Forsaken World (PC) Review

 

Forsaken World is a MMORPG from Perfect World Entertainment and something like the little brother to the much more popular Perfect World International. Forsaken World was published in 2011 and will at the end of November 2022 finally shutdown its servers. Perfect World on the other hand was published in 2006 and will keep going even in 2023.

Forsaken World PC should not be confused with 'Forsaken World: Gods and Demons' on Steam, which is just autoplaying trash. A shitty mobile game, that for some reason has been ported to PC and should be avoided like the plague.

This is going to be a review for Forsaken World PC and it's going to be rather short. I decided to check this game out before it will be cancelled, but I didn't play for too long, and I am also going to explain why I could quickly reach a verdict on this game. The MMORPG genre is filled with a large amount of games, which can, in my opinion, be divided into 4 different leagues of quality. There is our A-League, in which we find some of the best and some of the most well-known games. Then there are the B-League games, which are much smaller games, that get less public recognition or are simply a bit too dated nowadays for the mainstream. While B-League games still have either a certain quality or at least some game aspect that makes them unique, C-League games are the real averageness of the genre. These games are not really terrible, but there isn't anything worth praising either. D-League games on the hand are just straight out broken or irredeemably bad. Which games belong into which category is of course a very subjective matter.

The reason why I mention all of this is, that for me Forsaken World is a clear C-League game. It is a Fantasy MMORPG in the style of games like WOW or Aion. Many other smaller MMORPGs, like Allods Online or Runes of Magic also took strong inspiration of these games, but they at least had some unique elements, like the Astral ship combat or the multiple class system.

Forsaken World on the other hand is a painfully average Fantasy MMORPG. Most aspects of the game are somewhat okay, but nothing really motivates you to play the game. If you look at the PVE, PVP, the combat system, the visuals - for every aspect there are at least a few dozen MMORPGs that are more worthy of a playthrough.

The game has 7 different races (Human, Elves, Dwarves, Stonemen, Werewolves/Lycan, Demons and Kindred/Vampires), which cover all the typical fantasy stereotypes and also the different typical classes, you could expect in any random MMORPG (Warriors, Mages, Priests, Rangers, Assassins, Bards etc). Some races can play the majority of classes (Humans, Elves), while some races are bound to only one choice (Dwarves, Stonemen). All classes are race locked in some degree. The race and class choice overall has no impact on the PVE, all players start in the same region (Interestingly enough there were apparently race specific starting zones in the past, but they have for some reason been patched out of the game) and complete the same rather monotonous fetch-quests. There are some few different quests, but they are also rather basic. PVE is not terrible, but I also didn't experience or heard about anything really worth playing. There is just a lot of averageness here. Character creation is in my opinion also a bit too limited. You might be able to choose between dozens of hair colours, but only have a few different faces to pick.

The combat system in Forsaken World is a very static tab-target system. I got no problems with tab target combat, but the one here in Forsaken World doesn't feel particularly engaging. It is okay, but certainly not more than that. Movement speed in the game also feels artificially slow, like they would try to persuade you to buy a mount in the ingame-shop (which they probably are; the free mount disappears after 1 week).

PVP might potentially be fun, but sadly Forsaken World is extremely Pay-to-Win. You could grind for months (more likely years) to get somewhat competitive equipment, but there are also gear refining/reforging functions exclusively in the shop (or at least a lot easier/faster), potions with time limited bonus stats (so that the players keep buying them for PVP) and so on... Forsaken World could certainly not be recommended for PVP focused players. 

One of the few probably unique systems in Forsaken World is the prayer system. Players can pray a couple of times per day and receive a buff or new items from the gods in the game. The more players on a server pray during an hour, the higher the chance to receive some gift from the immortals. At least an original idea, but certainly nothing worth playing the game for.

Visuals of Forsaken World are also disappointing. For the most part they are decent (even though quite lacking in comparison to other 2011/2012 MMORPGs like Rift, Guild Wars 2, Star Wars Old Republic, Tera, Vindictus etc). Some textures on the ground and some other areas however just look terrible and don't fit the rest of the game. Forsaken World therefore looks a bit liked a pimped up mobile port of an MMORPG. The Graphics are not terrible, but overall still a bit lackluster.

The soundtrack on the other hand might be one of the few highlights of the game. It certainly doesn't come close to compete with the best games in the genre and loops perhaps a bit too much, but it is overall still quite fitting, which was definitely a positive surprise.

 

Pro:

+ Decent race and class selection

+ Soundtrack is not bad

 

Contra:

- PVP is very P2W

- PVE is too average

- Visuals are a bit lackluster

 

Result:

Forsaken World is not terrible, but it is also not really worth playing either. Combat is very average, visuals even a bit below average, the soundtrack perhaps above average. The prayer system is rather neglectable and PVE is mostly average and forgettable. The race and class choices are perfectly decent, but nothing you couldn't experience better in many other games. PVP on the other hand is sadly very P2W. Forsaken World is a mostly average game with some even below average elements and therefore also gets a slightly below average score. I wouldn't recommend playing the game before the server shutdown, unless you have nostalgic feelings for it, because there are much better alternatives.

 

4.5/10