Sons of the Forest Review (Rusty)
Spoiler free review, I won't say anything that hasn't been showed by endnight prior to the game release
Tldr - 8/10 as a forest fan, 6/10 overall. The early access shows its teeth a bit, but it's bearable and is a very fun experience with friends. Took us this long to beat it without trying specifically to beat it.
I am what I call a purist, in that I like to experience a game to it's fullest and in the way the developers intended. With that said, the forest was the perfect game for me as it didn't make me do anything and let me do everything myself. Do not get this game if you prefer any kind of guidance in a game. It doesn't hold your hand, it doesn't tell you what to do or how to do it, and that's exactly what endnight wanted.
Now, the elephant in the room; early access. This was the right call over delaying the game again, and it's still a very playable and enjoyable experience. Some bugs my group encountered were
- Log duplication
- Resin duplication
- We had one singular enemy jump through a wall once
- Numerous bugs with the shotgun
- Virginia (more below)
All of these we found a way to work around or simply didn't exploit, but they could be exploitable. Don't let the early access turn you off the game though, it's still great and will only get better.
Kelvin is my absolute favorite addition and is a great companion, though he's very literal and as such people have had complains (such as chopping down their treehouse tree when told to clear an area). He works really well overall, and is super fun to have along.
Virginia would be a great addition...........if she worked properly. I can't tell if she is supposed to travel with you, or defend your home, but she seemed to try and do both and neither at the same time. I did achieve max bond with her, and even still rarely saw her as she teleported around the map and just hung out at random places, only showing up at our base every once in a while. Everything about her mechanically is great, but something is very wrong with her ai.
The building is a big step up from the first game, I'll let you see for yourself
The weapons are excellent, each and every one of them. None feel unusable and the strong ones feel strong. It's always a great feeling to find a new piece of equipment and things never feel useless.
The story is a bit of a downgrade from the first, but not in that the story itself is bad. It's just very scattered. In the first game you were putting together puzzle pieces for a grand finale at the end that made you understand exactly what happened, whereas here it's more like you glued a bunch of puzzle pieces together and have a vague understanding of what the puzzle was supposed to be. Still not bad though.
I am super happy they put a custom difficulty thing in the game, and as such I won't speak on difficulty as it's all customizable. The seasons work really well (anybody saying they happen instantly slept through the night and didn't see the snow buildup, etc) I will say that the fights are a lot more fair than the first game. Cannibals will block your attacks and dodge out of the way, it's not just you flailing wildly with an axe. Big guys will knock you down with their hits, and the mutants are not just bullet sponges anymore, they feel like proper survival horror mutants now.
This game is unbelievably fun with friends that like to just mess around and explore, not speedrun. By yourself I'd say it's better than the first, but still not amazing. The map is beautiful, although I've heard some reports about performance issues, so I hope that gets ironed out. To anyone with really high performing hardware, make sure you're not on integrated graphics, I saw a guy with a 3080ti saying he was getting less than 30 fps on all lowest settings, which just isn't possible. The game is exactly what it looks like in trailers, if not a little better.
Overall, know what you're getting into. This is the perfect game for a purist such as myself, but people who like to beat games quick may want to pass on this one. With friends it can still be a blast though. If you liked the first game, you'll be pleasantly surprised.