In the god MMO Skyforge, which is about to enter Closed Beta, the “Lanber Forest” zone has now been introduced. It suffers – like many zones in so many MMORPGs before it – from pest infestation.
What is it with these insects that we always attribute them with hypnotic superpowers in fiction? In China Miéville’s novel “Perdido Street Station,” huge moths are unleashed on a goth steampunk city. They possess enormous psychic powers and are really quite nasty overall. Whenever Hollywood thinks of aliens, we often see creatures modeled after a bee hive and attributed with a telepathic swarm consciousness, which immediately begins to hack into our consciousness. Even in the old “The Dark Eye” computer games, it was worm parasites that could take over their host.
And now Skyforge has also been hit. The god MMO, developed by the Allods team along with Obsidian, has introduced another zone: a picturesque small town named Kyris forms the heart of the new zones. It is being attacked by a swarm of mantids, which turns the inhabitants into mindless zombies. To make matters worse, the city’s protective god has already delivered the inhabitants to the slaughter (or to the mandible). It’s about time a god aspirant checks on things.
The introduction of the “Lanber Forest” zone is mainly an opportunity for the creators of Skyforge to present some visually stunning screenshots again and to do more “world-building.” Otherwise, there is little new to report from Skyforge. We are still waiting for a date for the Closed Beta or further information on the actual game design. While a lot is already known, such as there will be a free class and XP system, and the controls and combat system are intended to feel as intuitive and “arcade-like” as possible, how all of this will come together is still unclear. At the moment, the main question is which MMORPG elements Skyforge wants to incorporate.
