Thank you Critical Forge for sending us this key!

Forged of Blood is a real-time tactical RPG based in the fictional world of Attiras. At the start of the game, you are given a short tutorial that also sets the tone for the story you are about to enter. The king and his most loyal soldiers stand at the gates as revolution has begun. His subjects have grown tired of his reign as a higher race that stands above mankind, and plan to put him and his family to the blade. Your only objective is to survive long enough to protect your sons as they flee with your most trusted soldier, the only one capable of defending them. The king is killed, the world is thrown into rebellion, and you, his surviving sons and ally, are now alone in a race to gather enough supplies and manpower to stop the revolution and return order to your kingdom. Can you pull it off, or will it prove to be insurmountable for you?

Forged of Blood markets itself as a sort of die-hard tactical RPG that attempts to provide unheard of depth and complexity in its mechanics. While I can say that verifiably, Critical Forge have managed to pull this off, perhaps there is a reason no one attempted to do so beforehand. Forged of Blood features three stages of points in descending power that are used for actions (yellow, blue, and green). What this means is that if you attack, you cannot move that far, as you have exhausted your primary action points. Conversely, if you move too far away, you will not be able to attack due to insufficient points. This makes attacking and moving more of a checks-and-balances system than other titles in this genre, and allows you to play more tactically with the use of skills that increase your attack range or move for free. It also means that even something as simple as moving or attacking now requires more thought, and thus slows down your gameplay. It also features a spell-creation system that involves over two dozen modifiers, allowing you to design hundreds of unique spells to cast. But yet again, this is a system that is remarkably complex when it does not need to be, and prevents you from just using a spell that is fun or powerful in the pursuit of something that is “experimental.” Not to mention that the game does not feature classes like traditional tactical RPGs, meaning any character can be spec'd with any weapon. Each character has an individual weapon tree, in addition to a combat ability tree and general ability tree, in further addition to base character points like fortitude, agility, and so on. It reaches a point where you feel the strongest enemy you are fighting is the game itself.

The game’s strongest mechanic is its branching story that evolves as you make choices while romping through the world, allowing you to align with one of three traits (although I have commonly found that if you become too altruistic, your teammates will quickly desert you). The narrative in general is surprisingly well-written, and you can tell that crafting this story was a strong focus for this team. Visually, the game has a middling artstyle that aims for somewhere around a stylized realism, but the poor fidelity of the models results in a bland world that runs extremely poorly and can look dreadful on lowest settings. The music is also repetitive and boring, and the limited sound effects that lack flair can become nothing more than noise after many hours. There are also several bugs present in the game, such as occasional softlocks, crashes, and some other odd visual glitches. And while I will never know for sure whether it is a bug or just part of the mechanics, I swear I miss far more attacks than I should even with a high percentage chance.

Morally, there is some language such as b###ard, d###ed, h###, and so on. There is no sexual content present in the game. There is blood and violence involving swords, axes, etc. typical to a game of this genre. Magic is present and the use of runes and the way it is described makes it semi-occult, while still being somewhat grounded in physical properties. The game displays rebellion and acts of violence for political gain.

Overall, I find this game a bit of a shame. It is obvious that underneath all of its flaws, there is a game that truly does want to deliver an innovative and unique experience for fans of this genre, and it is clear that they went into development as fans wanting to make a game for other fans. Unfortunately, the game is simply too ambitious, complex to a fault, occasionally buggy, and riddled with bland presentation.