“The Forest” is a new game on Steam that’s currently in Early Access phase. The game is touted as a survival horror simulator with crafting, defense, and first-person combat elements. The version we played was an Alpha release, so bugs and visual anomalies are expected.
The game starts out without any dialogue. You are a passenger on a jumbo jet, and you see a small child next to you asleep, presumably the character’s son. You cannot get up and move around, but shortly after taking in the scenery does the plane has trouble, and you look in horror as the front of the plane is ripped off, revealing an open front area, which lets you see your quick descent into the wilderness below.
When you wake up, you see some sort of native covered in white paint or clay pick up the small male child and walk away from the wreckage. This is when you are given control of the player.
Starting Out
You start out hungry and tired, which are game-play elements that you will be constantly fighting throughout the game. Much of what you need immediately can be picked up in what’s left of the airplane cabin: airplane meals, medication, and alcohol (for crafting) which are picked up by focusing your mouse over it and pressing the “E” key.
On the way out, you notice an airline emergency axe embedded in the chest of a flight attendant. I stood there for a good few minutes tenaciously tapping the “E” key but I couldn’t retrieve the necessary tool. As I walked over the body, my character automatically picked up this necessary weapon, which also helps gather resources needed to craft survival tools.
More resources can be gathered around the wreckage (which looks like was just gently placed in the scenery). Suitcases are locked, but you can smash them open with your axe and get their precious loot.
You have a handy survival guide which serves as your “Crafting Table”. There are different categories of survival tools, such as fire, shelters, tools, and weapons. You click on the thing you want to build, and a transparent model of the item appears to be placed on the ground. You then “build up” the item by pressing “E”, and the raw materials needed to build it are automatically removed from your inventory and a message below the item shows if you’re missing anything.
You also can view your inventory by pressing “I”. You have access to a crappy Bic lighter, which can start fires and also lights your way in dark areas. Adding to the realism is that the lighter barely produces a flame and goes out, requiring multiple restarts (which thankfully is handled automatically).
No time to waste!
The first instinct is to explore around. You need to gather resources and start crafting survival things. You can kill lizards and bunnies to cook for food later, gather rocks and sticks to build a fire and shelter. You are apparently in such a remote area that birds are not afraid of you, as they will even sit on your finger. While you can kill the birds with your axe, they cannot be used for food. It is better to pull their feathers for crafting materials. You can use your axe to get small sticks and leaves from shrubbery, but cannot make logs necessary for larger shelters.
Exposure is also an element you have to deal with. When you are involved in combat, you will get bloody, which if not washed off will cause infection. If you wash off, you will get cold and must build a fire to warm up and cook the cute bunnies you’ve just smashed.
When you do explore, you will find evidence that this place is not friendly to outsiders. You’ll find decapitated heads on poles, disemboweled corpses, abandoned boats and campsites. When you find a body, an emboding “Found x of 130 passengers” message appears in yellow text in your HUD.
You will eventually come across some aggressive cannibals, which apparently are MUTANT cannibals. At first you see the silhouette of one in the distance; but be aware that there are usually two or more flanking you. Their attack pattern is to rush and then back off, while another flanks. At first this attack pattern appears to be good artificial intelligence, but soon becomes predictable. Being out in an open area is a way to get killed… find a hill or place with rocks. The natives are much easier to deal with inside caves.
Speaking of caves, the first time you are defeated by natives you will be taken to an underground lair filled with hanging bodies of the not-so-fortunate airline passengers. In this cave you can find a flare gun (very useful for scattering the natives), a bigger axe, a flashlight, and other resources.
If you explore this cave, you will find certain bodies seem to be part of some sort of ceremony, with candles places around them. I came across one area where there were some sort of creature with two pairs of legs for a head, looking much like one of the gruesome creations from the Silent Hill series. My guess is that these undead creatures are the result of the rituals you find.
When you do emerge from the cave, you’re in an unfamiliar territory, but you need to get the heck out of there. Now when you encounter natives and are defeated, you will die and get a “You survived X days”.
You can only save in shelters that you build, so unless you progressed enough to build one then you’ll have to start over.
“The Forest” is under heavy development, and patches come frequently. There were a few notable game glitches, from medicine bottles and fish swimming in mid-air to texture loading pops. There were also a few times when we needed to restore health but could not eat any of the energy bars in the character’s inventory.
We noticed an infinite weapon swap glitch. When you get a flare gun and then pick up an axe, the flare gun drops, but you still have it in your inventory. I haven’t run out of flares, thank goodness, but not sure if the final game will address this. The flare gun appears to come with a pack of flares in its holster, and reloading doesn’t seem to be an issue.
The game is an open world, but not every part is finished, as we ran into a few “invisible walls” along with a message stating that this area is coming soon.
The enemies can be a bit hard to deal with, but that’s probably why this game is a “survival simulator”. The cannibalistic mutants don’t seem to be fazed much when set aflame. They don’t scream or appear to be in any pain. They can even continue to rush you, until they silently die from the fire (which takes an unusual amount of time).
I’m sure there is a lot more to this game, and it actually is a pretty good amount of fun. The graphics are rather good, especially considering its Alpha stage. I can’t wait for the game to be officially released.