In the 90’s Blizzard set the bar for Real Time Strategy games with their smash hit, Warcraft and later, Starcraft. Their near perfect formula of balance, strategy, and replay value has been what strategy gamers have hoped for in all other games of the genre. Does BattleForge live up to such a high expectation?

Calling BattleForge an MMORTS (real time strategy) just isn’t enough. This game is one-half real time strategy game, and one-half trading card game. As such, it requires you to pay real money via micro-transactions for more cards. A once Pay-to-Play game gone Free-to-Play, BattleForge still offers a full game but also the option to buy additional cards.

BattleForge takes place in a fantasy world in which creatures and soldiers of the 4 elements (Fire, Frost, Nature, Shadow) battle against each other in the world of Nyn. You are a Skylord, a once mortal hero that has long since gained immortality and has become a messenger to the gods. As the Skylord, you control your armies against other skylords or other evil forces. This is just a quick summary of the rather weak and unappealing backstory for BattleForge. It certainly isn’t top notch by any means.

While BattleForge is still considered an RTS, it definitely makes the gameplay a lot more casual friendly. First of all, there is absolutely no base building. This has been something that many people have been frustrated with in RTS games because of the requirement of a certain level of skill. Resource collecting has also been changed for this game. Instead of sending workers, or gatherers to resource deposits, you instead place a monument on selected nodes and capture points to gather resources. While this type of gameplay is refreshing for some, many hardcore RTS fans, me included, will find something missing when playing BattleForge. Additionally, this type of gameplay isn’t much of an innovation, considering that Dawn of War, another RTS game, is centered around capturing control points but it is definitely something that’s going to be more appealing to people who aren’t very fond of the RTS genre. As far as spawning soldiers, you select a deck before getting into a game, and that deck shows up at the bottom portion of your UI (user interface). You then drag and drop the cards onto the actual battlefield in order to spawn your soldiers. Also, the there is not much of a learning curve with this game as evidenced by the easy to follow tutorial and the fact that BattleForge strays from traditional RTS gameplay.

It has been just a couple of years since this game has come out, and as such truly looks like a next-generation game. Gorgeous visuals and vibrant colors truly help to portray a fantasy world, and the sounds of your soldiers and the beautifully composed music truly embed you into this game. Bloom lighting, dynamic lighting, bump mapping a other graphical effects help to keep this game at the very top in terms of visuals. Unfortunately, with all next-generation games, BattleForge does require a next-generation computer to run. For new computers, this game runs at a smooth 60+ FPS (frames per second) but older computers may be able to run the game at 30- FPS. Fortunately, turning down all the graphics setting to low doesn’t change the overall beautifulness of the game, but this high requirement for amazing graphics can turn a lot of people off considering the PC age of gaming has recently been dying.

Mutliplayer shines in this game. There are two game modes, PvE and PvP. PvE (player versus environment) games are cooperative matches in which you and a couple of other players play against an AI (artificial intelligence) enemy, complete with scripted sequences and a story to go along with each campaign. PvP (player versus player) is simply a match between you and another. In addition to all this, you will be able to trade cards with other players, and buy other cards via auctions in game.

Overall though, BattleForge is a great game and a great attempt by a rather new developer. For what it is, the game does a nice job of drawing in players of all skill levels, and keeps those same players occupied for a long time to come. BattleForge gets a huge recommendation from me especially for those people who haven’t played a strategy game before.

The Good – Gorgeous visuals and addictive gameplay will have you hooked for a long time.

The Bad – Takes a hit on lower spec. computers; still have to pay for more, powerful cards; Weak Story.

Graphics: 9
Sound: 9
Gameplay: 8
Story: 7
Final Score: 8.5/10