Enemies drop in seconds if we combine the Assassin's stun and stabs with my Pathfinder's arrows and traps.

I hope he never realizes we only hang out because I like his heals.

The unceasing emphasis on movement grants it a degree of depth that even actiony MMOs like TERA lack.

The combat itself seldom fails to impress. Critics of traditional MMORPGs' reliance on tab targeting will probably appreciate Forge's crosshair-based action, meaning that it requires manual aiming instead of locking on and activating abilities. The unceasing emphasis on movement, both horizontally and and vertically, grants it a degree of depth that even more actiony MMOs like TERA lack. The default controls frustrated me a bit, due to how accustomed I am to the usual placement of core abilities along the 1-0 row on the keyboard. True to its hardcore PvP origins, Forge maps abilities to keys around WASD, like E, R, and F for easy access, but the ability to map two different sets of keybinds makes this something of a non-issue. I even found playing with a carefully configured Xbox 360 gamepad almost as rewarding as playing with a mouse and keyboard.



Slings and Arrows



However, one thing feels off about the balance: with the exceptions of the Assassin and the Warden, Forge's classes place a heavy emphasis on ranged combat, which gives it a very shootery feel. This bias reveals itself in the very design of the maps, in which narrow vertical corridors complement a fun wall-jumping mechanic (reminiscent of the vaults in Assassin's Creed) and smartly placed perches that encourage sniping. They rarely feel unfair, partly because it takes so long to kill anyone, and I found I could easily dodge most volleys of arrows and fireballs by ducking into the numerous passageways and rooms in each level (unless a Pathfinder's smart enough to stop me with a snare or a blind).



Hey, shiny! I guess that means we should capture it, right?

There are only four maps currently available, but they're stunning. Forge rewarded me with other surprises as well. There are only four maps currently available, but they're stunning areas that far outshine the low-detail, cartoony look MMORPGs usually sport out of the necessities of supporting hordes of players in a persistent world. In my favorite map, wooden catwalks snake throughout the trunks of a sprawling redwood forest dotted with ruins. In another, battles erupt in the confines of a massive ruined temple complex. It's a little daunting to get around without a minimap, but they're designed intuitively enough that I soon knew them by heart.



Capture The What and King of The Where?



What's not intuitive is the significance of objectives in modes like Capture the Relic and King of the Hill. In my experience, most players treated each map like Team Deathmatch regardless of the mode. In my first round or two, I had only vague ideas of what I was in until I realized the significance of the humble indicator in the bottom right of my screen.



Forge feels as though it's just getting started -- by which I mean there are holes where talked-about features should be. Social elements such as guilds, and competitive features such as skill-based matchmaking and the Arena mode don't exist yet. For new classes and game modes (including a labyrinth that puts one team in the role of bosses and monsters reminiscent of MMORPG raids and dungeons) all we have right now are promises. What's here is good stuff, though, and even if it never got another piece of content Forge would pull its weight.



PvP is part of the pot of gold most MMOs like to keep at the end of their rainbows, so a game that gets right to the point of it is a breath of fresh air. Is there any other style of game where you'd like to see the combat -- or some other part -- broken out into its own game?

Forge's appeal lies in its familiarity. It takes what PvP-oriented MMORPG fans love about instanced battlegrounds and arenas from games like Guild Wars 2 and World of Warcraft and separates it from their larger worlds and baggage. Going one step further, it ditches the flat, tab-targeting design favored by those games in favor of abilities that reveal a clear influence from Team Fortress 2 and even Call of Duty. There may not be a ton of content right now, and not all its features are enabled yet, but it works well with what it has. No other game I've played has managed to execute these ideas so well.Whatever its debts to shooters, Forge shows affection for the MMO crowd through its archetypal fantasy classes of Assassin (rogue), Shaman, Pyromancer (mage), Pathfinder (a hunter or ranger), and the sword-and-board Warden. I admire the high degree of class balance, and the mere nine core abilities for each class avoids the skill bloat in MMORPGs designed around a days-long journey to an ambitious level cap. Leveling exists, but benefits are limited to minor upgrades to armor, speed, and mana along with unlockable skins and interchangeable abilities for your ninth skill slot. Regardless of whether I was level 1 or level 99, I felt like I could hold my ground.As a Pathfinder, I discovered that soloing an enemy player could take forever, but those same enemies would drop in seconds if we combined the roguish Assassin's stun and stabs with my arrows and traps and (for good measure) the Pyromancer's ability propel himself far into the air with flame bursts and rain down hell from the rooftops. Forge has a heavy focus on group coordination, and the available classes feel like they'd fit well into the trinity of tanks, healers, and DPS. It's particularly evident in the Shaman class, which heals allies and conjures protective domes with panache but can't do much offensively aside from buffing another player's damage. Or take the Warden, a tanky warrior that can take a lot of hits aimed at others but can't dish them out so well, aside from a shockwave or spinning attack that can propel him across the map.