Forced

There's certain conditions that, when satisfied, make Forced an engaging and rewarding experience. When the stars are in alignment this is a cracking little title, but for the game to work as intended, everything must first click into place. When one part of the jigsaw is missing, frustration can easily override the many positive aspects of the game. Fist punching and rage quitting go hand in hand in this arena brawler that comes complete with action RPG and puzzle elements.

The player assumes the role of a slave, born with one sole purpose; to take part in trials and fight beasties for the amusement of the Gods. If the story sounds a little thin, that's because it is. The characters that you meet along the way are fairly uninspiring, and the voice-acting is a little hit and miss. The plot is delivered via in-game cutscenes, and for the most part they can be skipped without much being missed. While its visuals are pleasant enough to behold, it also looks a little on the generic side of things and there's the odd rough edge here and there. It's not a hugely impressive introduction. Having said all that, you won't be playing {Forced} for the story or its visual style, and once things start to warm up, its true nature reveals itself; this one's all about the challenge.

And what a challenge it is. If you and your co-op loving brethren have been looking for something a little bit different, something to test your nerve, and push you to the very brink before pulling you back to the joys of victory, then {Forced} is absolutely a game you should take a look at. It's still not going to be for everyone - the action RPG stylings and the fantasy setting will undoubtedly put some off - but there's enough new ideas here for it to stand out in its own right.

There's four different playing styles to choose from. A nippy, knife-wielding rogue, a hammer swinging heavy, a ranged archer, and a shield-bashing tank. As you progress through the trials - contained arenas overflowing with hellish creatures and environmental puzzles - you unlock crystals, and reaching different milestones unlocks special powers and passive abilities, that can then be slotted into your load-out. All crystals earned in any class apply across the board, so you can specialise in one area and reap the benefits in another should you wish to change tact later on.

While at first the setup felt limiting, this system offers a surprising amount of depth. There's plenty of different options for players to explore, and each of the four classes requires a distinct approach from the next. If you hit a brick wall (and you will, many times) you can tweak your load-out, or you can change your class completely. Different tools for different jobs.

There's three different ways to play {Forced}. One is on your own. Frankly, we didn't enjoy this very much. It's challenging, but the constant deaths and rock hard difficulty just frustrated with increasing regularity as the campaign progressed. The second option is to join a party of up to four players randomly met on the game's servers, and go at it that way. Again, this is not the optimal way of playing the game, but it's preferable to going solo. The third is to play with friends. It's here that the game shines the brightest. Navigating the most tricky challenges requires teamwork, without it failure will surely beckon, so being on the same page as your fellow adventurers pays dividends.

There's a key mechanic in the game that makes co-operation utterly essential, and it comes with a name; Balfus. From the very start of the campaign you're joined by a bright, floating orb - your spirit mentor - who keeps you company and provides narration throughout the duration of the game. It quickly becomes clear that Balfus is more than just a companion, he's also a help (and at times a hinderance) to your cause. The orb can be summoned, but never sent, which requires plenty of tactical planning. When he passes over various shrines or altars he fulfills a variety of different functions. It requires careful positioning, and plenty of ongoing communication between teammates as they move around the arenas.

For the most part he's very useful; when passed over some shrines he casts a healing circle that replenishes dwindling health bars, others send out shockwaves that knock enemies to the floor. There's electricity spewing towers, speed boosts, and he can also close down some of the spawn points from whence your enemies crawl. As you progress there's other ways that he changes the gameplay dynamic. He can, for example, be cursed by certain enemies and turned into a ticking bomb that be can devastating if he goes off too close to a player, or he can hold back the noxious gases the spew forth from certain objects.

As you progress there's puzzles and challenges that must be completed in each area in order to progress, and they nearly always involve using your spirit mentor in some capacity. These are always made harder thanks to increasingly large swarms of enemies and tricky boss battles that require communication and skill to beat. The inclusion of Balfus is the game changer, and uncoordinated play with strangers can often lead to the orb pinballing across the level, and never serving any player's needs. When this happens, someone usually dies.

The puzzles themselves don't normally require more than a small amount of thought, the real challenge stems from the combat and from the different attacks that fly at you from all angles. It's easy to get cornered, or snag on a piece of scenery and get swarmed by enemies. Some of the classes feel better suited to task than others. The ranged class for example, which was great fun in group play, was not at all useful for solo adventuring.

Hitting opponents didn't feel as kinetic as it possibly could have, but a nice little "mark" system more than makes up for that. Each hit on an enemy is represented above their health bar. Getting to the designated number of marks for each creature and unleashing a special attack does wondrous damage to their health bar, and is particularly useful against more powerful foes. This gives the battles against bosses and the more powerful minions a tactical edge.

Each of the trials immediately yields a crystal upon completion. Once beaten, additional challenges are offered up and present the chance to unlock two more skill-boosting gems, but these secondary challenges quickly start getting incredibly difficult. So difficult that it's hard to imagine beating them without a dedicated team of four well-oiled fighters working together in perfect harmony. Success with those met randomly online is dependent on finding the right sort; we got sent back to the menu when one player quit unexpectedly, and booted out of several loading areas while looking for a game. It's also worth noting that at this early stage, getting on some servers can be tricky, and efforts are currently underway to improve the overall online experience.

There's a survival mode thrown in for good measure, which sees waves of increasing amounts of enemies descend on you from all quarters, but this mode was less satisfying that the campaign proper, although it will be a welcome inclusion for those who like chasing scores on leaderboards. In fact, all of the trials come with global leaderboards, so if you appreciate that level of competition, you'll find it here.

Overall, despite being infuriated on more than one occasion, and being impaled on several brutally sharp difficulty spikes, we were impressed with what {Forced} had to offer. It borrows ideas from plenty of different places, but manages to turn them into something unique, and at times it's incredibly satisfying. In our experience, the game was at its most enjoyable when we were working within a co-ordinated team. The challenge scales depending on how many are playing, but it felt easier to navigate with more players, mainly because you have the opportunity to respawn should you fall in battle.

The real draw here is the well balanced mix of ingredients, along with the unrelenting challenge. When everything falls into place and you're working well with a team and hitting the right notes, {Forced} is great fun to play. There were several levels that took what felt like an eternity to complete, and this was somewhat frustrating, and the razor-sharp difficulty means that this game isn't going to suit all tastes. However, co-op orientated gamers are urged to check it out. You might die a lot, and at times you'll hate the game to its very core, but it's the good kind of hate, the kind that keeps you coming back for more.