The fantasy MMORPG Skyforge has been fully playable in open beta since summer 2015. Time for a test. Is this Free2Play MMO worth it?
What experience does the tester have with the game
I have been playing Skyforge for half a year: First in closed beta, then resetting again for the soft release. It was not a “I play it continuously 4 hours a day” situation, but rather I played in phases. It’s a sort of on/off relationship.
During that time, I didn’t touch it for six weeks, then I couldn’t keep my hands off it for two weeks.
I played with two classes: the Berserker and the Gunner. And at least I made it to God, which means over 30,000 Prestige. The total hours played I can only estimate: It should be over 200, I think.
So that’s enough to describe the game so that solo players can get a good impression of whether Skyforge is worth their time. Those who join with a fixed group or a guild will surely have different experiences than I did. That’s just how MMORPGs are.
Read more about the gameplay of Skyforge in these articles:
- What is Skyforge? – the Free2Play hope in Mein MMO XXL-preview
- Skyforge: Everything you need to know about the new Free2Play MMORPG
- Skyforge: The 13 classes at a glance
The aesthetics and the visual presentation. What does Skyforge look like?
Skyforge looks good, it is not quite at the level of Asian graphic bombs that are coming our way, but it is already on a decent, elevated level. No one will confuse it with a browser game or a second-rate game, nor with an old game from Asia that has just now found its way to the West.
It is a new MMORPG from 2015 and it looks the part. It plays smoothly through the instances. Everything seems mature and well thought out.
Aesthetics can be a tricky thing. Skyforge is a Russian game, Team Allods (Allods Online) has brought in US consultants from Obsidian Entertainment (Fallout: New Vegas). You can tell that this doesn’t necessarily come from our cultural background, mainly from the mustaches of the NPCs and some rather bizarre story twists. It’s somewhat like Night Watch/Day Watch – everything is a bit different from Western culture, but it’s not unpleasant.
On the other hand, the gods sometimes wander around like the Village People, in the most bizarre costumes. A knight stands next to a ninja, and they both look just like little Karlchen imagines them. Sometimes it resembles Carnival.
The steampunk elements that some want to see haven’t been very decipherable to me. Yes, the Berserker’s sword is also a chainsaw somewhere … but good grief, you don’t really notice much of that in the game.
It’s actually a relatively subtle aesthetic, somewhat futuristic-fantastic, but not too exaggerated. Most of the time it’s in the background, and that’s good. In a grind MMORPG, you don’t need a graphic that keeps saying, “Look at me, look at me!”
Gameplay and story – how does Skyforge play? That’s what we’re discussing on the next page.
