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In this review of The Forest on the Valve Index we will tell you more about the survival horror game that takes place on a seemingly unpopulated island. With its beautiful scenery and dark secrets that hide in the woods you are sure to spend countless hours roaming around. In total we played the game on normal difficulty for 35 hours and had an amazing time building, surviving and exploring.
These are some of the pros and cons that we found interesting.
Pros | Cons |
+ Great physics | - Confusing controls |
+ Looks amazing in VR | - No more updates since 2019 |
+ Realistic survival mechanics |
Here is some general information about The Forest:
Age rating | 18+ |
Languages | English, French, German, Czech, Finnish, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese - Brazil, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Swedish, Traditional Chinese, Turkish, Italian, Spanish - Spain |
Game length | 15+ hours |
Size on disk | 5.54GB |
Genre | Action, Adventure, Indie, Simulation |
Release Date | 30th of April 2018 |
Game Studio | Endnight Games Ltd |
Multiplayer/co-op/single-player | Single-player and online co-op |
Platform compatibility | Steam VR |
Headset Compatibility | PC VR headsets, Standalone with possibility to connect to a PC |
Minimum PC specifications | OS: Windows 7 Processor: Intel Dual-Core 2.4 GHz Memory: 4 GB RAM Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 8800GT DirectX: Version 9.0 Storage: 5 GB available space |
Price (not on sale) | €16,79 |
The Forest is an immersive story-driven survival game that places a heavy emphasis on exploration. From its gripping opening cutscene, the game sets the tone and draws players into its atmospheric world. After being trapped on the island your one goal is to find your son and escape.
With a focus on primitive combat, players will face a variety of challenges while uncovering the intriguing storyline that unfolds gradually throughout the game. The Forest offers a unique blend of survival mechanics and narrative, creating an engaging experience from start to finish. Prepare to navigate the mysteries of the wilderness and discover the secrets that lie within The Forest.
In The Forest you will realize that during the night time without any light source you won’t be able to see much at all. The player does have a lighter which provides a little bit of illumination just enough to get you through the night. Despite the age of the game the textures don’t look low quality and the map features a lot of foliage, fauna and flora. Even when compared to games released in the current day it ages very well.
Text is readable on items that can be picked up and nothing looks pixelated. Running through the woods and exploring caves feels very natural with the leaves blowing in the wind and birds chirping. Swinging weapons feels satisfying but not too realistic, a bit weightless since stamina isn’t affected. The game’s physics aren’t too advanced and can mess up sometimes which causes logs ro fly away. There are quite a lot more small glitches but most aren’t game breaking.
As you start your game you will be presented with a cutscene that introduces the story. Immediately after a very short tutorial will guide you. As soon as you leave the starting area you’re on your own. The story isn’t integrated into the survival aspect of the game 100% of the time since the player can choose when to follow the storyline. It is not separated into chapters, you can progress whenever you feel like you are ready for it.
Upon starting the game you’re able to set the difficulty to: normal, hard, hard survival. The creative game mode is unlocked after completion of the story. The game gives a lot of freedom to the player which we found to be a good decision of the developers. When playing alone the game can be a bit hard but the difficulty dramatically lowers as soon as you play with another player. After about three days you’ll be able to fully defend yourself from hordes of enemies.
When first playing the game and the night falls you will be on edge. The forest noises become a bit more scary and faint human yet creature-like noises seem to creep closer. If you don’t have a bed by that point the night will be long and quite scary. During the day the focus mainly lies on gathering resources and hunting to start building a base. For us this was the most fun and rewarding part of the game, getting to build your own place and customize it as much as you want.
Story wise the game doesn’t have much of a replay value even though there are multiple endings. If you enjoyed the survival aspect of the game then replaying this would be worth it, build out your base to a massive scale and conquer the world of The Forest. The last update added VR support for The Forest back in September of 2019. The reason for V1.12 – VR being the last update is the now released sequel Sons of the Forest.
Here are some alternative games that we think you will enjoy.
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The Forest is a thrilling and immersive survival horror game that offers a unique and intense gaming experience. With its atmospheric setting and engaging gameplay mechanics, it keeps players engaged throughout the game. On our immersion scale we rate this game a solid 8.5/10.
Can I play The Forest without a VR headset?
Yes, the game can be played without VR on the PlayStation 4 and PC.
Is there a story or narrative in The Forest?
Yes, The Forest features a storyline that unfolds as players explore the game world.
Is the new Sons of the Forest VR compatible?
So far Sons of the Forest doesn’t support VR.
