Been Playing Skyforge

Even the start screen music in Skyforge is epic!

 Skyforge, I think it's a good MMORPG. It's just went into open beta so keep that in mind. I have played this game since the first closed beta, so my insights into it are not just that of a first impression. First, as usual, we'll start out with what this MMO gets right like: graphics, sounds and the Ascension Atlas and then look at where it strays on to the negative road, such as UI, controls and target locked attacks. Let's begin, shall we?

  As I previously stated, I have played this MMORPG for a while now via the closed beta and my overall impressions of the game are not bad. In fact, I feel the game has not changed much from closed to open beta, a bit of polish here or there is all. The glaring issues still remain, despite lots of feedback I read on the closed beta forums, but that can wait. Skyforge has gorgeous graphics and effects, some of the skills effects still wow me after seeing them 100's of times, The Cryomancer's finisher comes to mind. The maps and levels look impressive as well. As far as audio goes, it has a pretty good sound track and sound effects. The sound effects are not really to 'die for' but they are good, none the less. The music sounds really epic, it's done really well. The Ascension Atlas is a pretty awesome way to progress your character, it is reminiscent of other RPGs  like Final Fantasy 10 or Path of Exile. The game features many different classes with only a few available at start (a couple more for people who got a founders pack) and the others unlocked via the Ascension Atlas (yes, even the founder pack classes). The game uses  action based combat and does away with traditional 'levels' in favor of a prestige system...What is this prestige I speak of? Read on my friends.

  So now on with the negative stuff, the UI is not the best. You can't map skills on the hotbar wherever you please, which is a HUGE draw-back for me. Instead skills go where they go, which is fine if you use a game pad, which the game only partially supports (at the time of this writing) however, I use a very specific keyboard layout and it just doesn't fit right as it is implemented. This is a piece of feedback I have seen time and time again in the forums. This issue is probably not as easy to fix though, due to the way skills were implemented, it's more like skill slots than an actual hotbar. The controls feel a bit odd, and I can't quite put my finger on why. Maybe they feel a bit floaty, or maybe it's because you are rooted in place at strange moments during a skill's animation sequence, or a combination of the two is probably more likely. Add in abilities that mostly require targets in order to be used (including basic attacks) and it kind of starts to feel messy. Target requirements on some skills make sense though, but basic attacks should be the exception in an action MMO. I still see some of the same flaws that were expressed during closed beta, now being expressed in open beta which, to me, does not bode well. One can't help but think that the developers are doing there own thing and not listening to the players (ie. the customers). I'm sure that's not the case, but very little input from the developers or publishers on the forums leaves the player base to make crazy assumptions. But finally, let's look at prestige...

Skyforge boasts some great graphics and effects, such as this nice green fire created by the Necromancer.

  No traditional 'leveling' is what attracted me to this game. You can just hope on and not worry about being level 12 or 47 to do this or that. WRONG! Levels have simply had there numbers inflated and been renamed prestige here. Prestige serves the same purpose as levels, they gate you just as levels would. Example, you must have x amount of prestige to do this mission, or you have to have x proficiency to use this weapon and on and on. This system feels interesting enough, but it's still the same thing as levels. At times it can be even more complicated, as I said, you also have a proficiency rating which basically gates what equipment you can use. You gain proficiency from certain nodes in the Ascension Atlas. So now you have to juggle two different stats, prestige and proficiency. It's not all doom and gloom but still every bit as restricting as levels.

  This is still a very good action MMORPG and I can recommend it almost anyone looking for a fast- paced action game with RPG elements. You can check it out at: sf.my.com. Later gamers!