The Forest

The Forest has been building anticipation for a long time now, and it seems to have been growing a lot through the years of development. Even though the early access of the game launched back in 2014, Endnight Games, the small Vancouver-based game developer got around to finish it and release it in 2019. So, let's see just what the game became after those over 5 years of development, and if the game did deliver the experience the fans were hoping for.

About the game

The forest attempts to take the survival idea from the classic horror films, leaving the player alone, surrounded by darkness and despair. We start the game and we get into a plane crash, after that, witness our son get kidnapped right in front of us.

The game's plot is quite simple, but it gets the job done. Of course, it's not enough to be alone in an unknown forest and have your child kidnapped. This forest is plagued with crazy cannibal tribes and horrible mutants. Not only we'll have to find our son, but we also must survive and make it out.

A great take on a classic

The forest doesn't really present any novelty in the plot department, but it uses the mechanics available in survival games for its advantage. It also implements many crafting elements, so you'll have to get resources and explore, but you'll also have to hunt and process plants for survival, food, and medicine.

Many indie horror games were pretty basic and in the first-person POV. And even though in its more early stages the game resembled Slender, a very basic survival-horror title, it evolved far beyond that point.

Review

Even though the game presents a very simple and basic idea, th4 development and evolution of the game take it to the next level. The horror in this game will not be revealed through complicated scenes with dialogues, but rather the feeling of being lost and helpless. It keeps constant pressure on the player, but it has a nice, balanced learning curve.

It gives the player enough chance to understand the mechanics and learn how to handle the entire game, but not enough to make the player feel comfortable and relaxed. There are a lot of puzzles you'll have to solve to get closer to finding your son, but there are threats everywhere.

When you're lost, all by yourself in the forest, you'll need to think fast and act faster, especially if everything in that forest is constantly trying to kill you. And by everything we are not only limiting ourselves to the monsters and crazy cannibals, but also elements of nature.

• Graphics and visuals: The game looks alright. It has nice, solid graphics, and the art style is excellent too. Even though the designs could be more imaginative and well developed, they get the job done. It was important in this game to have a spooky forest that would become a character in itself, and they got around to do it just fine.

• Gameplay: It's interesting to see how they took very basic gameplay elements and crafting mechanics into this survival-horror title. YOu'll have to care about surviving against the monsters and cannibals, while also looking for food and a place to spend the night. The gameplay is thrilling and absolutely terrifying.

• Sound: The sound is one of the most important elements in horror games, and they did it right here. Sure, it's no Silent Hill, but it's still great.

In today’s article we will be discussing the popular horror and survival video game known as The Forest. We have not really discussed many other video games of this genre before but that has us excited to talk about it for you here today. It is a newer game as the date shows and can be found on PlayStation 4 and PC, but not for the Xbox systems so be aware of that.

What Makes The Forest So Special?

Now what makes this game so special is simply the genre itself of being a survival and horror game. It also takes a unique spin on the style, because it does not follow a straight path from objective to objective as most stories do. Rather it is an open world environment and there are no actual quests or missions at all. You are simply tasked with surviving by any means necessary which gives the ultimate freedom and power of the game to the individual playing it, this is by far one of the best aspects of this game.

This game was a huge success and sold over five million copies within the first year of its launch. To be clear the story involves you and your son trying to survive in a forest after first surviving a plane crash. Little do you know, but there are cannibals on this island that are hiding in caves waiting to eat you. As with many horror games, everything gets worse when the sun goes down and in this case the cannibals are much more aggressive. However the interesting thing is that the game makes you second guess whether they are your true enemies or not. They will do many different things such as simply watch you from a distance or try to scout out your campsite or sometimes simply attack you.

Is There an Ending to This Game?

Now we have mentioned that there are no set objectives, but there is still an optional ending that you can reach. We will not tell you what the ending is, because we feel like we have already given you too many pointers or spoilers for the game to begin with. However, promise us when we tell you that this game is unlike any other especially since it is an open world without any objectives at all. What also makes it unique is that this game is strictly first person view only whereas most games, especially an open world game relies heavily on the use of third person views or at least gives you the option to have that camera. The game is similar to such projects as Rust, Dayz and SCUM.

Pros:

• Rare Game Genre
• A Game Like No Other
• Open World Game

Cons:

• No Objectives
• Potentially Endless Game
• Hard Ending to Get to