Forge has captivated a lot of attention through 2012, a brand new title from indie developer, Dark Vale Games. We've been playing a lot of Forge lately and offer our official review. Read it, then leave your thoughts in the comments.

Forge's gameplay model is a pretty neat one in theory, particularly for fans of MMO-style PvP, and its core experience can be quite fun, but the game itself feels largely unfinished.  Dark Vale Games has created a solid gameplay system with Forge, and while the developers have been steadily adding modes and tweaks since launch, the overall experience feels as though the game is still in its beta phase.  Forge has a lot of potential, but needs to make good on several of its gameplay promises to become a front-runner in arena-based combat.

Read more of Som Pourfarzaneh's Forge: Fun & Frantic But...

Going to buy this game off of STEAM since it has a 2 for 1 for $19.99 (DEC 18th)  and its a B2P game.

I will eventually hook one of my friends into this game and it looks pretty promising if your into this sort of gaming.

Thanks for the review and letting me know about this game.

Decent pvp game, needs work, but not bad for an indie developer if they get the funds and time to refine it.

Why do you bother to put an innovative tag on these games?  Come on, there is nothing really innovative about this game.  Sure they have improved on a few things, but giving it an 8/10 for innovation is ludicrous!  The reviewer should be ashamed to they threw such a high number out.  What was the reviewer thinking?  Right, they were not thinking at all, just randomly picked a number out of the hat.  Hate to see what a truly innovative game would be rated at.

As to longevity, giving it a 7 is risky, since most of the predecessor pvp games have not lasted very long.  Hope it works out for them though.

Good review except the reviewer tanked the innovative category.

It's decent with the 2 for 1 dealm ,my friend and I though that was reasonable value for money on a game that seems like it will only get better.

Still needs more optimisation though one of the maps is almost unplayable for me, due to the frame rate plummeting.

btw.. they did release this while in a beta version, not surprised at all about the comments made.

It has great potential though and even as a shell atm of what it will become in the next half year, its already fun to play in my opinion. This game and PS2 at least keep my mind of WoW (which i dont want to go abck to due the subscription and stuff :P )

Originally posted by Ozmodan

Decent pvp game, needs work, but not bad for an indie developer if they get the funds and time to refine it.

Why do you bother to put an innovative tag on these games?  Come on, there is nothing really innovative about this game.  Sure they have improved on a few things, but giving it an 8/10 for innovation is ludicrous!  The reviewer should be ashamed to they threw such a high number out.  What was the reviewer thinking?  Right, they were not thinking at all, just randomly picked a number out of the hat.  Hate to see what a truly innovative game would be rated at.

As to longevity, giving it a 7 is risky, since most of the predecessor pvp games have not lasted very long.  Hope it works out for them though.

Good review except the reviewer tanked the innovative category.

 

Its been quite a while since any developer dared to go this road of genre with their game. I would change innovative to refreshing :P

 It's nonetheless disappointing that such items were left for post-release patches, and that several of them exist within the game's menus and are as yet unavailable.

Its a fucking new indie dev company... if they had the money to push away release a bit further.. they would have. The Forge community tried to make as much PR as possible, but sadly we yust did not get enough people to make the money.

Originally posted by Ozmodan

Decent pvp game, needs work, but not bad for an indie developer if they get the funds and time to refine it.

Why do you bother to put an innovative tag on these games?  Come on, there is nothing really innovative about this game.  Sure they have improved on a few things, but giving it an 8/10 for innovation is ludicrous!  The reviewer should be ashamed to they threw such a high number out.  What was the reviewer thinking?  Right, they were not thinking at all, just randomly picked a number out of the hat.  Hate to see what a truly innovative game would be rated at.

As to longevity, giving it a 7 is risky, since most of the predecessor pvp games have not lasted very long.  Hope it works out for them though.

Good review except the reviewer tanked the innovative category.

I agree, but if they score innovation low it makes the overall game score and rating go down and if they give it a high score then it misrepresents the category.  Innovation really shouldn't be a factor in the overall score and a low innovation score shouldn't necessarily bring a game score down.  Every game out shouldn't have to reinvent the wheel.  A lot of great older classics have absolutely no innovation, they were just fun games.

Fair review, lack of polish is the main problem. But the core is good, I agree with this review. First one in forever.

Like so many others, the reviewer does not get it. MMO PvP needs PvE to have something to compete over. If not then it is just like any other multiplayer death match game out there where you fight just for the sake of fighting rather to fight over something, which is what makes MMO PvP different.

This game seems to fit into the fight just for the sake of fighting and then i dont see the point of making an MMO out of it.

Bought it today. Its a great game and basicly takes what I love about mmo's out and does it without a gear grind or to much unbalance.

I agree the game should not have released yet as it lacks maps anf features atm. But I guess they needed the money to further develop the game. Stuff like server browsers, custom servers, guilds/clans, more maps, more classes is all planned according to the developper.

What they have now is a great base game wich can only improve over time if they continue to put work in it.

Originally posted by Torvaldr

Originally posted by Ozmodan

Decent pvp game, needs work, but not bad for an indie developer if they get the funds and time to refine it.

Why do you bother to put an innovative tag on these games?  Come on, there is nothing really innovative about this game.  Sure they have improved on a few things, but giving it an 8/10 for innovation is ludicrous!  The reviewer should be ashamed to they threw such a high number out.  What was the reviewer thinking?  Right, they were not thinking at all, just randomly picked a number out of the hat.  Hate to see what a truly innovative game would be rated at.

As to longevity, giving it a 7 is risky, since most of the predecessor pvp games have not lasted very long.  Hope it works out for them though.

Good review except the reviewer tanked the innovative category.

I agree, but if they score innovation low it makes the overall game score and rating go down and if they give it a high score then it misrepresents the category.  Innovation really shouldn't be a factor in the overall score and a low innovation score shouldn't necessarily bring a game score down.  Every game out shouldn't have to reinvent the wheel.  A lot of great older classics have absolutely no innovation, they were just fun games.

I would agree, just because it is not innovative, does not mean  it is not fun.  That is why I question the category.

Uh, Forge is basically a Rakion clone embellished with Trinity elements. Skills design and balance are on par or beyond the 2012 standard, but in no way is a game innovative just because your gaming portfolio is shallow.

I expect to see great things from Forge, because they earned more than Far Cry 3 did on steam, I guess by now they definitely have the funds, or at least I hope they do.

I also hope they scrap the Forest map, I hate that map. It looks nice, but it plays like arse.

Originally posted by Yamota

Like so many others, the reviewer does not get it. MMO PvP needs PvE to have something to compete over. If not then it is just like any other multiplayer death match game out there where you fight just for the sake of fighting rather to fight over something, which is what makes MMO PvP different.

This game seems to fit into the fight just for the sake of fighting and then i dont see the point of making an MMO out of it.

Bull. And Sh*t.

PvE is far from a requirement in any title that wants to focus on the PvP side of gaming. Besides, I do believe you are failing to understand just what you are saying you "think" they need. They need persistence in-game, not persistence in character, with the ability to affect the world in some manner such as conquering areas or the like. That isn't PvE however, not even in the slightest.

And, if you haven't bothered to read the preview, they are already planning on doing such a thing. It's planned as a post-release update, as well as the several modes/maps/classes that were talked about within the review. One of which was a central inhabited hub as well as a form of conquest in the game world. Which again, goes towards persistence within the game.

The game is hard, and so is all the classes, when I get into combat. After 1 hour, I could play the Pathfinder pretty good and still stay calm in some fights. The learning curve may be harsh for some, but it is a lot of fun, when you know what to do ofcourse! 

At the first round, I hated the game. After some games, I kinda liked it and I think the "fun" will increase the more you learn. I would say that the game is well worth the money, even if I kinda hate it right now. BUT I will play it anyway, so I get past the noob experience. Go and get it, if you like PvP!