Justin Counts Down To Halloween Day Twelve: Castaway But Better

After yesterday’s Siren and last week’s focus on stealth-based horror games, I figured today would be a good day to break from that with today’s game. This one has been an ever-growing game, and now with its sequel slated for next year, it is a great time to jump into today’s game…

The Forest!

The Forest is an interesting one. I remember being hyped up for its early access release in 2014. When it came up in Steam’s Greenlight in 2013, I remember checking its page almost weekly leading up to its release. Then once Early Access hit, me not really understanding what that meant was utterly disappointed when I booted it to not find a finished game. But you know what? Looking back now, I’m glad I did because it changed my expectations of the game until I played through the PlayStation 4 release a few years and found a fully finished story and game. 

So The Forest lets us live out our Castaway dreams. While Eric sits on a plane with his son Timmy, suddenly, the plane starts to crash, and Eric passes out. When he comes to, he sees his son in the arms of a mysterious figure to only pass out again. Once he opens his eyes, we are set free on this island. Searching for his son, we find clues to what has happened on this island, and let’s just say it is very surprising and incredibly riveting. 

The gameplay in The Forest is much like other survival games based around keeping your hunger and thirst meters up. But the surprising part is the more you take down trees and mess with the local flora and fauna, the locals will start to investigate and attack. The more time you spend on the island, the more horrific the creatures that come out to play. With the worst one being locked behind completing the game, and once you do, you’ll have to deal with the Worm.

One of the things I really like about The Forest is that there are so maybe building options. You can free build your day away, or you can build using these preset blueprints, and to “beat” the game, you really don’t even have to touch the building stuff. So there is this sense of freedom when you go into the building and have to fend off attacks during the night. It’s a very enjoyable game, and I can’t wait for Sons Of The Forest next year.


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