Who here has played the Forest and can give a honest review ...

[Crix]

It's difficult to read reviews on Steam as the majority are, I would set my self on fire" 10/10 would set my on fire again." and other like minded reviews.

Reviews like this along with guides are plaguing the Steam reviews and guide sections.

So I'd ask here any one who has more then 40 hours in The Forest and can either link me or write their review here?

If you don't feel like it here , then would you recommend it? I see it's an obvious "Very Positive" but I have a feeling much of that is just from hype and people don't actually play the game just bandwagon. I see Twitch game plays and people are just building and not doing much else. Is exploration enjoyable like The Forest?

[indigo]

Well, I only have 134.7 hours in The Forest, so I hope that's sufficient for you.

As games go, it's decent. Not 10/10 by far, it has its own set of issues, but they are mostly mild and annoying at best. Graphically, it was a little behind its time, but still looked completely 7/10.

The game play itself, a very solid 6/10. The old free-form base building left a lot to be desired.

The story was. That's probably the weakest part of The Forest - the story is there, but it takes some effort to really turn up, and you were far more likely to simply stumble over where to go than to actually have any idea where to go, or what to do, and we never really delved into any of the why. 5/10 at best here.

I'd give it a generous 6/10 overall, as it is quite fun for games of this nature, and it does have a definitive ending, more than one to be honest, with one being a little more... interesting? than the other.

Would I play it again? Absolutely. Would I recommend it to someone else? Definitely.
Do you need to play it before this? Not at all.

The overall scale of The Forest is a good bit smaller than Sons of the Forest, but The Forest does have some more interesting ways of getting about, including building a Houseboat for the ultimate in defended bases, and a means of getting from one side of the island to the other without having hear the locals shouting and hooting and hollering.

I don't watch anyone play anything - I'd rather be doing the playing, so I can't much comment on what people do or don't do, but I will say, base building is one of the centerpieces of both The Forest and Sons of the Forest, so I certainly understand people devoting time to doing it. As for just wandering around and sight-seeing, yes, it's enjoyable, at least until you stumble upon an Armsy or a Virginia, then wandering the wilderness isn't so nice any more.

[alan0n]

My brutally honest review, just for you.

Its a building/survival horror sandbox with a light story told purely through collectibles. If I had to rate it 1-10... Id say its a 7, but a GOOD 7.

For an indy developer, and at its price point its a phenomenal offering. But at the same time its not a MUST PLAY title. Its more of a niche that most mainstream gamers will just get frustrated with and uninstall.

Would I recommend it? Yes. Personally I thought it was an enjoyable experience.

[Crunchmeister]

If you compare The Forest (Final, finished game) to SOTF still in early access, it's a mixed bag.

Graphics, story / lore (what's there at least), and mechanics are better. But content is sorely lacking. I would say that the original is better.

Now, if you compare the original when it was mid-life early access to SOTF, SOTF is a clear winnder. Out of the gate, it's in a much better, more complete state than the original, and has a lot of great mechanics (particularly companions and building) i like better. It's the clear winner.

Unfortunately, neither of those 2 scenarios are realistic. The ideal would be to compare the final release of both games. And unfortunately, we can't do that until SOFT comes out of EA and is final.

For me, I'm having a much more fun playing SOFT than I did the original at any stage in its development. Your mileage may vary.

[threethreethree]

Originally posted by Crix:

It's difficult to read reviews on Steam...Reviews like this along with guides are plaguing the Steam reviews and guide sections...I have a feeling much of that is just from hype and people don't actually play the game just bandwagon...

I'm not sure what you mean by this. Lots of people have played both games, and their opinion of the game(s) is real and based on actually playing.

[glbrtblm]

I would say that that it's a preference style game. If you prefer to play survival horror games than this is for you. I have played The Forest, beat it and played a couple of times after completion, I have now finished SOTF and have to say that It's a really good game, it has a lot of the same elements from the first game but at the same time is it's own game as well, if that makes any sense. I would 100% recommend this game to anyone that likes to play these style of games. There is a focus on base building but you really can play without it as well. If you have played other games in this genre and enjoyed them then by all mean get the game, it's relatively inexpensive and is worth the play time.

[DanteBrane]

I got about 700 hours in the first game. I was skeptical about how much the developers got done for this game before announcing it was going to be early access 2 weeks before the game released. After playing this for about 80 hours so far, I am kind of mixed but mostly leaning towards positive views of the game. Obviously all these points are my opinions.

First off, this game looks amazing. The first game looked good for its time as well but the leap in graphics is crazy, everywhere you look is picturesque. There's also a lot of extra flourishes like animations for eating, drinking and crafting. I love these additions, they all combine together to make this game very immersive to me. Immersion and presentation is better in this game than the first.

Combat felt a little different at first but feels much more satisfying. In the first game you just whacked them back and forth until they finally just dropped dead or you could finish them off on the ground, this game makes it feel nice when you suddenly chop a limb off mid combat or knock them down and watch them try to crawl away. Overall I think the combat is better than the first.

Their AI seems to perform generally the same with some extra things. In both games, they treat you with curiosity and eventually aggression as you kill them and chop down trees. Though I felt like it was possible to be completely neutral to them in the first game, it seems like some of them will always be aggressive in this game. I'm not too sure, need to play around with them more. I like that there is more to their routines than just perpetual patrolling. Things I've seen them do in their villages range from sitting around, eating, sleeping, dancing, praying, and making a short trip from their villages to drink some water and come back. In the first game, the villages felt barren. Their patrol routes would have them eventually visit their villages but they never performed any activities in them. I think their path finding still needs some fixing and they need a bit more variety with how they organize their attacks but overall I think there is an improvement here.

The variety of enemies is neat so far, I like the new additions. I like that they now wear armor but I wish they would use a larger variety of weapons like bows and spears and throwables. The normal cannibals function the same, the Heavy "chief" cannibals are cool. I think the devs should allow them to wear armor, they would look very menacing decked out in full bone armor. The Titans (fat red guys) seem to be a more humanoid version of the cowmen. They are jarring at first but their name doesn't match their combat skills as they are easier to kill than the heavys, need to tune them some more. The new mutants are pretty cool but I feel that only 1 of them is very disruptive, in a good way I mean. Armsy, Virgina, and Cowman were like these walking freight trains in the first game and each one felt like a boss fight sometimes. The new mutant designs are very neat and creepy but only that catdog slinky mutant gives me vibes of the OG mutants. They have to fix that sucker though, him just phasing through structures is no bueno. Perhaps they need to add more variety of attacks to the other mutants or maybe add others that feel like bunker busters.

The custom building may be a mixed bag for some but I find it pretty cool. It's essentially the custom building of the first game but you physically place down each log instead of the blueprint. It's like you have to now imagine the blueprint in your head as you are building. It can feel cool and immersive laying down the foundation of your structure before you start filling in the walls, doorways, windows, roofs, etc. It's still very wonky as sometimes I can't fill in an apex or building stairs near a wall is sometimes finicky, and sometimes getting rid of a log that is not supporting anything will make parts of your building collapse. Annoying issues but I'm sure the devs will address these. One caveat to this new building is that it may become tedious, as you have to physically be near where you want to place a log and sit through the animation foe each log placement, whereas you could just mash 'E' in the first game and build very quickly and easily.

My biggest complaint with this game is the map. The map is huge and beautiful, which is great. But there are really no interesting points of interest like the first game. The first game had POI's like the sinkhole, the fertile grounds, those weird and unnatural looking trees scattered around the map, the main giant village, etc. It makes it a little hard to memorize locations in this game because there aren't really any locations to remember. I'm not saying that this game needs a giant sinkhole too but just some interesting landmarks or something. This game is EA so I'm hoping that they are working on this.

Next complaint would be some of the things that worked in the first game and are not in this game. The devs already mentioned the popularity of the log sled so I'm sure that will be added soon. But features like applying poison and flammable cloth to weapons and arrows, cooking, and weapon upgrades are missing at least for now. Though with the variety of new melee weapons that all have varying stats, maybe weapon upgrading would be redundant. Some other blueprints are missing as well like water collectors, arrow storage, bonfires, etc. Some of these things may still be getting worked on and hopefully will return, we will see.

Overall I do enjoy this game. There are a few things that carried over from the first game and I wish they would look at and consider trying to balance (i.e. armor and item spawns), but I think it has a lot of improvements over the first game. However, I am kind of skeptical on how much they accomplished so far. The game was delayed multiple times and was giving me the impression that these delays were more for polishing and bug fixes rather than still adding chunks of content. I wonder what state the game was in when it was originally on track to release in October last year. But since the reality is that this game launched in EA, I am happily willing to give more feedback and suggestions. But I wonder if they will be able to accomplish fixing all these bugs, rebalancing things that don't work, adding content and fine tuning their story all in that 8 month time span they set for themselves. I don't know, they might have to take longer than that if they are really ambitious.

EDIT 1: I completely forgot to mention Kelvin and Virginia. I love their addition to the game. Kelvin has this lovable and goofy charm to him given the circumstances of his injuries from the helicopter crash. He can be very useful for multitasking, I have him do little things on the side while I design my base. Virginia is lovely as well, she becomes a warrior when you give her guns. However, their AI needs LOTS of work. Their pathfinding is pretty inconsistent, they struggle to cross shallow rivers and streams and that makes them take forever to follow you around certain places. They both frequently try to walk through my walls instead of using the doorway and they like to get stuck under certain parts of my floor and I'm forced to takes it apart so they can get out. I like them both but they still need some work.

I'm not really going to talk about the story because I feel that I need to see the whole picture before I make a final judgement. The ending shocked me but I don't mind where the story may be headed. There's just a lot of gaps in it currently so I'll wait and see what they are going for.

EDIT 2: I saw someone else mention the caves, I agree with that. The caves in this game look more detailed but that's it. So far the caves in the first game are more expansive and connected, they felt more interesting to explore.

[Tebeas]

I own the game on a different account. Got to the ending at about.. 70 hours IIRC. QRD is 2/10. The game advertises itself as a open world survival horror however there are almost no survival mechanics and not only can you skip nights entirely the entire combat system becomes a formality the moment you acquire the shotgun/revolver. The 'open world' is empty. There are a few cannibal villages lying around and some camp sites but other than that you will only see what you have built and some copy pasted trees. The building system can be very restrictive at times. One of the examples is the order in which you build things. It has to be very specific otherwise the game refuses to let you place logs in certain spots. The game itself is a glorified lumberjack hiking simulator in which your fingers will become sore after holding W for 20 minutes straight traveling from one end of the map to the other. Not to mention that The Forest was randomly left for dead not too long after leaving early access and SOTF is clearly missing several features/objects shown in the trailers. Do not buy unless you like what has already been established because the developers legally have nothing forcing them to finish the game in any capacity. Their QnA clearly proves they are not interested in cooperating with the community due to their vague answers despite 'wanting to be transparent'. On top of it all they want the game to be in early access for about 9 months which is VERY clearly not enough to fix the issues the game currently has on top of adding new content. As I mentioned there is nothing forcing them to finish the game. They might stop the development in 2 years. Perhaps 9 months. For all we know it might be within this week. There is no road map or anything of the sorts hence everyone who bought the game is reliant on the developers to provide them content. As an example the log sled has been requested day 1 and is still not in the game

As for the reviews.. Everyone is just memeing about kelvin and/or being thirsty for virginia despite her overall appearance getting a HUGE downgrade from the trailers. I only check negative reviews because they are the only ones providing actual feedback. Thanks for reading my blog btw

Bonus complaints: virginia runs away often and refuses to move unless you personally escort her. The animations for building/crafting will make you very angry after about 10 minutes. The game is often very janky..

[DanteBrane]

Originally posted by Tebeas:

I own the game on a different account. Got to the ending at about.. 70 hours IIRC. QRD is 2/10. The game advertises itself as a open world survival horror however there are almost no survival mechanics and not only can you skip nights entirely the entire combat system become a formality the moment you acquire the shotgun/revolver. The 'open world' is empty. There are a few cannibal villages lying around and some camp sites but other than that you will only see what you have built and some copy pasted trees. The building system can be very restrictive at times. One of the examples is the order in which you build things. It has to be very specific otherwise the game refuses to let you place logs in certain spots. The game itself is a glorified lumberjack hiking simulator in which your fingers will become sore after holding W for 20 minutes straight traveling from one end of the map to the other. Not to mention that The Forest was randomly left for dead not too long after leaving early access and SOTF is clearly missing several features/objects shown in the trailers. Do not buy unless you like what has already been established because the developers legally have nothing forcing them to finish the game in any capacity. Their QnA clearly proves they are not interested in cooperating with the community due to their vague answers despite 'wanting to be transparent'. On top of it all they want the game to be in early access for about 9 months which is VERY clearly not enough to fix the issues the game currently has on top of adding new content. As I mentioned there is nothing forcing them to finish the game. They might stop the development in 2 years. Perhaps 9 months. For all we know it might be within this week. There is no road map or anything of the sorts hence everyone who bought the game is reliant on the developers to provide them content. As an example the log sled has been requested day 1 and is still not in the game

As for the reviews.. Everyone is just memeing about kelvin and/or being thirsty for virginia despite her overall appearance getting a HUGE downgrade from the trailers. I only check negative reviews because they are the only ones providing actual feedback. Thanks for reading my blog btw

I definitely agree about the survival horror part. Personally both games are in the same both in that aspect. The survival horror part feels like its more about the initial fear of the unknown. But you can stockpile yourself so easily in both games that eventually the enemies can pose no threat to you. No resource or item management at all as everything is plentiful. If you look around the discussions you'll see I'm a staunch supporter of adjusting these things but I'm in the minority here.

I'm also trying to be more hopeful that they will stick with this game and polish the hell out of it before they move on, they've already put a lot of work into the presentation of everything. They are much more established now and they made a hell of a lot of money off of both games so far. I can only hope that this game won't have a bunch of lingering issues left around like the first game.

[collperson]

IMO

better in sotf:
graphics
ai
weapons
building
companions
canibal intensity in the late game days

better in the forest:
cave exploring
can build boats

[manthathascomputer]

Maybe in 6 months it may be worth playing. Depends how much content they add. It's really lacking anything to do besides walking and building.

[Crix]

I thank you for all your feedback and I read them, even the Dante's.

I do hope they expand upon the cave system and let them interconnect and be a lot more complex. That's nearly what made The Forest so intriguing to play is the below layer. In improvement from what The Forest had would even be fine.

In fact if you watch the movie As Above So Below. Would be a great feeling to put in a game. The cave system needs to be complex.

[DanteBrane]

Originally posted by Crix:

I thank you for all your feedback and I read them, even the Dante's.

I do hope they expand upon the cave system and let them interconnect and be a lot more complex. That's nearly what made The Forest so intriguing to play is the below layer. In improvement from what The Forest had would even be fine.

In fact if you watch the movie As Above So Below. Would be a great feeling to put in a game. The cave system needs to be complex.

Thanks for reading my TED Talk lol. Caves are almost half the idea of the game, they really should consider showing them the most love as they develop the game.

[Tebeas]

Originally posted by Crix:

I thank you for all your feedback and I read them, even the Dante's.

I do hope they expand upon the cave system and let them interconnect and be a lot more complex. That's nearly what made The Forest so intriguing to play is the below layer. In improvement from what The Forest had would even be fine.

In fact if you watch the movie As Above So Below. Would be a great feeling to put in a game. The cave system needs to be complex.

Do no get your hopes up. As I already mentioned they have no reason to ever expand on the caves and on the game itself. Considering that the game was in development for.. 4? 5? Years the current cave system will most likely not be expanded upon, as it is more or less what they envisioned

[Slicer [OSL)]

I rly hope they will expand and fill up new stuff like caves and diving stuff. more POI`s. i played The Forest few days ago and theres plenty stuff to do and build. and for example this map in SoF has plenty of space to put stuff in. so it would be amazing to get hands on more content until they will hopefully release another Forest title

[Philthie]

Originally posted by Crix:

It's difficult to read reviews on Steam as the majority are, I would set my self on fire" 10/10 would set my on fire again." and other like minded reviews.

Reviews like this along with guides are plaguing the Steam reviews and guide sections.

So I'd ask here any one who has more then 40 hours in The Forest and can either link me or write their review here?

If you don't feel like it here , then would you recommend it? I see it's an obvious "Very Positive" but I have a feeling much of that is just from hype and people don't actually play the game just bandwagon. I see Twitch game plays and people are just building and not doing much else. Is exploration enjoyable like The Forest?

"An entire new experience from the makers of The Forest"

Except its like, practically identical to The Forest. I feel ripped off until they update it to actually have more stuff in it. IMHO it should definitely not have released as EA and should have waited for full release.