Sons Of The Forest Reviews

[h3]If you're considering getting this game, get it in sale.[/h3] This is basically going to be a long rant. If you have the time to read it all, feel free. If not, [u]the TL;DR is that it's not a terrible game or anything, but it's also not great.[/u] Especially after the impact of the first game, this game was utterly disappointing, to me. [hr][/hr] [b] The environment: [/b] It feels like there was a period where a lot of games thought that a big open world would make the game a lot better, when in reality it didn't. That goes for this game as well. The world is huge, which gives a lot to explore - except there isn't much to explore. There are a camps spread around, but they are mostly the same. Some of them are special, but there aren't many of them. There are a couple of lore scenes spread around, which are so small they're easy to miss and really don't even tell that much. I was still happily surprised when I found them, but also had the disappointing feeling of "is this all?". Interesting finds get boring quickly with repeated assets and lack of unique decorations. Other than that, there's just a lot of nature. It does look great in this game, don't get me wrong, it's just not that interesting after hours and hours of walking around. Even the caves, which are usually the most interesting bit, looked all the same to me. I couldn't tell them apart, had no idea which one I had explored and which I hadn't. In the first game I remember there were specific settings for specific caves and I was terrified of what it could hold within - in this game I was not scared at all and was honestly looking to get through it as soon as possible. I did like the seasons changing, although getting cold quickly was pretty annoying. [b] Mechanics: [/b] [u]The vehicles[/u] in this game were a lot of fun, although some a little hard to use due to the forest. Some of them I wish I could've used more, though they were uncontrollable and only worked in certain environments. Nonetheless, super fun. [u]The gear[/u] was probably one of the things I was most disappointed about. There was less of a survival aspect - less tools that needed to be crafted or upgraded with found materials. More ready to use and overpowered gear, which made no sense to me at all. I think I didn't use 60% of the gear I found. There simply was no need. [u]The building mechanic[/u] is one of the things that kind of confused me. At the start I started building a custom set of stairs, which often didn't show the arrows of placement and I had no idea why (at the time). When I finally finished it, it had felt so tedious that I didn't really want to bother with that again, despite it being an interesting mechanic. It felt hard to judge what I was free to do and which actions were limited. Instead, it was easier to build pre-determined stuff. [u]Fighting[/u] was probably one of the worst mechanics. I do realize that it's probably hard to improve and I am critical since I don't care much for it anyway. But due to the gear we found, fighting was completely uninspired. Despite the enemies now using new mechanics such as putting on armor and blocking, you can just hack at them until they fall over anyway. Stamina kind of limits that but free armor from the enemies can take all the hits while you wait for stamina to recharge. And if it seems like you're about to lose some armor - just blast them. [u]The survival mechanics[/u] are pretty good. Although annoying, it does make sure that you take time to rest, go out hunting and grab some water. It varies the gameplay and makes sure you don't or are not able to rush straight to the end. [u]Looting or scavenging[/u] was probably the most broken thing in the game. There are too many goodies in the world, which if you play multiplayer, you can also duplicate. This means an overabundance of snacks, drinks and other materials that you might need for crafting. The [u]interactable NPC's[/u] were pretty fun. Slowly befriending them and giving them stuff to do was fun. It was nice seeing them randomly walk around, chill with you or/and fight enemies alongside you. The [u]blueprints[/u] were weird. There is no scribble or explanation as to what is what. For some things, you'll find out once you build it. Most of them, no clue. Makes it super hard to find things you actually need. [b] The plot: [/b] I was so incredibly disappointed by the plot. So, so disappointing. Honestly, the first game blew me away. It was tense and scary, even disgusting, slowly and surely discovering what was happening over there. It was intense, I was fully able to piece the pieces together and understood everything. It was relatively unique and I enjoyed discovering every piece of it. In this game? I still have no clue what was going on, to be completely honest. There are several characters, maybe even groups, which have no explanation on why they're there or who they are. Maybe some minimal info, but that is it. It is roughly explained what the island is and what it's used for, though it feels very uninspired and lacking. I was able to understand and follow the chain of events that happen, though I am still left with so, so many questions. I am still debating whether it's cheese and hundreds of plotholes, or if it's a bad movie with multiple open endings. The build up got interrupted a couple of times, there weren't really a lot of big events, they weren't scary or interesting at all, rather like they were hastily put together with duck tape. I don't care for the plot or characters at all. [h3] My experience within the game [/h3] At first the world looked incredibly beautiful. We explored some stuff, looted some basic bits and it quickly became dark. We ended up dying a lot but having no way to skip the first night, which was horrible. We then set up a quick base somewhere, looted some more stuff and suddenly became overpowered. We had tons of materials, food, drinks, weapons and other things. The night mechanic and getting interrupted while trying to skip was annoying, especially since it got tedious. We needed specific items, couldn't find them and didn't want to look it up - so we spent a lot of time exploring the island and finding even more overpowered gear before even getting to where we needed to go. It became frustrating to not have any clues to where we needed to go, when afterwards we were told where to go very specifically and obviously. How did we miss those tools before, good grief. Anyway, super overpowered at this point, always topped up with full armor, stacks of bullets, bombs, grenades, arrows etc etc. No enemy killed us anymore, not even the bigger ones. Did a bunch of walking simulator, lots of skyrimming up mountains, gliding and cave diving. Find something interesting? Just a blueprint. Find something interesting? Just a note. Find something interesting? Good, now go somewhere else. Always felt like we'd found so little despite putting a lot of effort into remembering which place we hadn't fully explored and getting there. Missed the weight of cutscenes because the first player activated it and it was so short that by the time you're looking in the right place you've already missed it. Found some cool places, no lore. Got to the end without even realizing it. Have no idea what the end even meant. Had some kind of boss battle where I emptied my guns and just stood still, in the end just hacked at it with my axe and fell over a couple times, only missed half my armor in the end. Found some tool I don't really care for, messed around for a couple of minutes and then closed the game. [i]I only spent one third of the total time that I spent on The Forest on The Sons of the Forest.[/i]

This game brings back many elements from the first game while adding a few new ones. If you’ve just played the original, you might feel it’s repetitive. On the other hand, if you played it a few years ago, it will feel quite familiar since the game follows the same formula. Graphically, there are improvements, and I think the game is well-optimized. That being said, now let’s talk about the weaknesses. The game introduces very few new features, and the story didn’t fully satisfy me. While playing, you’re curious to see what happens next, but by the end, I found it somewhat disappointing. In summary, I’d rate the game 8/10. I recommend playing it with friends, as it really enhances the experience. Considering the price, it’s a fair deal, but I’d suggest waiting for a sale to get the best value. -Edit: After watching numerous videos on YouTube, I've come to realize that this game boasts a very rich storyline and effectively continues the narrative from the first title. However, the majority of the plot is unveiled through collectible items, which are easily missed by casual players. In summary, the story is excellent, and playing the first game would significantly enhance the experience and understanding of the second.

Highly recommend, it's great to play with friends, the story keeps you engaged, there's a lot to explore and build, it's super addictive! 10/10 from me :)

Sons Of the Forest is one of the best game I've played alone. I believe this game is much better when you play it with your friends. Clearly, it's an evolution of the game called The Forest and I recommend to everybody who enjoyed The Forest.

i would recommend playing this game for the game,but do not expect to be satisfied story wise as the ending is hard to digest and leaves the viewer frantickly begging for more.not because the story is good but because it doesn't explain anything.

the amount of funny moments of either trees flying, kelvin dying in all the ways possible or virginia walking into my campfire is truly amazing a bit intensive on my PC but runs fine 9/10 overall

[b]Recommendation: Mixed[/b] [b]A generally solid and sometimes impressive game, unfortunately undermined by its commitment to realism and diagetic UI.[/b] Graphics are quite impressive, though the realistic design leaves everything a bit drab and not especially visually interesting. Combat is fine, it does the job and can occasionally be fun, but generally its a bit on the bland side. Exploration can be pretty fun, but the world is almost [i]too[/i] big - there's just not enough interesting content to find. The survival part of the gameplay felt a bit underdeveloped, but not so much as to be a problem. The crafting and building systems from the first game make a return, and have been expanded upon. There's some really clever ideas in these systems, and they're generally implemented well. Once I got the hang of the building system, it was a joy to design and build a sprawling, customised base. Unfortunately, the commitment to getting rid of the UI, or making it all diagetic and realistic, comes at the cost of clarity. Most of the time I was able to figure it out with just a little bit of annoyance and grumbling. But occasionally the game would obscure the rules or content so much that it derailed the experience. For example, the building system is very impressive and flexible, but it can be very particular about the [i]order[/i] in which you place parts. You might be 95% done with your elaborate new fortress, only to find that you placed a log a few inches out of place back at the start, and now you have to tear the whole structure down. There's no way of knowing this ahead of time, nowhere to read the rules, and few or no hints in the UI. Worse, what little UI you have isn't always reliable - often you can only build things a certain way if you look at it from a very specific angle. So now you're double guessing yourself every time something doesn't work - "Is this [i]actually[/i] impossible for me to do, or is the UI just messing with me?" There are unfortunately other, similar frustrations. Not many - [i]most[/i] of the game is fine - but often enough and severe enough to counteract its good points. Things like: tools required to advance the plot are hidden in random caves, and there's no indication if you've successfully cleared out a cave, so you end up having to revisit dozens of caves to find that one item you missed 20 hours ago. Or: every NPC who approaches you for the first few hours is hostile and can easily damage your base, so you're encouraged to shoot NPCs on sight, only for the game to then throw a special NPC with major story content at your base who looks similar to the hostile NPCs and can be easily and permanently killed. (We didn't even know there [i]was[/i] such a character until after beating the game.) So, yeah. Kudos to the game for its ambitious direction, and for daring to try new things. It's just unfortunate that a few of the failures undermine many of the successes. I very nearly gave this a thumbs down, but the fact that its failures stem from trying something new just barely inches my rating over the line into a thumbs up. [b]Overall, a generally enjoyable experience, but you absolutely need to google things to get over the worst parts of it.[/b]

It has good mechanics, good base building, good exploration and survival gameplay, but the story was very disappointing. Some information about the island is revealed over time, but has little-to-no payoff. The ending was very uninspiring gameplay to go along with absolutely nonsensical lore events. The finale introduced more questions, and answers none.

Pretty good game, felt a bit harder than the first one until the golf carts. Golf carts changed the pace of the combat for me on the surface a decent amount. Had crazy horsepower too I've climbed mountains with these bad boys and wiped out entire settlements. 10/10 would ride the golf carts again

Sons of the Forest is a great game if you have someone else to play with you,building mechanics are hunderd times better than the last game,sons of the forest cannibal varieties are also better than the last game,the end they need to do a little better,one thing that annoys me a lot is that half of the achievments in sons of the forest are glitched,but overall 8/10 game