Gadgetory

hey everyone this is Steve from gamers Nexus dotnet and today we're looking at forced the new co-op tactical arena combat game by beta dwarf I previously voiced a video tutorial showcasing the basic combat mechanics about a year ago and that was when the game was in beta its massively improved since then and is officially released in full capacity as of today and you'll find the fold written review linked in the description below click on that if you want some more detailed analysis to see if the game is really worth it for you as a player and this supplemental video component aims to highlight the gameplay mechanics in more depth and give you a bit of a visual look at how it actually works with the words I've written so to catch everyone up forced is a freshly released arena brawler style game with a couple of unique mechanical inflections that improve the longevity and kind of differentiate it from all the other hack and slash errs out on the market so to give you a quick idea if you've played the gauntlet series if anyone can remember our kids from 1985 or if you're like me and played them after it was released the gauntlet series and specifically gauntlet Dark Legacy kind of give you a good idea for the top level play of force but it's a lot deeper than hitting things with metal sticks right so there are abilities involved just like most action-adventure games these days but force is really pretty heavily catered toward a co-op audience just like the gauntlet games and so the players will still have fun just fine you'll get through the game it is scaled for the number of players so it won't be overly difficult you'll just get the most out of the experience if you're joined by a couple friends it supports up to four simultaneous players in campaign and survival co-op modes there are four character classes in the game so that does kind of fit with the coop for player support and each class builds off the others is abilities so playing with at least one other gamer will really help build the level of tactical interaction within the arena so here's why that is the game mechanically boils down into a couple of key elements first you have hitting stuff with sharp things that's always a pretty big element in any a brawler hack-and-slash game second is using abilities tactfully to efficiently dispatch each of the unique enemies in the game there are different types of enemies that require or are catered to different abilities of the character classes and then third is deploying the games of spirit mentor to activate on map objects and that's the biggest difference with forest and the one you're probably least familiar with if you haven't seen my previous video but before we go off the deep end on mechanics discussion which I will do in a future video for force specifically let's step back and look at a more zoomed out view of forest the game and who it's for so after playing it for several hours and before giving you more analysis I would like to say that I think the game is most for players who would like to sit down I'm quoting my own review here linked below you'd like to sit down with friends locally or online because it does support local cooperative play and and just basically enjoy a simple yet tactical hack-and-slash combat game without a whole lot of competition it is a bit more casual if you play it that way and basically spend a night screwing around with new strategies and having a good time in some pretty challenging combat scenarios so if if that sounds like something you'd like or you and your friends would like then definitely check out forest look more into it I also thank players who enjoy time trials and competing on ladders online especially solo players who like a challenge and kind of like to pit themselves against other players and ladders they would probably like forests as well especially if you favor ability based combat and all that said there is actually an underlying story basically I'm not going to get too into it here but you are a captive fighter from a tribe and you're just being put through a series of arena trials to prove your worth kind of like the the slaves of the Roman Empire would be in the Claddagh toriel arenas and the original Colosseum so that's kind of where they draw their inspiration it is a pretty cool story for an indie game I was actually impressed with it and I thought the voice acting was very impressive as well and in several scenes anyway so it's not like that cringe-worthy voice acting that a lot of indie and started games have it is legitimately good and does kind of propel the game forward and keep you interested soundtrack is very good and the art as you can see on the screen isn't exactly technically advanced in terms of it doesn't have high poly models and crazy stuff like that so it is pretty accessible to different pcs you'll probably be able to play it on intel HD 4000 IGP is absolutely no problem you play it on AP users absolutely no problem and the aesthetic though that's the important part the aesthetic the overall cohesiveness of the visuals is very good I think it's pretty pleasing to the eyes it's not too stylized and it's it's not like borderline cartoony but it isn't taking itself too seriously either let's jump back to gameplay for a second now that we've covered the basics and who the game is targeted for so gameplay it specifically with multiple players in co-op mode is centered around calling ball fits around the map and activating different objects these cannot be activated by the players so you have to actually physically fly the spirit mentor through these objects thus activating deactivating or destroying them and this is really where game played deviates from the standard hack and slash arena brawlers so other than ball fits flying through things as you can see on the screen constantly through this video you also can mark enemies and this is done simply by hitting them just like in D&D fourth edition you can mark them as you apply marks your abilities and your friends abilities will do extra damage or have additional side effects to the enemies so this creates a new layer of dev with strategy so it suddenly becomes very important which enemy you're hitting you don't just like spam all your abilities like in a lot of these other games because that won't work so just spam clicking and spam slamming the ability buttons it's not advisable it actually does take a bit of thought and tactics to effectively dispatch these opponents before they swarm you and that is why happen to this game if you don't take them out efficiently then you will get outnumbered and taken down and and ultimately the boss battles are actually very challenging the game itself is pretty challenging even the puzzles which for the most part we're not to mentally straining did get a bit more difficult as the game progresses in in level here so I think it's pretty solid overall his game the mechanics are very fluid it's mechanically intuitive so it's very pick up and play but a lot of extra depth there as well it's a good game for having a couple friends over I do have trouble with a couple of things though so for example I think the information conveyance could be a bit better there there is a bit of an issue with new players when I was observing people play where they have trouble locating their own character in the mess of chaos and all the combat in the arena so that can be pretty pretty difficult to keep playing when you can't even find your own character and other than that there were a couple camera angle issues and boss battles where right when we were getting cornered and really needed the camera to work properly it would get thrown through a cliff or something and obstruct our view so that is an issue I think the developers can work on that though these are not things that would stop me from buying the game but it is something I wanted to warn you all about so keep that in mind and all be all I think it's a great game I do think it has a very specific audience of players who want to kind of play with their friends or are very competitive in a solo environment against other people on leaderboards kind of like trying if you like try and you might like this if you like gauntlet you might like this and that's pretty much all there is to forced so I will be giving out some keys on Twitter and Facebook in the future check those out go to the links in the description below check out the full review and let me know if you have questions I will see you all next time peace