Forest Hills: The Last Year

Some of my favorite games of all time are survival horror titles. There's something uniquely engaging about the genre that's hard to ignore. Recently, asymmetric multiplayer games have attempted to merge survival horror with competitive multiplayer, but the results haven't exactly blown me away. Forest Hills: The Last Year aims to be a game that adds the intensity of asymmetric multiplayer survival with genuine horror thrills.

Immediately, you may notice the game looks like an expansion to Dead by Daylight. That's not a way to diss the game at all: imitating the leading brand can lead to success. While it won win any points for originality, Forest Hills: The Last Years delivers an engaging alternative for players looking for more multiplayer frights around Halloween.

Fight for Survival

Like any other asymmetric multiplayer game, Forest Hills: The Last Year divides gamers into two "teams:" the Displaced and the Fiends. There are five displaced and one Fiend in each game, which sounds like an uneven playfield, but that's the gist of Forest Hills. The Fiend is nearly immortal, hunting the other players relentlessly. Plus, Fiends ally with CPU-controlled Cryptids to hunt down any survivors.

The Displaced have to complete objectives in time before the Fiend hunts them down. The result is a frantic experience that aims to bring the intensity of a survival horror like Alien: Isolation to a multiplayer arena.

The Living Fight Back

Like in Dead by Daylight, the Displaced also have unique perks that help them survive the hordes of abominations hunting them down. From speed buffs to other team-based toolkits, each Displaced brings something valuable to their team.

Cooperation is the name of the game here, with players having to work together to outsmart the fairly overpowered Fiend in indirect combat. Escaping and setting traps is the only way to success in Forest Hills: The Last Year. The uneven power dynamic is what generates the unique tension that only games like these can deliver.

However, bear in mind that Forest Hills: The Last Year is a multiplayer game where communication is almost a must. If you're anything like me and always play your multiplayer games with your mic muted, then you might be better off looking for a single-player horror experience like Amnesia: The Bunker instead of this game.

Gloom and Dark

One area where Forest Hills: The Last Year truly excels is in its gloomy ambient design. The pressuring atmosphere and the terrifying locales are very detailed and well-crafted, giving the game an edge over other asymmetric horror survivals I've seen in the past… Yes, I'm talking about Evil Dead: The Game.

Unfortunately, the monsters' designs could use some extra polish. I understand only the first batch of Fiends is available at the time of this review, but I hope the developers come up with some more unique ideas in future updates.

As it is, Forest Hills: The Last Year shows great promise to become a serious Dead by Daylight competitor. With a bit more polish and updates, horror fans will find something to love within the dark hallways of Forest Hills.

Pros

• Great horror ambiance and level design
• Good character ideas
• Tons of different puzzles to solve and objectives to meet

Cons

• Some balancing issues
• Most creature designs feel uninspired
• Exclusively multiplayer focus might turn away some horror fans