The Forest

• Chop down trees to build a camp, or start a fire to keep warm. Scavenge food to keep yourself from starving.
• Build a small shelter or a large ocean side fortress. Lay traps and defenses to keep a safe perimeter.
• Explore and build during the day. Defend your base at night. Craft weapons and tools. Bunker down during the evening or bring the fight directly to the enemy.
• Defend yourself against a clan of genetic mutant enemies that have beliefs, families, morals and that appear almost human.
• Use stealth to evade enemies, or engage them directly with crude weapons built from sticks and stones.

The Forest is often called a pure survival game, but it's just basic survival horror. The game has a food & water requirement, but I can't imagine how you can starve in the game with easy access to resources. 

There's no inventory management to speak of; you collect everything on some giant ass magical tarp. So really, the only impactful feature is the creepy AF mutant things that try and murder you. So. Survival horror. Good story, though!

I have a weird love/hate/love relationship with The Forest. On paper, the game is everything I never wanted to enjoy or like: jump scares, gore, and terrible things that creep into your house at night. And yet, after hysterically laughing anytime someone mentioned the game to me, I jumped into it with my sister a couple of years ago.

It was as terrible as I assumed it would be, and yet. We had a lot of fun. It’s one of the few sandbox-style survival games I’ve played where I’ve both completed AND paid attention to the story. While my main focus in these games is never building – beyond the building necessary to secure my belongings and my body- friends who DO value building are full of praise for the building mechanics in this game. I must admit I loooove the drag/extend to lay out a fence mechanic. So helpful. Not that it helps me make my fences straight, but that’s a different issue. The combat, atmosphere, enemy AI, and survival-esque elements all combine to make the game a weirdly pleasurable experience – within all the horror.

Pick it up. Bring a friend. Have fun.

Website Changelog

• 3/14/23- Changelog added.