Skyforge

Skyforge is a free-to-play third-person action massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed by Allods Team, in collaboration with Obsidian Entertainment, and published by My.com. The project has been in development since 2010 and the first closed Beta was opened to selected players on March 11, 2015 for Microsoft Windows, with North American and European servers currently available.^[1]

Gameplay

In Skyforge, players take on a larger than life role as an immortal with incredible powers, battling to protect their world from the armies of hostile gods and eventually becoming a god themselves.^[2] Character progression within the game is not level based;^[3] instead of a traditional leveling format, Skyforge features a “prestige” system, which allows a player to advance based on the sum total of their stats and progression. This allows players to develop and switch between multiple classes at any time, rather than being locked into an early game class choice as in other MMOs. As a player gains more prestige, additional content, gear, and followers are unlocked.^[4] Once god mode is achieved Skyforge includes an additional progression system which allows users to manage their followers to increase their character's overall power.^[5]

There are a lot of adventures and locations the player can visit across the planet of Aelion. The capital of Aelion serves as a hub world, with three locations: the Divine Observatory, where the player can travel on adventures/visit locations through a hologram globe, the Research Center, where the player can train, try out new classes, and change the appearance of their character, and the Park, which players can walk around and occasionally hosts events, such as the 2015 pumpkin lighting and gift opening events. Through the Divine Observatory, the player can travel to different locations around Aelion. The Divine Observatory also allows the player to play in PVP battles. There are different locations, such as Dankit Island, Lander Forest, Isola Digs, and more. Each location often has numerous objectives, lots of enemies, and a thin storyline, such as having to defeat bandits who stole some scientists' research and more. A lot of locations are Squad locations, which basically means that the location is co-op. The Divine Observatory special missions (i.e. Invasions) often disappear, with new ones appearing frequently, although most locations stay on the globe. The changing missions and changing rewards happen during "Tactical Updates", although if a player started on a mission already, they can continue on the mission and not be affected by the changed rewards for completion.

Character classes

Unlike typical RPGs where players choose their classes early, and level up throughout the game, Skyforge allows players the freedom to develop and play any class they've unlocked. Players can change between classes they have unlocked at any time, as long as they are not in combat. The game will ship with over 10 classes at launch, including 3 starter classes. When players first join, they can pick either the Cryomancer, Paladin, or Lightbinder. To unlock a new class, the player has to go to a menu called the Ascension Atlas, which is filled with nodes that can be unlocked with Sparks. The Ascension Atlas has different levels: there is a class-specific level (i.e. a Paladin section), which, when the player unlocks enough nodes in the Atlas, will unlock the main level, where the player can unlock even more nodes, different classes, and Divine Form (all with sparks, of course), an ability that boosts the player's power. The main section leads up to the God section, which in turn will lead up to the upcoming Elder God portion. In total, there are currently 13 classes: Cryomancer, Paladin, Lightbinder, Alchemist, Archer, Slayer, Gunner, Monk, Necromancer, Warlock/Witch, Knight, Berserker, and Kinetic. The classes are separated into three categories: Attack, Defense, and Support. Each class has its own moveset and can have either ranged or melee normal attacks, although they can all have both ranged or melee abilities.

Combat

Skyforge is an action-combat game MMO in which players move through the world using WASD key and jump using spacebar, with mouse-look and tab-targeting aiming and combat.^[6]The player’s primary attacks are focused on the left and right mouse buttons and abilities on the number buttons so movement and combat are seamlessly blended and easy to learn.^[7] In combat, players can use normal attacks (sword slashes, ice projectiles, etc.), heavy attacks (slamming the sword into the ground, ice bolts, etc.), dodges, "finisher"-type moves (electrocuting an enemy, freezing an enemy, overhead sword slams, etc.), and abilities (Temporary shields, decoys, powerful attacks, different attack techniques etc.). Normal attacks and heavy attacks are the basic attacks and are controlled by left and right click, respectively. Abilities are used by either pressing numbers or certain letter keys, and are more powerful than basic attacks/have special uses, but have a cooldown, which can be anywhere between 5 or 150 seconds, possibly even more.) Dodges can be done by pressing the intended direction of the dodge (forward, sideways, or backwards) and then pressing shift. There is a maximum of three dodges available at a time, but dodges "regenerate" after uses. Finishers are performed by E when an enemy's health bar is low [not necessarily when the enemy is about to die(see below for more information)], and normally destroy the rest of the health bar. As with the dash attacks, there is a max of 1 killing move available at any time, but killing moves also recharge. Enemies also have four different tags next to their health bar, each giving a general description of the enemy's stats (weak but appears in groups, can deal lots of damage, is tough, and uses abilities), as well as multiple health bars in some cases (a red health bar and several orange bars you have to destroy), which allows a player to utilize multiple killing moves on a multiple-health-bar enemy.

Plot

Setting

Skyforge is set in a world where fantasy and science fiction are mixed. Ancient mysteries and powerful immortals, along with old-fashioned weaponry (swords, shields, staffs, bows, etc.) are used alongside cutting-edge technologies and weapons (guns, mechanical arms, holograms, etc.).^[8] Skyforge takes place on the planet of Aelion, which is named after the greater god Aeli who once protected it.^[9]

Story

In the universe of Skyforge, gods derive their powers from their followers. The planet of Aelion was once a free world protected by greater god Aeli, who helped civilization flourish.^[10]Aeli has vanished, leaving behind a world of followers which is only protected by Immortals and a few remaining lesser gods, leaving it under attack by hostile gods, due to the planet's lack of a greater god. When the game begins, the player starts in the capital of Aelion, where the player, an Immortal soldier, talks to Herida, a goddess and advisor of the Immortals. The player then relates his story to Herida: He and some other soldiers were rescuing civilians from a village invaded by Virds, evil creatures, when the Reaper of Death sprang his trap and attacked with a large force of Virds, killing everyone. However, the player was brought back to life and eventually defeated the Reaper. After choosing his beginning class and undergoing combat guides, training, tutorials, and character personalization, the player begins to adventure on "Combat Missions" around Aelion, fighting off threats such as the Reaper, hostile Mechanoids, Virds, bandits and more.

Development

Content delivery

The setup files are delivered using a custom peer-to-peer file sharing client. Every player is participating in the distribution of the setup files for all new players. This decreases the distribution costs dramatically while simultaneously increasing bandwidth.^[11]

Business model

Skyforge is free-to-play, but will feature an optional premium status and cash shop to allow payment for certain items, like extra bonus to stats (+10%) and other items increasing overall DPS. Currently, 3 Founders' Packs have been released that grant immediate access to closed Beta tests along with a variety of other rewards.^[12]

Reception

Awards

• "Best of Show" award from TenTonHammer's Best of E3 Awards^[13]

References

External links

• Official website