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Sons Of The Forest, the sequel to the famous game called ‘The Forest’, will test your wits in the wilderness as you navigate treacherous terrains and fight off deadly monsters while finding Edward Pufton. Whether you’re looking to play solo or want to slash some cannibal mutants with your buddies, you’re bound to have some fun.
If you liked The Forest, you’re definitely going to love Sons Of The Forest. We’ll dive into what makes it a good sequel below.
Narrative
Sons Of The Forest has a pretty decent storyline, where you’re sent to rescue a millionaire called Edward Pufton, who initially was on the cannibal-infested island on a mining operation, trying to locate a pretty rare artifact. As you go about exploring the island, you will discover little bits of information scattered around the map, which you’ll have to piece together to help unravel the big mystery.
However, all the pieces of the lore and the history of the island can be pretty easy to miss, even for someone who wants to know what happened. Since there is hardly any dialogue, it makes it even harder to know what is happening in the game.
While the story is great, unraveling it can be a pretty hectic task, and for some people, the ending of the game can be quite unsatisfying if they miss out on some important piece of the lore. You need to have great deduction skills as well as a sharp eye for not missing anything important.
The game’s endings approach to each end is almost the same. The game hosts three endings: a good ending, a bad ending, and a secret ending. The secret ending is the one which will probably make you play the game again, while the other two ones are pretty straightforward.
So while you could replay the game, it would feel repetitive since there’s not anything new required to trigger the different endings – the end will just depend on the last decision you take in the final mission of the game. Therefore, like many other great games out there that people would feel the need to replay again, Sons Of The Forest, unfortunately, doesn’t get added to that elite list in our opinion
Apart from the main story being played out the same way, you can replay the game if you didn’t explore enough in the first iteration of the game or want to delve into the building mechanics.
Score: 3/5
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Combat/Weapon Mechanics
As you progress into the game and have explored the map just enough, you’ll have a plethora of weapons in your arsenal. The Axe and Knives become obsolete against stronger mutants and cannibals, but you will later find a wide range of powerful weapons, including a Crossbow, pistols, and shotguns.
Once you’ve discovered the Shotgun, the game is almost too easy since you’ll be one-shotting any cannibal in your way. So while the struggle to reach the end of caves or raid cannibal camps initially can be cumbersome, the developers were unable to maintain that level of difficulty throughout the game, where the start of the game is too hard, and the mid to late game exploration is a piece of cake.
Speaking about other weapons, all melee weapons feel the same in terms of damage except the Katana, which is the only melee weapon that can sometimes land a one-blow fatal hit. While ranged weapons such as the pistol are obviously better than melee weapons, pistols don’t really make up a difference in intense fights.
The crossbow is a nice addition to your arsenal of weapons because you can recollect your ammo. However, like other ranged weapons except for the shotgun, it doesn’t leave much of an impact. This shows that the developers did try adding some variety into the game, however, they weren’t able to execute it perfectly.
Score: 3.5/5
Survival Aspect
Sons Of The Forest is a game that combines survival and horror elements to create a thrilling experience for players. In the game, you need to use your resourcefulness and muster up the courage to face terrifying encounters with cannibals and mutants. To survive, you will need to ensure your character stays well-fed, rested, and hydrated, as neglecting these needs makes you slow, and who would want that on an island filled with creatures looking to eat you?
While keeping all these factors gives a survival game a great touch, in Sons Of The Forest, these things don’t really mean much. That is because even if you aren’t well-fed, rested, or hydrated, you can still go toe-to-toe against any type of cannibal/mutant and beat them with ease. There’s no such thing as your attack speed or damage getting low, so all you’re faced with is low base stats, and that’s pretty much it.
Score: 3.5/5
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Environment
Sons Of The Forest takes players on an unforgettable journey through a vivid and lifelike environment that is nothing short of a masterpiece. Its environment is, without a doubt, one of its most captivating aspects. Set in a lush and expansive forest, the game’s graphics are a marvel to behold.
From the snow-capped mountain peaks to the river streams, everything feels very realistic and immersive. You’ll even find trees that sway and bend gently in response to the breeze. The whole process of creating fires and camps at nightfall will take you down memory lane of your own scouting and camping days.
Other than the scenery, there are also other aspects such as sound effects that add a touch of realism to the game. Each audio cue is imitated or produced in a way that makes brings the environment to life. Walking through the dense forest, you can hear the thudding of your own feet, birds chirping in the trees, and even cannibals bustling around bushes.
If a cannibal is near you, you can hear its footsteps, which also adds to the horror element of gameplay. Near water bodies, you’ll also hear the water stream flowing, even inside caves. Eating and drinking are also pretty realistic since your character makes pretty accurate munching and gulping sounds. Even if you eat or drink, your character will make a chewing sound or gulping sound.
The only unfortunate sound effect is the groaning sound when you get hit. The sound is exactly the same, no matter how you’re hit or who’s swinging on the other side.
Score: 4.5/5
Verdict — Newer And Better
All in all, Sons Of The Forest is a great choice for players who loved The Forest and were direly waiting for something similar yet better than it. With improved character models and challenging survivability, along with a beautiful environment, the game is easy to fall in love with at first sight. While the starting phase of the game can be tough to counter, once you know what to do, you’ll be crushing all those flesh-eating creatures in no time.
However, keep in mind that you’ll probably lose interest in the game after completing it once since there will be nothing new to do that will entice you to play it again.
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