The Forest - Full Review
The Forest is quite impressive as a survival game in general taking multiple elements and combining them to create the unique experience it gives. Streaming this game has been a blast, giving plenty of opportunity for others to enjoy the adventure to save Timmy. Making mistakes as I try and cook meat on an open fire, becoming a master bowman and taking out terrifying creatures as if I was Legolas from LOTR. So many good moments to count and with many hours of gameplay where you can build a fort, earn Steam achievements, attempt to save Timmy in record time; there are so many things to do in this game that adds to the play-time and enjoyment. It is hard to not be excited for its sequel, Sons of the Forest.
The game was initially released in 2014 but left Early Access in 2018. The features the game provides were ahead of its time for a survival/builder. My biggest gripe is that the game doesn’t have snapping with assets when trying to build so a lot of my builds take a lot longer due to me being a perfectionist when building in games. Other than that, the crafting is pretty straight-forward and the builds are still impressive looking when you dedicate a bunch of time to it. While building, it is common to receive visitors who want to eat you. After a while they are only curious but when traveling in larger packs they have more confidence, so beware. I like the extra little challenge rather than purely having a builder. This is that extra dynamic that the game has, that really gives it a personality. Even after playing the game for a while you learn a few ways to “cheese” things to benefit yourself.
Combat feels incredible to be honest. At first I think things felt a little awkward with the combat controls but then I found my comfortable spot and apparently that is being a Ranger-type with the bow and arrow. My favorite weapon is the Modern Bow which just has better handling and provides a better punch than the Crafted Bow. There are a variety of arrow types such as Wood, Bone, and even Incendiary. The thing to just constantly keep in mind is to not focus on just a single target, it is easy to get swarmed in this game but several mobs, so just keep strafing and have all of your enemies in front of you.
Building in The Forest could have been giving a little more love, but, I will say I am impressed with the results of these builds. My fort looks like a fort that was placed in the game by the developers. A very photogenic location as well. I cut down trees and removed stumps to take the best wide shot of my base. For those who are builders and look for a very photorealistic quality in their builds, this is a must-play game. The downside however, as mentioned before, there is no snapping one item to another. This makes for a much more lengthy and painful process to have a realistic build. Elevation in hillsides requires you having to realign one object constantly up against the other every time. So I hope to see a lot of changes in Sons of the Forest, giving more options to align objects for a cleaner build.
The exploration is pretty amazing but the map does feel smaller once you’ve been around. Sons of the Forest is said to have a map four times larger than the world found in The Forest, so this was obvious to the devs as well. Not to say the world isn’t enjoyable, there is plenty of land and a variety of biomes to try building bases in and seek resources you don’t normally find in other areas. I found my addiction with filling out my book on discoveries, completing Steam achievements, and building the ultimate fort. The building is just as addicting, so many possibilities to build incredible looking structures, it just takes time. If you have the dedication, there are so many cool things to do in the game. Definitely a game for builders and adventurers.
Overall, I have had such a positive experience both playing The Forest and streaming it on Twitch. So many amazing new individuals who just really enjoy gaming and bring a positive vibe with them. The gameplay opens up for so many glorious moments to capture while playing both solo and in multiplayer. And right when you think you have seen it all with this game, there’s just even more secrets that have yet to be revealed to you. I found additional blueprints today for things I never imaged I would see built in this game. And this is why I rated this game a very rare 11/10 over on the Steam Curator page: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/40823125/
If this game slightly intrigues you, I would hit Play on it today and give it a chance. This game hooked me from the very beginning and enjoyed the rest of the ride. Even after the ride should technically be done I am still finding things to do. From my opinion, this is a very underrated gem that has so much potential in it’s sequel. Now the only question is, will Sons of the Forest take it up a notch and live up to the name? We shall find out soon enough.
