The Forest was a game that changed my perspective on the possibilities of survival horror games. Playing this years ago with some friends is one of my favorite gaming experiences of all time. I was blown away by the atmosphere, building, and horror aspects that the game had integrated, and the exploration and story elements were a complete surprise to me.
I had no clue how deep the game was and once we got to exploring the cave systems, my respect for the game was unparalleled if you know anything about the development process that The Forest went through, it makes the game even more impressive.
When the game releases, there is no doubt that we will be recording a fully-fledged podcast episode on the game, so if you enjoy gaming podcasts and generally our gaming views, we highly recommend checking out CuboldCast and waiting for that drop.
In the meantime though, we can only speculate so much on how the game will turn out, but there are definitely some game mechanics, story elements, and support options that we want to be added to the game, so in our opinion, here are the 10 things that we need in the new Sons of The Forest game.
Terror Elements
Something that I wasn’t really prepared for when first playing the first Forest game was the sheer terror that the game successfully pulls off.
Whether it was running through the forest at night and hearing the pitter patter of the bare feet running beside you, or going deep into the caves only to find that there’s an Armsy barreling towards you.
Even the small nuance sounds in the atmosphere are horrifying. If you were to sit in the forest either during the day or at night, the sounds of the forest are just eerily unsettling, considering you are all alone and what terrifying creatures reside on the island with you.
Our hope is that the Sons of The Forest releases with just as much or even more terror elements in the game. The type of terror we want isn’t scripted jump scares or scary music playing constantly, but an accurate description of what’s happening around you.
Means the forest sounds lonely and the knowledge of not knowing what could be around you will just eat away at you. We want a terrifying atmosphere where unscripted events happen, where you could run into a creature out of nowhere. Those experiences are what made the first Forest game stand out in the survival horror genre.
From what little we see in the trailers and gameplay footage that we currently have, the game looks very scary and the caves seem to have been a huge focus in the development process, which is a good sign that the developers know what made the first game scary.
I have high hopes that the game will be just as if not more terrifying than the first Forest game, and if that’s the case, I am more than happy to experience even more nightmare-inducing moments when it releases.
Keep The Vulnerability
While we are on the topic of horror and keeping the second game scary and atmospheric, one thing that I am unsure will remain is the vulnerability aspect.
Something that made the first game unique is that you started out with nothing, and even in the late game when you had all the armor and weapons, you still felt underpowered and vulnerable to the creatures around you.
This was such a charming element that I personally loved because you couldn’t just mow down enemies and you didn’t feel invincible. You had to play out your situations smart and if you were outnumbered, you really had to just gun it for the base and hope you don’t get killed on the way there.
From what we have seen in the footage that we have, there seems to be more access to weapons and guns than you had in the first game, which I am all for, my only concern is that they may make the gameplay easier than in the first game.
There was a gun in the first game but it wasn’t all that great and usually, you would result to using an ax, spear, or bow. I am excited to see the evolution of gunplay in the second Forest game, but I just hope that they raise the enemy difficulty or increase the number of enemies so that if in the case that you do get access to better weapons, you still feel vulnerable.
Balance The Weapons
Going hand in hand with the previous point, I hope that the weapons and overall equipment in the game are balanced. The first game has a great variety of weapons and tools that all had their own purpose and use cases.
If I was fighting a regular cannibal, I would most likely use something like a spear or ax, but when fighting an armsy, the dynamite and bows would come out. With the increase in weapons and undoubtedly, the increase in tools that will be a part of the new game, I just hope that things still remain to have their purpose and that every item is there for a reason.
As for the balancing portion, I remember in the first game, I and my friends were able to skip a large part of the journey in progressing through the story because we utilized the basically non-existent fall damage that the turtle shells offered.
I won’t say exactly what this was but there is a staple location on the map and in order to get there, you need to traverse the caves to get there, but my friends and I were able to get there with the turtle shell.
Although I didn’t mind having this shortcut, I kind of hope that things are balanced and the newly added tools and more effective weapons that get added don’t feel too powerful.
More Incredible Game Physics
The Forest was a game that pushed the boundaries of in-game mechanics in my mind. The chopping down of a tree and the water and other interactive physics in the game were better than most triple-A developers could do.
The development process of the forest wasn’t an easy one so when it was released with these seriously impressive physics, it made my respect for the game skyrocket. Even though the graphics and some of the physics may not be as impressive by today’s standards, the game still holds up incredibly well.
From the footage we have seen so far, the physics and graphics look unreal. The wood chopping, base building, and that one shoveling scene had me so impressed it was an actual talking point with my friends on how excited we were to see the game physics.
I already know the game is going to have incredible physics but I want this game to push the envelope and become iconic for physics as the first game did.
More NPC Interactive Options
Yet another element of the first Forest game was the different ways you could interact with the cannibals on the island. Although most people will result in fighting them when encountered, there have been some people on YouTube who actually formed a relationship with them.
You can even get to the point where they won’t attack you, and it’s so weird to think that that is a thing in a game. Most of the time NPCs are just programmed in a way to do what they are there to do, either talk and interact with you, or try and kill you, but there are multiple ways to interact with the cannibal society.
This was yet another huge improvement in the game space that I hadn’t seen done before. I hope we see even more opportunities like this in the second Forest game. Although we had these interesting options in the first game, I feel most of the time the NPCs were there to antagonize you.
What I would love to see, is multiple ways of interacting with the creatures or monsters or whatever we see in the second game. Maybe even ways of making relationships with certain factions or creatures that could affect your appearance to others. I don’t know, I don’t want that to be a massive focus but I would love for there to be even more ways of interaction.
We Need More Bosses
If you spent any amount of time playing the first Forest game then you probably ran into one of the many giant mutants and creatures in the game. Although these enemies weren’t exactly bosses, they still felt like it, and my friends and I had to band together in order to kill the larger enemies.
Not only do you experience those types of enemies but “spoiler alert” you also get to fight an incredible boss at the end of the game. That ending boss was a complete surprise in my first play through and although it wasn’t the greatest boss in a video game, I really enjoyed having that experience.
I don’t want the second Forest game to become a game with scripted bosses all over the place, but I definitely would love to see even more of the larger creature mini-bosses roaming the map and I wouldn’t be opposed to seeing more of the large scripted bosses either.
I think if it’s done well, a healthy evolution of more bosses naturally blended into the gameplay would be a welcome change.
Crossplay Support
Now, this one is not all that important for some of us but for some, this could really be a deciding factor in getting the game. For me, if the game stays on Steam, I wouldn’t be opposed to that, partially because I love Steam.
I have seen some players asking for the ability to play the game across multiple different platforms. I do agree that it is nice to play some of these types of Co-op games with friends that don’t have a PC. I’ve always been a supporter of cross-play support and although it isn’t necessary for the second Forest game, this could be a great feature for a lot of people.
Steam Workshop Support
I’m not exactly one that would take advantage of this but I am all for adding Steam Workshop support to games. One of my most played games on steam is Black ops 3, and the only reason for that is because of the modded zombies maps that the community has made.
Now, the first Forest game doesn’t even have steam workshop support as of me recording this video and it doesn’t seem likely, so the chances of us getting support in the second Forest game seem slim, but not impossible.
The Forest has always had some sandbox-type aspects and especially with the graphical upgrades and physics improvements, I think the possibility of having workshop support would open up a vast amount opportunities.
For me, I’ll enjoy the game no matter what support it comes with but I have to agree that if it has workshop support, after beating the game and maybe playing it through another time or two, I would love to see what the community can make and explore more fun ways to play the game.
VR Support
The Forest can be an absolutely horrifying experience when playing on your PC, and it’s even more of a terror when played in VR. If you don’t believe me, either try it yourself or watch some YouTubers try the game in VR.
The first Forest game didn’t originally have support for VR but it eventually came out. I suspect that this will most likely be the case for the Sons of The Forest. I would be all for having VR come out when the game releases, but realistically, I think it’ll be released at a later date.
The developer would most likely need to tighten up some things and put out some updates and fixes before delving into the various problems that could come with porting a game to VR, but I think it’s safe to assume VR will be coming to the game and I really hope it does.
Mystery
Lastly, I want one of the most intriguing features of the first game to remain true in the second release, the Mystery. I went into playing this game knowing nothing about it. I thought it was just a survival game, I didn’t even know about the horror aspect of the game until I played it.
Getting to experience and uncover all of the secrets and mysteries with my friends in real-time has made the Forest stand out among all of the other games that I have played. I thought I had the game figured out after building my first base and exploring the majority of the caves, but the game never failed to continue to surprise me with more story and lore.
Which, the lore of the game was also just as captivating as the story. I loved getting those little drawings and finding out more about the island and its history. I really had no clue what was happening and the ending of the game was a complete surprise.
We know a lot of the story now and where we are continuing, but I hope that wherever the game takes us, there is more mystery and lore than we could’ve ever imagined. It may just be me but I like when I don’t have everything figured out in a game. I trust the developers have a great plan for the story and the remaining lore of the series and for me, the more mystery and intrigue, the better.
