I've spent the last few days playing Skyforge, the latest free-to-play game to appear on the MMORPG market. Although I won't be writing a final review until I've spent more time with the game, I felt that with the arrival of Open Beta today it's a good time to share my impressions up to this point.
Sadly, my experience hasn't been positive… at all. Below I will go over why.
The Art Design Is Boring
Skyforge looks like someone found concept art from Final Fantasy 10 that was thrown away and thought to themselves, “No one will know.” Computer terminals look like crystal Pokeballs. The first few missions had me running through a warehouse, a seaport (complete with shipping containers) and a floating city. If you thought only the last one sounded cool, you are right.
Everything in Skyforge looks bland. Cities lack population, and those that do have them standing around in eerie silence. Enemies thus far have been armored possums and floating robot gems. Oh, I did fight something that vaguely resembled a merman. Even with the variety of enemies, it is the world they inhabit that makes you feel like these are all places copy-pasted from other, better games. That you can make a giant library hovering over a futuristic metropolis look boring is a testament to their uninspired design.
Oh God, Those Menus
Seriously, the menus are a logistical nightmare. Too many numbers with no clear meaning as to their value. It feels like someone wanted the interface to resemble an Excel spreadsheet. I still can't find the quest log. Maybe that's a quest.
You Can Change Your Class At Any Time, And That Is Neat
One problem I have with MMOs is picking a class that is entirely counter-productive to my play style. It would make sense, then, as a god-in-training, that I could just be whoever I want. Skyforge seems intent on making customization easy and convenient, so kudos to that. It looks like you level each on separately, much like the job systems in Bravely Default and Final Fantasy XIV. It's nice to be able to change up gameplay at a whim.
The Tone is All Over The Place
Here is a game that tasks you with a path to godhood while wearing sunglasses and leather pants. Games like Saints Row can get away with this because their overall tone is silly; but Skyforge feels like it is trying to make friends with everybody. The story and characters take themselves very seriously—except for the wise-cracking scientist guy who is already getting on my nerves—but the costume options are all over the place. Robotic heavy armor, suits and ties, cowboy hats. What are you, Skyforge? Speaking of costumes…
There Is No Armor, Only Costumes
In what is either a stroke of brilliance or laziness, there is no armor in the game. This is great for those who are tired of having to change pants after every quest because one of the giant rats was carrying pants with + 5 Strength for some reason. Instead, you can equip rings that boost your stats and dress like a leather-clad biker/rockstar with a penchant for minor mischief (see above). The costumes are amusing to say the least. One of the beginning quests gave me a polo shirt. Where in the world of science fiction is there room for polos? Skyforge.
It Wants To Tell A Story, But it Doesn't
In most MMOs, dialog is just a text box, and Skyforge doesn't want to be like those other guys, so NPCs are fully voiced and give you context before taking on a quest. Sounds great in theory, terrible in practice. The problem is conversation is completely one-sided, with your character silent the whole time. His only reply is to press the Space bar with honest to goodness prompts like "press Space to ask him if he is serious." It's like having your Mom tell you to say "Thank you" to your friend's parents after a birthday party. A party, I might add, where he didn't even let you play Sega.
There have been two quests so far where, in lieu of giving me actual in-game information about a character, the game prompted me to access a terminal which was a link to the game's wiki page. It's like the game is telling me it doesn't want to bother telling me what I can just read on my own. You can read, can't you? It's patronizing and lazy.
Combat Is a Mixed Bag
Playing as a Gunner Class, Tommy Tomahawk walks around with a giant chain gun that overheats because, you know, thermodynamics. Overheating forces you to switch to your missile launcher, which is the same as your chain gun but on your shoulder. Innovation. This gives you access to a different set of abilities, forcing you to change up your tactics every few seconds. In some ways, this is neat, as it requires you to be actively engaged in every battle, but most of the time it feels like a chore.
A Myriad of Currencies
Credits, Argents, Particles of Mastery, Sparks of Insight (of which there are three) and Celestial Threads. I haven't even listed half of them. There is a currency for regular purchases, one for upgrading equipment, and yes, one just for costumes (Celestial Threads sounds like a booth I saw at Comic-Con). Several hours in and I've yet to figure out where the store is. Apparently it's buried in the menu somewhere.
If you would like to experience the game for yourself, you can access the Open Beta for free starting today. Check out the official website to learn more.
