Skyforge is a free MMO Action RPG that came out on PC a few years ago, and launched last year on consoles. It was co-designed by Allods in Russia, and the RPG legends at Obisidian.
I played about 15 minutes of it on PS4 Pro last fall, thought to myself “This seems fun!.” Then…I forgot about it.
Yesterday, I started it again on Xbox One X…and 40 minutes later I had purchased a $10 starter pack.
WAIT WHAT IS THIS GAME?
Skyforge is a somewhat-grindy Action RPG where you create a character who quickly becomes immortal, and you can change your class at any time to try out different stuff.
Yes…that sounds a little bit like Kingdoms of Amalur. Because it’s more or less the same premise.
The action gameplay is fun, and the menu system works well even on a controller. I’m enjoying traversing the land, and the levels are short enough that it has the fun quick feel of a mobile game, where I can pop in and progress even if I only have a few minutes to play.
The game is split into a map menu, with different quests in each zone. The progression works like a lot of other free-to-play games, where you earn rewards for completing each quest and eventually you hit a wall where you either have to grind for a while or put some money into the game.
VISUALS!
Like Black Desert Online, this game has really pretty graphics. The character creator is pretty involved, and it’s very easy to make a nice-looking character.
Many high profile games in the RPG genre have totally blown their character creator in recent releases. By “Many high profile games,” I mostly mean Mass Effect Andromeda.
It’s funny that a free-to-play game outclasses a big budget game in its character visuals and creation options, isn’t it?
And because this game is playable on the internet…some people make characters that look like this:
The game performs well on Xbox One X…but it hasn’t really received any enhancements for that platform, which is a bummer. The PS4 Pro version got a resolution bump in the middle of last year. It still looks and plays very nicely, but the PC version has better lighting and shadows, and I’d love to see that stuff rolled in on the faster consoles.
WHY ARE YOU PLAYING THIS?
I like to try out free-to-play games every now and then. I was playing Hawk: Freedom Squadron on my phone and enjoying it, and remembered that this game was from the same publisher.
And I figured this would tide me over until Dynasty Warriors 9 hits in two weeks.
I just wanted to tell you about it and that it seemed okay if you like to press buttons and swing swords at things.
Sometimes you get a gun off of an enemy and you get to shoot guys with a gun. That seems kind of neat.
Apparently, the game had a more involved progression system in the beta, but now you more or less grind for one resource in order to level up your character. I’m okay with this. It makes everything streamlined and fun.
Not everything needs to be Monster Hunter.
Also, all of the outfits in the game are cosmetic in nature. Meaning your appearance and your stats are completely disconnected. While this does remove the fun of seeing the new gear you earn to improve your stats…I thin it’s also nice to be able to change my appearance at any time without losing my cool armor bonuses. The weapons do appear in the game, so that’s something.
I don’t know, maybe try it out if it seems interesting!
