Game Classification

Dyos, the God of Creation, discovered the world of Eyrda and alongside other gods he called upon while studying a mysterious great star-wheel he found there, turned it from a bleak place to a wonderful, booming world before leaving it to his three children. In turn, Tytan created the dwarves and stonemen, while Illyfue created the humans and elves to populate it. Vyda didn't create any race, but secretly loved and helped the humans. Eventually, Nyos, the God of Destruction, also visited Eyrda, leaving behind his own son, Mylvada, which caused the Great Wars between the gods, the second of which resulted in Dyos' children needing to leave Eyrda.

In between the Great Wars, Shylia, the demi-god offspring that resulted after Mylvada's incarnation seduced Vyda, fled to live among the humans and fell in love with Corvus, who became the first of the kindred after she infused his blood with her godly essence. Later, she would rise to lead all the races against Mylvada's next attack, being badly wounded and disappearing after the battle. Mylvada, also badly wounded, departed Eyrda as well, but not before reviving a giant creature named Dysil and giving him the body of an evil giant dragon. In turn, Dysil formed the Storm Legion and, growing impatient while waiting for Mylvada's return, started yet another war, eventually being defeated by the united races of the world. However, he is now planning a second invasion...

This is the setting the player is thrown into upon starting to play the MMORPG Forsaken World. As stated above, the playable races are dwarf, elf, human, kindred, and stoneman. Dwarves must be marksmen, while stonemen, all of them male, must be protectors, both of these classes also being unique to the respective races. Other limitations are that only elves may be bards and only kindred may be vampires. Elves may also be priests or warriors, while kindred may also be assassins or mages. Humans may be any of these latter four classes. While each race has its own starting location, those are separated into only three areas. Having a common ancestry, humans and dwarves share a starting area, as do elves and stonemen, only the kindred being alone in theirs. However, the story becomes the same for all players at level 10, when they are sent to Freedom Harbor.

As killing monsters offers very little in itself, experience is mostly gained by completing daily quests and in the God's Trial instance, though various amounts can be obtained in more unusual ways, such as praying or drinking certain beverages. Though basic skills are purchased from trainers, players basically have no say in the development of their characters from the moment they pick the race and class and until level 20, when they gain access to talents. The talents interface may well look all too familiar to most people, as each class gains one point per level to distribute among the three possible talent trees. Otherwise, there are group instances to participate in, gear to gather and improve, factions to earn reputation for, mounts to ride, jobs, player-run guilds, etc.

There are less common features as well. While only those with the tamer job can trap the souls of creatures above level 30 and turn them into pet stones, any character can hatch any pet stone and use any pet, as well as get free level 10 pets and trap the souls of certain level 30 creatures. A pet can also be improved by combining it with another. Guilds have their own bases, which can be improved and populated with useful non-player characters (NPCs), the guild even being able to set taxes on non-members' access into the base. A prayer system exists that not only grants the player blessings, experience, and rarely even items, but also helps advance the entire server from one age to the next. There are two kinds of coins used in the game, one being earned normally and spent to purchase items from NPCs, the other being earned by participating in a couple of instances and used to trade with other players.

Perhaps most unusually, the player can only purchase the most basic starting equipment from regular NPC merchants and the crafting jobs only become available at level 40. Some equipment is obtained by completing quests or dropped randomly by instance bosses, but the regular method of obtaining armor is to purchase it from some special NPC merchants in exchange for gem shards dropped by elite enemies and then refine it, as a fully refined piece of equipment will be significantly better than an unrefined one of much higher level and/or base value, not to mention that it will also gain slots to embed gems in and further enhance it. On the other hand, the only way to obtain off-hand items, rings and necklaces is to craft them yourself or buy them from someone who did.

While the game is free-to-play, an item shop exists from which players can purchase items using ZEN, which is the currency used for all of Perfect World Entertainment's MMO games. In turn, ZEN is purchased with real money. Considering the gear and pet systems, as well as the fact that different coins are used to trade with NPCs and players, respectively, the importance of some of the items that can be purchased from this item shop is truly major, though there are still others that are merely cosmetic in nature. [source:mobygames]

Distribution : Retail - Commercial
Platform(s) : PC (Windows)

Links

• http://www.mobygames.com/game/forsaken-world/