I really want to love The Forever Winter. The atmosphere, concept, art direction, and the idea of being a scavenger trying to survive in the middle of a war that doesn't revolve around you are all fantastic. This is exactly the type of game I should be able to sink hundreds of hours into.

The problem is that too often the game feels like it's fighting against you for reasons that have nothing to do with your actual decisions.

Extraction is probably my biggest issue. Some extraction timers feel ridiculous because instead of creating tension, the game can suddenly spawn a wave of enemies that completely overwhelms you. I understand that extracting shouldn't be free or easy, but there's a difference between "I made a bad decision and got punished for it" and "the game just dumped a bunch of enemies on top of me." The latter doesn't feel challenging. It feels cheap.

The knockdown/ragdoll mechanic is another example. I actually like the idea behind it. Getting hit by something powerful SHOULD knock you on your ass. The problem is that the camera can go absolutely insane when it happens. Sometimes you can't tell which direction you're facing, you get stuck against geometry, or you end up in a chain of knockdowns where you basically have no control until you're dead. At that point, I'm not thinking, "I screwed up." I'm thinking, "What exactly was I supposed to do there?"

That's ultimately my biggest problem with the game: too many deaths don't feel earned.

If I lose an expensive kit because I got greedy, picked the wrong fight, positioned badly, stayed too long, or underestimated an enemy, that's completely fair. That's exactly what a hardcore extraction game SHOULD do. Punish my mistakes.

But losing that same kit because AI suddenly spawned nearby and two-tapped me, the gunplay decided not to cooperate, or a ragdoll sent my camera into another dimension and wedged me into a wall doesn't make me want to improve. It makes me feel like I got robbed.

There's also a strange disconnect with stealth. The game constantly encourages you to behave like a scavenger rather than a super soldier, which I love, but stealth itself doesn't feel particularly rewarding from a progression standpoint. If avoiding unnecessary fights is supposed to be part of the intended experience, successfully doing that should feel rewarding too.

And that's where I think The Forever Winter still needs to decide exactly what it wants to be.

There's a significant grind here, and I'm not against grinding when the progression makes that grind worthwhile. But when you're spending hours building resources and buying expensive equipment, the game needs to make losing that equipment feel fair. Otherwise, why invest in the grind?

That's what keeps happening to me with this game. Every couple of months I reinstall or boot it back up because I genuinely WANT to like it. I see the updates, remember how incredible the concept is, and think, "Alright, let's give it another shot."

Then eventually something happens that feels completely outside of my control, I Alt+F4, and The Forever Winter goes back on the shelf for another couple of months.

There's an incredible game buried in here. I just wish the frustration came from the world being brutally difficult rather than from fighting the game's mechanics.

I don't mind getting my ass kicked.

I just want to feel like I deserved it.

I really want to like this game but in its current state its impossible

Dont even think buying this game if you want to play in coop, its completely broken, constantly softlocks you, sends you under the map and just breaks your character. It was the worst coop expirience i had in a while and it amazes me how devs blatanly ignore and let those issues exist for more that a YEAR

Solo runs are fine and mostly bug free, but devs still somehow manage to ruin your fun with completely random staggers from some basic ♥♥♥♥♥-ass enemies that turn you into a ragdoll and gun you down like a dog while you trying to stand back up

Review will stay negative untill i can play 10 uninterrupted by bugs games in coop which will probably never happen

And if you think that this ammount of problems can be excused by "bUt iTS EaRlY aCceS game" then please reconsider your life choises

I'm sure that there are valid complaints in some of the reviews, but as a player of the demo when it was released (2024) and now finally coming to play the actual game in 2026, this game is ADDICTING. I've played solo for all of my 26 hours in game. The Gunplay is better, the AI systems have been redone, and the water constraints have been addressed. An endgame where you actually get to be "that guy" EVENTUALLY for a short time or even a great asset to "that guy" (Ahem... RK himself) is the only thing the game is lacking.

MY ONLY GRIPES WITH THE GAME SO FAR: #1- Finding certain loot for missions seems like it is beyond RNG based. Going to guides online is fine with me, but I do wish that I knew that certain "rarer" items are not in the current sections I'm searching in before spending 10-15 runs looking for something that won't pop up again.

#2- Tunnel traversal/Platforming/Mantle mechanics are ANNOYING. Walking across the Bridge at Ashen Mesa, across giant wires in the tunnels, and getting over terrain features is not only anxiety inducing but it also can be inconsistent WHEN IT REALLY MATTERS. Getting chased by crawlers or drones is one thing, having to do that in the tunnels when you do not know how your next jump will land does not feel good. If there was a way to create your own more stable platforms/bridges with special materials or have timed extracts in the tunnels would maintain the difficulty of traversing the tunnels without feeling like I'm MUCH more likely to fall into the void rather than die in a firefight. Just my two cents.