SONS OF THE FOREST IS A WORTHY SEQUEL TO THE FOREST

BY BRENDEN BARLETT

Imagine surviving a terrible disaster only to end up isolated and alone in some unknown forest, forced to learn how to hunt and build as well as survive the elements and wildlife. Except, as time progresses, it turns out something or someone is out there, and they may have some irregular hunting tendencies, tendencies that cause the hunter to become the hunted.

This is just a brief synopsis of the plot of “The Forest,” a 2014 open-world horrorsurvival game on Playstation and PC, where either solo or co-op, players traverse an isolated peninsula, search for missing passengers from the plane crash they survived, and defend themselves against a variety of cannibals and mutant humans.

“The Forest” has a 10/10 with 394,539 reviews on Steam. That said, as of February 23, 2023, “The Forest’s” long-anticipated sequel, “Sons of the Forest,” is in early access, begging the question of whether or not the Sequel is worth the buy.

“I’ll just say this right off the bat,” said Jacob Forrester, a junior at WHS, “it’s easily a ten out of ten for me.”

Forrester bought “Sons of the Forest” the day it was released for 30 USD on Steam and quickly started playing it with two friends.

“It is a beautiful game, and the building system is great,” Forrester said. “You can basically build anything you want, which is pretty different from ‘The Forest.’”

In both games, players use a “survivalist guide” that helps them learn designs for things to build or craft. The difference, however, is that players in “The Forest” lay out a recipe that they fill in with materials. In “Sons of the Forest,” players can simply place things how they want, and using imagination in their building is heavily rewarded.

“The only thing is,” Forrester said, “since it’s still in early access there is still a lot a building options and other things from the first game that have yet to be added, but I’m sure they will add a lot more things over time”

While playing both “The Forest” and “Sons of the Forest,” Forrester played alongside fellow junior at WHS, Bryden Barlett. Teaming up to play each game has made it both easier to progress in each game and identify the best and worst aspects of Endnight Games’ two titles.

“It is definitely better with friends.” Barlett said. “I feel like the game is kind of only three fourth’s baked so far, but it functions.”

Forrester and Barlett both experienced some performance issues throughout playing. Forrerster said he faced a sort of lag during the game’s initial cutscene, while Barlett faced the occasional stutter and physics issue. It is worth noting that

Barlett’s Graphics Card is a RX 6700 XT.

“When I would chop down trees, if the logs would roll and hit a surface of water they would randomly bounce like three feet.” Barlett said. “If they would bounce further they could sometimes even just glitch out of the world entirely.”

Overall, the two did not face any game breaking bugs or performance issues and as Forrester hinted at, a lot will likely improve as the game develops throughout Early Access. After all, “The Forest” spent four years in Early Access (2014-2018) before its official release, so “Sons of the Forest” may experience similar treatment throughout the years to come.

Moving on from the few issues the game currently has, perhaps its most interesting aspect is its horror elements. Make no mistake, “Sons of the Forest” is a horror game, and navigating the worldspace, especially during the night or winter (yes the game has a seasons system) can be especially intimidating.

“Yeah, it is scary, man.” Barlett said, “this one time, Jacob [Forrester] and I were in this dark cave. We could barely see and we only had lighters to light the area for us, and these tiny baby cannibal things appeared and crawled around attacking us. There were also these faceless men and people with wide open mouths attacking us too.”

Perhaps what makes Endnight Games’ titles work is their unique blend of survival with horror. There are games that throw players into the wilderness and force them to survive, “The Long Dark” being a fine example; There are games that take man-kind and twist it into something sinister that makes players uncomfortable and always mindful of their surroundings such as “Outlast 2.”

“Sons of the Forest’s” combination of these ideas does not disappoint and is why “Sons of the Forest” is more than worth the buy for any fans of Survival, horror, or crafting games.