Geneforge

Geneforge is a role playing game with a setting that is a combination of science fiction and fantasy. Overall the game received positive reviews but had almost no music and poor graphics.

Developer: Spiderweb Software
Publisher: Spiderweb Software
Release Date: 2002
Platforms: PC
JustRPG Score: 92%
Pros:
+Engaging and well-constructed story with exciting plot twists.
+Creating many unique and fun mutant creatures.
+Dialogue and situations change based upon the player’s actions.
+A huge and detailed world with interesting quests and puzzles
+You can join one of three different groups which can lead to different endings.

+The Sci-fi theme adds to the overall charm of the game huge replayability.
Cons:
-Simplistic graphics.
-Not enough sound effects.

Overview

Geneforge Overview

Geneforge is an engaging role playing game that had a combination of science fiction and fantasy setting. The game has a very interesting story line that keeps the players on their toes guessing what is going to happen next. The player can create mutants and battle against other mutants. The world is very detailed and the puzzles and quests are well thought out and keep the player interested as well. The only complaints about this game have to do with the graphics being way out dated for the time of its’ release, and the fact that there is pretty much no music in the entire game except for the title screen.

Geneforge Screenshots

Geneforge Featured Video

Full Review

Geneforge Review

By, Eric Arevalo

Backdrop
.hack Part 1 Infection (Dot Hack) begins with a bang. Something disastrous happens to your character‘s real world friend, while innocently playing a 20 million-subscriber base, wildly popular online RPG game (MMORPG), The World. To unravel the mystery of your friend’s misfortune, you become an online, ingame rogue hacker, exploring every corner of The World, even some virus-infected ones.
The hero is armed with the special skills of Data Drain and Gate Hack, and some colorful, talented fellow adventurers to fill the two other available party slots. Different adventurers must accompany you depending on the plot‘s development. You have some control over the others in your party, including upgrading them through trades or gifts. You can play only a single class, Twin Blade. Other characters are from different classes, with varied strengths and weaknesses, from a mage type (Wavemaster) to a bully (Heavy Axeman).
Gameplay
Gameplay takes place in three principal areas – towns, fields, and dungeons. Towns house The World’s servers. There, the player can save the game, buy magic scrolls and useful and unique items, store items, buy equipment, and talk and trade with lots of other players in character online. One town has an unusual ranch to check out, a patent homage to an enduring feature of just about every Final Fantasy.
The town’s Chaos Gate provides instant teleportation to a particular wide-open Field, containing monster encounter hotspots, a mystical spring, treasure, and lots of mysterious food. You enter three distinct keywords, some known at the game‘s onset, and others learned through play. Whatever keywords are entered, the difficulty level of the destination is helpfully revealed. This prevents a low-level party from being massacred. Once the keywords are entered, you travel through the Chaos Gate. (You can enter specific keywords learned to continue the plot, do side quests, or do unlimited exploring. Or, you can instruct the Gate to enter random keywords, and take your chances. There‘s also an option to enter any keywords you wish from a word list.) Every Field houses a single Dungeon. The dungeons, where you spend much of the game fighting for your life, are not overly large in size, and always range between three and five average levels.
Many have compared Dot Hack to Phantasy Star Online Episode I and II (PSO) on the Gamecube. Let us gently discredit this. We feel Dot Hack has far better graphics than PSO. The Fields and Dungeons contain many colorful, over stylized backdrops and settings, including weather effects. Dot Hack’s monsters resemble the beautifully-drawn monsters of the later Final Fantasy’s. Dot Hack’s world is gigantic with a seeming infinite number of locations to explore. PSO’s world is relatively small, and plot is threadbare, with meaningless, though fun, side quests, which instill no enthusiasm in the player. Dot Hack’s plot is deep and complex, with each subplot advancing the story just a little bit further. (Remember though, the end of this game in no way comes close to wrapping up the story, to be completed in the three games to be released later this year.) One visual treat, however, was lifted directly from PSO – the cascading rings that accompany the teleportation of characters to and from different areas.
Combat
Dot Hack’s combat engine can best be described as modified real-time. Much like the action-RPG, Kingdom Hearts, button mashing can be effective to beat monsters. Monster combat icons appear as large yellow twirling landmarks. As you approach, the landmark dissolves, monsters come at you big-time, and, undoubtedly, players will feel a healthy adrenaline rush. Some of Dot Hack’s many monsters do not stand around waiting to be pummeled, rather some you need to catch. Dot Hack lets you turn combat almost into a turn-based affair. The player needs only to hit Triangle in the middle of battle to pause the game instantly. From there the player can give orders to the others in the party, anything from healing someone, reviving another, casting a spell, designating a target monster. Without jeopardizing your party from the hailstorm of monster blows, combat becomes a calmer, more strategic, experience. This will help the many action-challenged. Camera angles play a big role in successful combat. You must be facing a monster to do any damage. As in many games, manipulating opposing environmental elements, like fire vs. water, is a key to successful monster combat.
Dot Hack’s cyberspace setting provides a wealth of Wow-inducing outbursts. The Data Drain option in combat is a great example. When a monster’s approaches zero, the player can Data Drain to reduce a horrendous, gigantic steel robot, for example, into a sniveling, puny monster, easily defeated with a single blow. Data Drain always results in a nifty, rare item or essential Virus Cores so you can Gate Hack areas of The World now closed, but needing investigation. One bad side effect – if you defeat, a Data Drained monster, but a single experience point is earned. One REALLY bad side effect – if you Data Drain too often without giving the skill a rest, you may overload and explode. Game Over. In the case of Boss monsters, Data Drain works the same, but what remains is no sniveling puny monster, but a full-blooded slightly less tough monster. All of this makes for interesting and captivating combat, a large part of the game.
Fresh Features
Dot Hack is replete with new and interesting features that kept us riveted.
To start, the entire background and story of a real world gamer becoming a rascal hacker, penetrating deep into a virus-infected online game, is quite novel. Combine this with Dot Hack’s emulating the look and feel of an online game universe. (Message traffic on the web shows many gamers mistakenly believe Dot Hack is a real online MMORPG, along with monthly fees! No real Internet connection is required.)
Just like in the real word, Dot Hack replicates your excitement level when “New” appears before a popular forum or on your email screen. Some of the game involves receiving emails as the plot develops, as well as new, crucial information surfacing on The World’s Board. (Look out for emails challenging you to a strange game of Tag.) The online game world looks very familiar with a bunch of characters wandering around the game’s towns, with the ubiquitous balloon icons talking typical “trash” to each other, even criticizing “newbies“.
Combat grippingly called for surprisingly strategic decision-making to succeed, not related to the usual attack or defend choices. Do you go for experience and upgrade your character or try for some special equipment or a Virus Core, vital to Gate Hacking? The innovative control of other party members became second nature to us after some practice. The game rewards a player taking chances, like entering a Field or Dungeon rated 5 levels above the player’s current level. On the other hand, the game scoffed at players entering areas much lower rated the their current level, by awarding negligible experience points for victory.
Dot Hack takes progress reports to a new level, by slowly unlocking books that contain much in the way of statistics and information. There’s even a monster compendium with tips for defeating them.
Some might complain about the minimal “Save Game” ability, but we thrived on it. You explore a very hostile cyberspace environment without the facility to save. Only in a server-hosting town is saving possible at the local Recorder. We may be a solitary voice in the Wilderness, but we like this throwback to the good old RPG days. Those of you old enough to remember the Wizardry series, may recall those fingernail-biting multi-combat treks back to the Castle just to save the game. In case you’re really stuck deep in a dungeon, a common item will teleport you to the outdoor field, from where you can simply gate back to town from the command menu.
Many pieces of equipment come with distinctive powerful attack, healing, and status skills, essential to combat dominance. The player must tradeoff whether to equip something that will raise defense or offense or something less vigorous that lets you use a powerful skill. Trading is the most successful way to upgrade equipment.
In a first, Dot Hack comes with a 45 minute anime video. This gives some great background on what’s going on in The World, as well as provide clues for completing the game. In a nice twist, voiceovers for game speech can be set for Japanese or English presentation. Listening to the authentic Japanese voices really keeps you glued to the game.
Though some may scoff at what follows as meaningless, we liked the game’s unlocking of some nifty new “toys” to like, some only available when the game is cleared. You can unlock many different background music play lists. Tired of creepy tunes, just switch to something more upbeat, or futuristic. Just like real world gamers, who constantly change their desktop wallpaper, new and different wallpapers are unlocked along the way. Some are concept art of characters, while others are full blown anime renditions of the characters. This makes for great fun, and seems to pump additional energy into the game. As you progress over a dozen special cut scenes or movies will become viewable after defeating the game.
Though Dot Hack’s extras and new wrinkles enhance the RPG game experience, much of the gameplay will ring true to those who enjoy RPG‘s. Expect plenty of exploration in a huge 3D world, frequent monster combat, tons of treasure to earn and discover, upgrading your character’s weapons and armor, and needing to level before tackling pivotal story dungeons. The status screens for the characters and all equipment are well laid out and easy to grasp.
Time for Completion
Game length in hours always concerns many purchasers. A short RPG normally takes a lot of flack, and many online are asking about Dot Hack‘s time for completion. (Some have questioned whether Bandai should have released a single 80 hour game for $50, rather than four 20-hour games for $200 for a single story. This matter is beyond the scope of this review, but our high opinion of this game as a standalone is obvious.) Our experience, playing the plot without doing side quests or extra exploration, is in the 12 to 15-hour range. Players side-questing and extensively exploring, aside from the main plot, can expect to spend 25 hours to complete the game. You can even continue to advance your character, after game completion, to get a jump start on Part 2 due in May. In the next game, your character can be imported from Part 1.
Furthermore, imagine trying to explore every nook and cranny of the fields and dungeons accessible by a large number of 3-word combinations. Doing that would put the game in the 50-hour range, if not more. However, at a certain point, new items dry up, and a single experience point is earned for any defeated monster, no matter how tough.
Shortcomings
While, as is evident above, there is much to recommend in Dot Hack, certain concerns to varying degrees deserve mention.
From the “Why oh why did they leave this out?“ File. Pregame game board traffic and information about the Japanese version released months ago had many salivating for replaying the game in “parody” mode. This mode apparently converted all Dot Hack’s game world characters into satirical comedians. Sorry to say, this highly-anticipated feature is missing from the version released here.
The game requires massive amounts of button pressing. Every item or treasure uncovered from combat victories or exploration (opening chests, searching expired adventure remains, collecting food for Grunty’s, as examples) must be confirmed with a button press. When there could be 50-100 such occurrences in a single dungeon or field, over the course of the game, finger cramps seem inevitable. Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance also required lots of bashing for buried treasure and chests, but the items literally flew into your inventory, a much better way to handle this.
The manual is woefully terse and lacking in some crucial information and guidance. While the ingame tutorials fill in many of the gaps, one extremely important gameplay feature is missing from both the manual and tutorials – instructions on control your characters directly during combat.
Final Word
We got a kick out of Dot Hack. The feeling of “just one more dungeon” dominated our lives for the 3 days to completion. The engaging environment held our attention without much effort. The strategic nature of combat, plus the convoluted plot kept us going for hours on end. The constant unlocking of both frivolous and important gameplay features created a “what’s next” anticipation. Now, if I could only read Japanese better, Dot Hack Part 2 is already out in Japan!
Final Grade: B

It is true that often the best things come in small packages. Such is the case with Geneforge, a very unique RPG released from Spiderweb Software. Spiderweb Software is the same company that has given us the equally intriguing Exile series, Nethergateand Avernum. Jeff Vogel, successful shareware developer of each of these games is to be applauded for the work and commitment he has put into each of them. While Geneforge features simplistic graphics, the exciting story as well as the ability to control fascinating mutant creatures more than make up for this.

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In Geneforge you play the role of an apprentice Shaper, a member of a powerful magical guild. You have the power to create life and use it to serve your every need. You were headed to one of the Shaper colonies for training. Attacked at sea, you never reach your destination. Barely clinging to life, you swim to nearby Sucia Island, a place rife with mystery and danger. Why were you attacked and what mysteries does the island conceal in its forbidden depths? Only you can find those answers.

 

It was fun to play on an island that gets even more interesting as you uncover clues to what happened there. The game has the familiar and exciting elements that you have come to expect from an RPG. You have quests to undertake to earn experience, mighty spells to wield and creatures to control. You can choose to play as three different characters, Shapers, Agents and Guardians. Each has their unique abilities and powers that you can use in the game. What I especially liked are the creatures that can be created and used to fight with you against your enemies. You create them by using essence, or raw material that the Shapers use to create life. You can create about 9 different mutant creatures in the game, and each of them can be enhanced to an even stronger form. You can create lizard-like Fyoras, stunning and powerful creatures known as Drayks and humanoid creatures called Battle Alphas that can deal massive damage with their fists. Your creatures also gain experience and will get stronger as they fight in battles.

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Eventually you will encounter three different groups within the game that you can join. The three groups are the Awakened, the Obeyers and the Takers. Each group consists of serviles, creatures that were created by your people, the Shapers. Your people abandoned the serviles about a hundred years ago when they quickly evacuated the island. Thus the serviles have had to live alone for all these years without their guidance. Your presence on the island after many years without the Shapers will find you being hated by one group (Takers), loved by another (Obeyers) and accepted as an equal by yet another (Awakened). You can obtain quests from each of these groups in their respective villages. When you complete these quests you earn valuable experience which you can use to increase your stats in many areas, such as health, essence, spell energy and others. Quests can include clearing an area infested with monsters to finding particular individuals or items. But it is the choices that you can make in the game that make it so exciting. Choosing what group you join will determine how others react to you and you can choose to be either good or evil as you make these choices.

 

What you will notice about this game is how everything changes based on what you do. If you join one of the groups such as the Awakened, the merchants there will lower their prices because you believe in their cause. If you join a specific group other groups will know about it and may not treat you the same way or offer you certain quests. I am sure many of you have played RPGs where dialogue with the characters never changed when you did something important. Not so here! Jeff Vogel has taken the time to ensure that your actions mean something and that they change the world around you. Joining a specific group in the game will change the outcome of many situations and gives this game huge replayability. Other unique elements in the game are the special canisters that you will find along the way, canisters of some unknown substance that will upgrade your magical abilities or allow you to create new creatures. Little do you know that these canisters are changing you in ways you can only begin to imagine as you venture forth to discover their true purpose on the island.

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Geneforge will interest anyone who desires an enjoyable RPG experience. It may not have certain elements that you have come to expect from higher priced RPGs but it still manages to deliver in the important areas. Jeff Vogel and his company Spiderweb Software have put all their effort into what truly matters in any game, the story and the gameplay. The story does an admirable job in melding a very exciting fantasy adventure with a science fiction twist. The world that has been created is very unique and you will enjoy how much detail has been put into it. For example, there are certain puzzles that require you to figure out how to proceed through an area that has mines that explode when you get near them. Even more fascinating is that these mines as well as other things you will find and use in the game are made out of living materials. This all adds to the sci-fi charm that graces the entire game.

 

I enjoyed the way the story was presented to you as you went into important areas. I also liked the way the game makes you feel, that of being on an island with so many mysteries for you to unravel, especially uncovering the mystery of the Geneforge. There are also the special creatures that you can create that are so much fun to use against your enemies. Let’s not forgot how the game changes based on your actions and what group you decide to join. If you are still undecided about this game there is a demo available at the official website that includes 17 of the games 77 areas. Geneforge is definitely worth the $25 and if you decide to order it, you will be sent a code that can easily unlock the full game for you to continue playing right away. I look forward to Geneforge 2 which is currently in production and should be available in the next few months. If you give it a chance Geneforge will impress you with all it can do!

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Final Verdict: 92%

Screenshots

Geneforge Screenshots

Videos

Geneforge Videos

Geneforge Gameplay

 

Guides / Links

Geneforge Guides / Links

Geneforge Wikipedia Entry

FAQ/Walkthrough