This game is the best! So atmospheric. There I was, in the cursed forest realising I'm on the forest floor foresting. No recollection of where I am I stagger my way to the local abandoned building. A broom startles me. I run away. After some heavy breathing I return. See a knife on the table and realise I'm weaponless. Grab the carrot next to it. Examine carrot and realise it a delicacy for some but its not for me. Leave area. Light things on fire. See shadow animals. Fall off cliffs. Get a bunch of steam achievements! Super fun not knowing where you`re going and have no way to keep direction. Grinding Immersion.

Mysterious grunting from the treelines, scarecrows that move when you're not looking and monstrous rabbits lurking in cavernous burrows; The Cursed Forest is a pleasant break from half mutant serial killers stalking medical facilities and zombie hordes interrupting your attempts at deciphering another bewildering crafting system.
In its early stages, the game has all the atmosphere of a morbid children's story from the early 20th century, pointing you into the heart of the titular forest and inviting you to discover the eerie lore within. There's nothing so intense or vulgar as blood or guts on display here; the mood is held together by tales of disappearing villages, phantom deer and monsters that lurk in the lake and is far more of an exploratory experience than it is a QTE masher.
Very promising indeed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wj7g7sCf4t0

I ended up playing TWO brand-new horror games tonight. The other one was your typical, generic, steaming-pile-of-dog-turd whipped up overnight by some enterprising (read: cynical and money-driven) fourteen year-old (its name is "BlackShadows", in case you have a few bucks you don't have the heart to simply flush straight down the toilet). The other one...was this. Suffice it to say, this one won. By a looooooooong margin...

To say that this (still very) Early Access game shows "potential" would be as self-evident as saying that Michael Bay needs to be drawn-and-quartered in a public square (before posting said footage all over YouTube-land as evidence of what we civilised folk do to people who can't even make GIANT ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ROBOT movies remotely exciting). Already, this game has more to offer than the vast majority of other "horror" games released onto Steam since, well...since basically all this Greenlight and Early Access nonsense started up, to be honest.

Rest assured, for once, this ISN'T just some "small development team" (read: one dude in his bedroom) who's whipped up a quick trailer and some semi-snazzy screenshots to dupe the idiot consumer (read: me) into giving them money for something which they put together in one afternoon (and maybe a tiny bit of the evening). Nosirree. The attention to detail in this game will make your JAW DROP. Why are there small rocks falling on me from above? Look up...holy ♥♥♥♥, there's a skinny, creepy-assed black figure with red eyes running over a stone bridge above me! Wonder what happens if I wade any further into this lake? Holy old Jesus, I'm actually SWIMMING, in first-person no less, and what the...I've just been eaten by a GIANT FISH!! And all this in just my first hour of casually wandering about and wondering exactly what I'm doing, but honestly, it's all so splendidly atmospheric and immersive that I frankly don't GIVE a damn!!!

If only all Early Access games were this promising. It's obviously hard to give it a very definitive verdict yet, not least of all because disaster could still strike and the entire production team might all spontaneously combust, but at least we know these guys are in it for the RIGHT reasons. Trust me, you only need play this for ten or twenty minutes to work THAT much out. Oh, and for those of you out there who like comparisons? The games this reminds me of the most, thus far, are Among the Sleep and Kholat, with a hearty dose of fairytale-esque shenanigans added to the pot. This is definitely shaping up to be one of THE horror games of 2015. Or...2016, or whenever it gets finished. One game which might actually be worth the trouble of holding your breath over.

Verdict: 9/10.

I strongly don't recommend to buy this game right now!

1) Crashes and freezes. During 30 minutes of gameplay game crashed 3 times.
2) The game is very short.
3) Bad optimization. Fraps shows about 30-40 fps. And this is on my gtx 980!
4) Bad saving system. It doesn't work properly.
5) A LOT OF bugs with collisions. Also there are some parts of the level, where you can fall out of the map.
6) The game is VERY DARK. In the beginning it's ok, but then...

Screamed so hard last night while playing my dad woke up and beat my ass

so scary :|

First of all I must say that I didn't encounter a single bug or crash while playing this game so I'm glad that the game seems to be updated after the Early Access.

Second I need to tell you that I'm a very very easy scared person. I jump on my chair just a bird fly in front of me. So Yes that I adventure myself playing alone in the dark a horror game still surprises me. But I truly enjoy the genre.

But The Cursed Forest is not a common horror game. It's much more than that. It's captivating, intriguing and it continuously gives you the chills. There are few games that within the story can maintain a great amount of suspense, but this made a success.
Finding yourself alone, wounded and lost in a gloomy forest, you play the character in first person. The environment is very detailed made, and the sound is the main part of the game. If you close your eyes and just focus on the surroundings's sound you can almost touch the leaves, the birds and feel the haunted breathing on you.

You walk through beautiful realistic graphics, collect well-written stories, run from scary shadows, and explore empty houses.
There is almost no time limit so you can relax and breathe between the scary moments. Meanwhile you can get many fun and humorous achievements that will actually give you a good laugh!

I truly recommend it!

A beautiful piece of visual art that sets a great horror tone. Too bad there is a heavy focus on jumpscares that ruins that tone at key moments. Even though the enemies are shadow things, the game likes to show you them a lot with a blaring jumpscare noise that makes it impossible to enjoy the nice atmosphere. Maybe it gets a little better after a while but the jumpscare moments were so jarring that it would be hard for me to convince myself to pick this back up and try and get further in the story. Whoever the graphic designers, level designers, and art director were for this game, they deserve much praise.

The following review might help you to save your money or potentially to save you from a heart attack (!) ;)

Overview

The Cursed Forest is a great example of how to create an immersive environment and uncanny atmosphere in a horror game because that what makes this game truly stand out among many similar titles in its genre. Initially. the original version of the game was developed by a Russian guy Andrey KPy3O Suhachev who's contrived to make it single-handadly on Cryengine 3 Game SDK Afterwards, engine's version has been changed several times during almost 4 year-long development process, so fortunately the final version of the game utilizes powerful but flawed CryEngine 5 at its full potential! The steam version of the game is a remake and was made by a small but dedicated team of enthusiasts and for that they have my respect. There is no doubt that this game is a labour of love and hard work! Believe me or see for yourself on youtube, The Cursed Forest looks absolutely stunning and often you find yourself just admiring the visuals perfectly accompanied by a beautiful and rich in detail level design. Not to mention the incredible atmosphere that literally takes a hold of you and doesn't let go until the final credits roll.

Narrative

The story is interesting but somewhat ordinary for this type of games and movies although it can get compelling for you at some point if you're playing in the right mood and if you know how to read overcome your laziness when it comes to reading poorly written notes in video games. Unfortunately, the game offers only a single way to absorb the narrative - written notes that can be found in all five chapters during your travel. Some of them can be easily found but some are well hidden and will require from you a more thorough exploration. The truth is looking for notes not as fun as it sounds due to sometimes excessively complex and even frustrating level design, undoubtedly fascinating and immersive but still lacking in terms of pathfinding. In sum, I liked the story and the grand finale. The game per se is a walking simulator therefore tools of storytelling are scarce and restricted by the game's mechanics. However, developer knows exactly which buttons to push to make you empathize with the characters and ponder the choices and their consequences after you finally unfold all the bits and pieces of the story.

Will the game scare the h e l l out of me?

No, it probably won't or yes if you're a sensitive person. I'd say If you are no stranger to the horror genre games, most likely you already know all the tricks and tools developers usually use in this kind of games to scare the s h i t out of you. Anyway, the Cursed Forest definitely has a few eerie and even spooky moments in store. As a good adviser, I would recommend to play in a dark room with a good pair of headphones for maximum immersion and spookiness! Although, I have to mention that for me personally a huge downside was the dark entity (ghost) itself, which in theory should be scary, right? Then why is it so damn adorable, huh? As an explanation, I may have a perverted taste when it comes to dark entities from beyond ...

Optimization/Performance

Technical side of the game on the other hand require some minor polishing and better optimization, especially in the final chapter but that is more of an engine related problem rather than a lazy developer. As far as I know the current version of the game engine is still quite poorly optimized and bug fixing is a very long and tedious process. However, there shouldn't be any issues with finishing the game and from my experience crashes are rare guests (on my memory the game crashed only once in six hours ). Performance-wise you should be able to run it at a stable 60fps most of the time if you own a decent gaming computer. In case you're struggling to apply the word "decent" to your machine be prepared to experience some fps drops during the final chapter.


Translation

In addition, a few words about the quality of writing in the game. I have decided to play in Russian version because (surprise!) the game was made by a Russian developer so I thought it would be unwise for me as a Russian to play with English language, but after reading a few notes I wasn't sure anymore what was the original language they were written. In case if it was a translation from English - it was outright bad, unskillful and amateurish one, but if it wasn't - the talented person who wrote the original scenario should be ashamed.

In conclusion, I would definitely recommend The Cursed Forest for all horror game/movie lovers out there with balls nerves of steel! The game is easily worth the full price and chances are you won't be disappointed with your choice. The gloomy and dark atmosphere of The Cursed Forest with attention to detail and the heartbreaking story, slowly unfolding as you wander trough the woods full of mystery and dark secrets undoubtedly will leave a trace in your memory. Oh, and one last thing I almost forgot to mention, the game has a funny but bizarre thing about toilets that are strategically placed in each of five chapters and if you dare to venture inside you'll get an achievement (5 in total). In that regard, I had no other choice but to upload the screenshot of the most "risky endeavor"!

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1683455075

Pros and Cons

+
• Opportunity to visit every single toilet in all of five chapters (with achievements)
  
• Beautiful visuals perfectly matching an eerie and uncanny atmosphere
  
• Immersive and rich in detail level design with multiple routes
  
• Ambient sounds and soundtrack, especially in the final chapter
  
• Original and unexpected jump scares with elements of dark humor
  
• Decent story with a grand finale
  
  -
  
• Excessively complex and sometimes vague level design (arguable)
  
• Design and animations of the dark entity during jump scares and cut scenes
  
• Scarce narrative and lack of tools for storytelling
  
• Poor optimization during the final chapter
  
• Poor language or amateurish translation of written notes

Thank you for reading and until next time!

The Cursed Forest is very interesting horror adventure game. Story is that, you are received message what write your mother now in hospital, so you decided you must go to your mother so fast how you can. Because this reason, you decided use the shortest road, which is very old. For your bad luck you something jumped in front of car and you to avoid a crash, turned to off-road and crashed somewhere deep in forest. This forests dark, full with mystic and maybe dangerous. You got a chance to explore this forest and solve all mysteries.

While you play a game you can fell a very good horror atmosphere, its atmosphere is created with a dark forest and good sound support. When you walk you found in some places thing what you should pick up and the notes what contain a strange stories about a forest. In all time you fell that someone watching you and follow all your steps. The graphic style is also good, fully harmonic with a horror style. Control system also good, enough easy, so this shouldn’t do any problem while you play.
So my verdict

+good horror atmosphere
+scary moments
+steam things(steam achievements, trading cards)
+CryEngine
+interesting stories about that what happened in a forest
+good sounds

-early access (so because this now only one chapter can you play)
-some bugs (but after EA this also been solved I think)


So i think its good horror adventure game what a bit looks like a walking simulator. Game have a very good atmosphere and sounds, but graphic also not bad. And don’t forget, about notes what you find in forest, they have a very interesting stories. So if you like horror games, or you like for example Amnesia, Penumbra and other same game, its game for you. Even this game is now in Early Access this absolute worth this price, because it’s can be only better than now when get all chapters and been finally released. At the moment the gameplay about 50 minute, at the final it’s been about 4 hours.

9/10

Some video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RB7aBfnByaQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSSoBVJSIx8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpu2lRsyJDE

Some screen by me:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=562092495
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=562092484
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=562092472
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=562092450
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=562092462