sense? I’m not playing to get stronger. I’m not playing to get epic phat loot. I’m not playing to get end game achievements like “Killing the Lich King”. I’m not even playing with friends or a guild, socializing and having fun. I’m playing to unlock a class.

That was when I realized that Skyforge was absolutely stupid, and I don’t think I’ll ever be playing it ever again.