The Forest – PC Game Review

You survive a plane crash and see your son carried off by savages. Forced to scrounge, gather, build and survive in an attempt to venture out and rescue your son from his abductors, the horrors you face along the way are far from human.

Story

I started my first play through on easy difficulty. I wanted the option to check out the building mechanics and game play before being blind sided by mutant baddies in an attempt to establish my base. The game starts out as you would expect, your character is involved in a plane crash and you briefly see your son being abducted before blacking out once more.

The mission of The Forest is to survive long enough and find clues that lead towards your son’s whereabouts. You will quest over mountains, in caves and even build a raft to transgress bodies of water in the search for your lost loved one.

Graphics

The graphics in The Forest are absolutely stunning. It does remind me partially of other survival based games with the game mechanics and crafting system, but does have unique elements in both of these areas as well.

Numerous graphics in The Forest are based on scanned data from real life. Caves, rocks, trees etc.. were captured and then scanned into the game to create a level of realism that is not usually common in video games. You can read the full interview with Ben Falcone, creative force behind The Forest on unity3d.

Gameplay

After you awake, you must scrounge through the wreck site for backpacks and suitcases collecting everything that you can find. Armed with your trusty ax you then venture forth in to filling the basic needs of survival… shelter, water and food.

I suggest you build a shelter quickly and fashion some sort of weapon other than the ax. The spear is an effective tool against cannibals and can keep them at a distance. Once your shelter is secure, sourcing water and food is paramount. If you can find a turtle, kill it and take its shell. This will allow you to make a catch basin that collects clean drinkable water. Turtles can mainly be found on the shore lines surrounding the island.

Make sure to keep a lookout for patrols while scavenging and collecting your resources. Cannibal patrols typically come in groups on three and can be difficult to kill when you first start out due to the lack of armor and weapons.

Sounds / Music

The sounds in The Forest are utterly terrifying. Imagine this… you are relaxing in your log hut with a cozy fire and maybe some fresh animal meat that was harvested earlier that day. Out of nowhere, dark and alone, you hear maniacal giggling and random screaming coming from an unknown direction. It is pitch black outside, you do not have a torch and your lighter casts minimal light.

My plan was to hunker down and just wait the night out in my safe log cabin… so wrong I was. The cannibals will poke and prod. run away, then come back teasing, laughing and taunting in hopes you will leave your safe haven. Unaware of how many there are and knowing that you are a noob that just started this adventure.. you sit there in the dark, crying inside as the tormenting continues through the night.

I later found that you can extinguish your fire and they will go away if there is no movement / noises coming from the cabin but this first night was absolutely horrific.

Time To Learn

If you have played other crafting games then the time to learn The Forest is very minimal. With that being said, the time to master can be pretty long as you have to craft and fortify to protect against enemies and mutants. At every step you are vulnerable when venturing out from your base and constantly having to keep your head on a swivel.

Would I recommend?

I would definitely recommend The Forest if you are a fan of the horror genre and love survival games. The Forest, like others in this category can be down right terrifying at times. This is a caution to those thinking this is just another builder sim game.

You can pick up a digital copy of The Forest on Humble Bundle here

If you happen to be a console gamer, The Forest should be in your playstore available for digital download.

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