Forsaken World: Gods and Demons Gameplay Impressions

Here's a brand-new game that will surely bring back fond memories for any of you who knows their old-school MMORPGs – who knows, maybe a tear of two will be shed. The words Forsaken World are hard to forget, since this was one of the first big free-to-play MMOs. Released in North America for PC during 2011, it is finally getting a sequel… I mean, a prequel, called Forsaken World: Gods and Demons. This game has just been  officially released and we were sponsored to give it a spin and let you know about it, so go play this very promising entry in the genre by following this link.

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Gods and Demons is not to be confused with Forsaken World Mobile, which launched in 2015 and shut down three years later. For the sake of historical accuracy, I went ahead and checked that game and… wow, my eyes hurt. Go on, pause this video and go check for yourselves to see just how far mobile gaming has come in five years. Quite impressive, don’t you agree? Forsaken World: Gods and Demons ditches the cartoonish graphics of the previous mobile game and goes for a much more accomplished and realistic aesthetic, although soaked in a familiar fantasy style.

I won’t go into detail over the lore of the game, because I’m not the kind of guy that spends a lot of time chatting with NPCs, learning all about their relationships and the bigger picture of it all. Yeah, I know, I know, my bad. It’s just that I’ve gotten so used to advancing through tutorials and less important conversations that it’s turned into something hard to avoid. I do remember that the PC Forsaken World had something to do with vampires and, lo and behold, there’s a Vampire class to choose. So, we’ll skip straight to the classes.

However, just before that, one word of warning: the test server that we have played in had quite a bit of lag, so it wasn’t as easy to record smooth gameplay as we had hoped for. Still, with a bit of perseverance and skilled video editing, even if I say so myself, hopefully you won’t notice it.

Gods and Demons features seven classes, and you should be familiar with most of them except for the Vampire. As tempted as I was to give this one a go, my choice fell upon the Gunner class. No, it’s not because of the loli character, don’t be like that – I simply prefer long-range classes and since there’s a gender lock in place, that was the way to go. Besides, her design does look awfully cute, I’ve got to admit. The remaining classes are the Mage, Priest, Ranger, Warrior and Rogue. At level 29 you get to pick from two specializations, each one paving up the way for different combat approaches. In the case of the Gunner, the Artificer job specializes in summoning armored machines, while the Gunslinger is focused in the use of firearms with speed and precision. You can change between them anytime, so it’s not like you’re stuck with your first choice.

When you enter character customization for the first time is when you realize that the graphics have improved tenfold since the previous games in the franchise. The face detail is insane, and you can tweak pretty much every aspect of it to create a beautiful character. Eyes, nose, lips, makeup, and other features are open to customizing, with the results depending on your dedication.

I've done a 5-minute attempt to create Megan Fox in the Elf race. I wasn’t very successful because I don’t have a keen eye for detail, but I’m pretty sure someone is going to use this character customization tool to recreate a celebrity or some famous videogame character, like Geralt from The Witcher.

There’s a nice randomize option that is split into Beauty and Spoof. Choose the former and the game randomly generates a lovely face that will warm your heart. But if you prefer the latter, you’ll get the most gruesome creatures that have ever graced the face of the videogame earth. For the life of me, I don’t understand how someone is able to stomach such a character for hours and hours of playtime, but I wholeheartedly commend them. Personally, this is a fun option to have a laugh with a buddy, but there’s no way that I’m choosing this over a cute and normal-looking character. Nope, not me. I prefer my avatars with a healthy dose of sanity and normal proportions. Like the loli. Is this a paradox? I don’t know anymore.

If there’s one thing that I wish was improved is the expressionless faces. Characters blink and look you in the eye, but there’s no mouth movement to liven up the dialogues and gestures. It would improve the great-looking models, but we’ll have to cross our fingers for a hypothetical update that adds this detail.

After choosing your camera preference between free, smart, and 2.5D, you’re off into an open world where everyone has a task for you and foes await at every corner of the land. Soon enough you’ll be teleporting and flying to different regions of Calindor, starting as an unexperienced adventurer and evolving into a lean, mean killing machine.

Auto-play is available for you to grind through the initial levels and create a decent build ready to face the upcoming challenges, but it is entirely recommended that you master manual battles as soon as you can. With so many dungeons and bosses to defeat in order to earn valuable loot and experience, auto-play just isn’t going to cut it. Besides, Gods and Demons promises huge cross-server PvP battles with more than 10 thousand players at the same time. 10 thousand players! This is something that I wasn’t able to confirm yet due to the limited nature of the pre-launch test, but that sounds massive, chaotic, and… I just have to see it to be able to put it into words.

The way that you learn skills is interesting, to say the least. Instead of being bombarded with new skills, you must unlock them via a skill challenge that often includes beating a boss to a pulp. No pain, no gain, so you have to fight for the right to enrich your special skill wheel, as well as passive skills. It may be a small detail for many, but I like the way that it was designed.

Speaking of skills, my Gunner has quite a few tricks up her sleeve, especially after switching to the ingenious Artificer subclass. The Boom-sheep summons three sheep equipped with bombs that will charge at enemies and explode as they arrive – don’t worry, they’re mechanical sheep, no real fluffy mammals were hurt during the making of this skill. Another clever skill summons an armored vehicle, a tank, in fact, which you can drive around in, while using your regular skills. Not a bad way to enhance your firepower.

But enough about skills, let’s talk about flying. You gain your wings at level 47 and you’re no longer glued to the ground. These angelical wings allow you to soar the skies and explore the regions from above, discovering new locations with ease whilst admiring the views. The world of Calindor offers a stark contrast between the grim vistas of The Deep and the charming scenes of Brave Highlands. A trip to snowy Frostwind Vale is also in the plans, and Eclipse City is another region where you can appreciate a fortress or two from the skies above. Flying is both useful and pleasant to see.

Joining a guild is something that you must consider if you want to go far in Gods and Demons. You get a daily salary and red envelopes to send and receive, but the best by far is your guild fort. This is the place where you and your guildmates will come together to tell tall tales of brave adventures, agree on the next raid, and have a jolly good time. Furthermore, you can purchase areas with guild funds where you can construct buildings and level up your guild. The Pet Paradise is a pretty cool structure where you see tons of pets moving around and having fun.

Speaking of pets, these are a cool bunch. You start with an oversized cat, then you’re likely getting an oversized turtle, and there’s also a warthog that looks a lot like Pumbaa from The Lion King. Well, they all look the same, to be honest, but there’s even a photo achievement mentioning Timon. The rare pets add more variety to the cast, with a boxing frog and a minotaur being a couple of the standouts.

Eventually, you’ll unlock new outfits for your class, which not only help to increase your overall battle power, but also make you look cool. I have a few unlocked already, but the coolest ones are the hardest to get, mostly from special events and the like. You can dye your outfit as well, bringing some added color into the world.

There are tons of solo and group events to earn loot and experience outside of the main storyline. You can choose to go in alone in boss battle challenges where top-tier gear and materials are waiting for you, by now you should know how it goes – each boss has a level and battle power requirement. The Hall of Heroes is a dungeon where you battle many foes to earn huge amounts of experience, and the Endless Abyss is exactly what it says in the box – tons of floors with increasingly difficult challenges. If you prefer to party with a few buddies, you can go for the Lionheart Honor event, where you must overcome a few tasks – there’s even a boss that looks like stone Thanos, if you know your Avengers. Obviously, there’s the Arena for all of your PvP bragging needs.

Forsaken World: Gods and Demons is an accomplished mobile prequel. It looks great, offers tons of challenges and features, and flying is a nice little touch. Fan of the classic PC original or not, go ahead and give this a go.

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