Forsaken World: Tweens Unite!

Pretty But What Else?

So Perfect World introduced "Arc" to allow players of their games to have a single loading interface to load any and all of their current games.  It also allows players to access community Forums and such from in game through the Arc Browser.  So having been playing a lot of Neverwinter I downloaded it, and installed it.  After doing so, I decided to check out some of their other titles.  Of the three games I looked at, the Forsaken World has held the most appeal to me so far.  It is a digitally attractive 3-D game world with stylized characters.  While most of the men in the game aren't "masculine" in my definition of the word, I am admittedly not their target demographic (Heck, I'm nobody's target demographic).

So, meet Roricsaxon (should be Roric Saxon) but the space wasn't allowed. He's a Warrior, that is to say a great-sword wielding killing machine in defense of the Lionheart Champions.  Of the four characters I created, he is the most "manly" in the traditional sense.

Starter gear in the town of Winter Heights

The game has a rather simple feel to it, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.  Much of the first twenty-five levels (of 80 currently) have a tutorial feel to it.  Most of the mobs (monsters) are neutral to you, and not aggressive until you attack them, even the "rampaging beasts" that you are sent out to kill.  Makes it easy to complete quests, in case you somehow take damage and need to rest. Or if you are like me on the staff of a certain cat, and she gets hungry just as you are in the middle of a centaur camp. The other feature that I really like is the auto-routing.  Most of the quests so far have the ability to click the target in the quest text and get auto-routed to that place.  If you have a mount (freebie one around level 10-15, free flying mount at 25), it even mounts you before taking you to your target automatically.  Given the fact that the mobs don't attack you without provocation in many cases it is therefore, possible to go get a drink while your toon is running/riding/flying to the quest target area.   Combat abilities appear to work the same way.  If you are targeting something and click a combat ability, your toon will automatically move to the maximum range for that ability if it's a ranged attack, or move to melee range to execute the attack. Saves on pounding on the keyboard some.

Currently, most of the servers I saw are giving xp buffs to new players to the tune of 300% quest xp up to like level 70 or so.  Thus even though the starter area quests are up to level 10, you are usually 13-15 when you reach Freedom Harbor, the first city I've found.  The first dungeon I've heard about is around level 17, though it says 15-20.  I have yet to find a group for it, but then again I've played sparingly so far.

Screenshot showing the default UI.

The UI is simple, clean and customizable.  A second bar is placeable directly above the one on the bottom, which I have put into place since this picture as my character got more abilities.  Also as is popular in PW games, you get a combat pet who has 2 abilities that I put on the second bar as well.

My biggest complaint about the game is the community seems closed.  From what I can tell, based on reading of forums and about topics, guilds are important in the game.  Guilds get bases and such and control/occupy regions of the world.  When you enter an area it tells you which guild controls the area.  However, joining a guild seems... difficult.  Getting somebody to talk to you seems even worse.  Outside of a female character on a fancy white mount that came up to me today and gave me a beautiful rare quality weapon for when I hit level 40 out of the random kindness department, I've had no player interaction.  Unfortunately, said player had to go quickly so I couldn't ask them questions.  But hey, it was still really cool. So on the off chance that player ever finds and reads this... Thanks!

Level 15 Roric with his Wolf Pet. Though he looks like he has a hairball right now.

I do like the stylized look of the game, and the quest system is a nice mix of the WoW-style flat text quests and the more evolved Star Wars or Secret World cut scene quests in that while there is only text, it is interactive to a degree.  It gives a bit more feeling while not making you wait for a cut scene if you're not into that thing.

For the moment, the jury is still out on this game. I like the look and feel of the game, but so far the community has left me cold overall (outside of the one great moment).  I will return to this and update you as I find out more.