The Forbidden Arts Early Access Review – Is it a Fiery Success or a Smoldering Disappointment?

<p>Early Access games can sometimes be like Kickstarter-funded games&period; As a consumer&comma; you are gambling on whether or not the game you invest in is going to provide the entertainment value that the developers intend for it&period; <em>The Forbidden<&sol;em> <em>Arts<&sol;em> is a game that looks very promising&comma; an action-platformer that I would classify as a title to keep an eye on as it gets closer to full release&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It is important to note that when I began working on the review for <em>The Forbidden Arts<&sol;em> it only had about 35&percnt; of the content that it will have on release&period; As of February 16<sup>th<&sol;sup>&comma; after a major content <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;forbidden-arts-unveils-first-major-content-update-since-early-access-launch&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">update<&sol;a>&comma; this number has increased to 60&percnt; of the final amount of content&period; However&comma; they have also stated that while it is purchasable right now at a &dollar;9&period;99 price point&comma; the developers have stated that the price will increase at launch based on the amount of content they are able to put into it&comma; and the value of the content they offer&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;135333" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-135333" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-large wp-image-135333" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2018&sol;02&sol;18010251&sol;FA&lowbar;NorthernWastes&lowbar;7-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-135333" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;The Forbidden Arts&comma; Stingbot Games&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p><em>The Forbidden Arts<&sol;em> is an Action-Platformer with a focus on deep lore and exploration&period; You are put in the role of Phoenix&comma; a young man who seeks out a druid to sort out the meaning behind his visions&period; The druid awakens latent pyromancy within him and begins a journey to save the world of Chora from an evil necromancer&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In the first Early Access build of <em>The Forbidden Arts<&sol;em>&comma; you could explore two overworld areas&comma; and all of the levels in each overworld&period;  With the Northern Wastes update &lpar;the first major content update&rpar; they added a third overworld area&comma; as well as a new boss and extra levels&period; The major content update also fixed a few bugs&comma; which I will talk about later on&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In the current build&comma; the developers at Stingbot Games have implemented a player inventory function that showcases what Phoenix has equipped&semi; but as of right now there is no interchangeable equipment so the full functionality isn’t available&period; Additionally&comma; there is a full options menu&comma; but gamepad controls are not currently customizable&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;135334" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-135334" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-large wp-image-135334" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2018&sol;02&sol;18010345&sol;FA&lowbar;EARelease&lowbar;7-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-135334" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;The Forbidden Arts&comma; Stingbot Games&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>There are a few issues in the menus&comma; particularly in that&comma; there is no option to toggle windowed mode&period; The Alt&plus;enter trick works&comma; but only in some instances&period; There are also some animation issues in the overworld &lpar;which serves as a hub of sorts for each of the levels&rpar; but overall for the state of where the game is in development&comma; I have seen far worse&period; One of the bigger issues I have noticed is that when you transition between an overworld and a level &lpar;or you die in a level and respawn at the last place the game saved&rpar; it undoes your windowed mode &lpar;Alt&plus;Enter&rpar; and sends you back to fullscreen mode&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>The Forbidden Arts<&sol;em> alternates between two overall sections&period; A 3D overworld that serves as a hub for each of the levels&comma; and 2D side-scrolling sections&semi; Phoenix&comma; the main character&comma; starts out with only two daggers to fight with&comma; however&comma; once his pyromancy awakens&comma; he is able to utilize fiery magic attacks as well&period; Fire magic is fueled by campfires and sources of fire&comma; with which you charge up your stock of flame&period; Each fire spell takes a certain amount of the gauge&comma; and once it is empty you cannot cast magic until you refill it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The combat is a little stiff&comma; but for a game early on in its development&comma; I can somewhat see why&period; <em>The Forbidden Arts<&sol;em> is visually appealing&comma; but I could see some improvements made down the line&period; Currently&comma; the enemy collision is a bit unfair&period; Sometimes you may shoot a fireball at an enemy&comma; only for their height to be just out of reach&comma; causing the enemy to hit you and kill you&period; What sets it apart from most Early Access titles is the voice acting&comma; which shows up in various cut-scene areas to add context to the story and flesh out the world a bit more&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Bosses slowly escalate in difficulty as you play <em>The Forbidden Arts<&sol;em>&comma; but test not only your precision in movement and mastery of combat but also test your understanding of Phoenix’s pyromancy&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;135335" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-135335" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-large wp-image-135335" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2018&sol;02&sol;18010506&sol;FA&lowbar;EARelease&lowbar;5-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-135335" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;The Forbidden Arts&comma; Stingbot Games&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>In the overworld &lpar;and hidden throughout each level&rpar; there are gold chunks to collect&comma; which open up challenge areas&period; These challenge areas require you to utilize your abilities to reach the end&comma; where you will be able to increase your health or fire gauge&period; There is room for improvement in the progression system I think&comma; but I like what Stingbot Games has done so far&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The platforming is where I personally struggle&comma; mostly because of the fact that it is very precise&semi; sometimes to a level that I feel is a little excessive&period; Add to it that sometimes if you land on enemies with low health&comma; you can immediately die and have to redo a section over&comma; and it makes things somewhat frustrating&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>My hope for <em>The Forbidden Arts<&sol;em> is that it continues to evolve&period; I see a framework for something special here&comma; but there are some improvements and bug fixes that should be made before the full release&period; There is a lot to love about what Stingbot Games has created here&comma; but to reach the pinnacle of its potential will take a bit more work and time&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>A PC Early Access Copy of The Forbidden Arts was provided by Stingbot Games for the Purpose of this Review&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;