Sons of the Forest - Before You Buy

Sons of the Forest (PC) is an early access game with solid survival gameplay and good scares. Let's talk about it.

#sonsoftheforest

[rottenapple_]

The fact that you get a buddy to help you with the menial labor is so cool. As an exclusively solo player, this is quite literally revolutionary.

[luthariii]

The NPC buddy you get is even cooler than just bringing you stuff. If you place down the white blueprint of the house you want to build, you can then tell him to "Finish the Structure", and he will actually BUILD the entire thing for you. Its nice.

[pixelfodder]

I nearly did an all nighter once I started exploring and building... As an aging gamer, I find that rarely happens at all anymore. Well done to the team!

[burgbass]

Honestly I’m surprised games with horror elements don’t do the looming threat like this has more often. There is something inherently way more unnerving to have a mutant just stand at the edge of your view, or even hang around close just watching and waiting to keep you on edge rather than them going straight to attack mode like a lot of other horror game enemies are programmed to do.

[dgmaffi]

Tip: Before you start a new game choose Custom Difficulty and you can adjust the Season Length to "realistic" "long" "default" "short" same thing with Day Length.

[HeadCannonPrime]

holy crap, The forest came out in 2013!? That still feels like a *new* game to me lol.

[universal_wisdom]

I just wanna say it’s super cool how the AI notice one of their buddies gets killed, and their morale seems to go down, making them more cautious about what they do next. Not sure if it was the timing, but when that one cannibal took an arrow to the face, and the next one saw the bow string get pulled back, he stopped approaching and ran in a different direction. Thought that was cool

[firstname___lastname]

The main problem is that while the base-building is really cool, there really is no reason to even have a base. Your backpack has plenty of space for everything, and you can quickly make a temporary shelter wherever you are to sleep and save. Simply saying don't build a base is not a valid solution to this, as this is clearly marketed as a core part of the game and is very fun to do, but it just feels extremely empty when you know it has no purpose. Base building is meant to be satisfying via being both fun AND useful. EDIT: I previously said that the game has way TOO MUCH walking (and idiots below thought I was complaining about any walking at all), but they mostly fixed this by adding a bunch of traversal options like golf carts and one-wheels.

[nikkishocker]

Virginia and Kelvin easily my favorite parts. The AI companions were a little glitchy but I was not expecting how intelligent they could be, especially Virginia. I didn't even know she could be a companion. The process of befriending her was really organic, and she had alot of unexpected abilities that were really intuitive.

[seven]

Love the AI in the game and how they react to you. I had built a house and I was standing a little ways away from it and saw a mutant walk up next to it, point at my house while looking at me like he was pissed that I built it or something. Very glad this game is turning out well day 1, looking forward to the future

[Smulenify]

I feel the player character makes more sense in this one, and in the first game I felt it was a bit strange to not be looking for the child when I just wanted to focus on survival and building.

[azeal]

Just spent that last 8 hours playing with a mate. I'm obsessed we where so stunned at the visuals and how smooth the gameplay feels. We're very impressed

[dee_wade]

Loving those animations. Especially the transition from standing to running for enemy NPC's. Lookin at 7:22 That is so fluid and "human" More so since this NPC was facing forward, then straightened his stance before shifting to the side to run. Good stuff. then 7:32 Walking forward then erratically quickening then spinning. Never thought i'd be impressed with footwork that wasn't a "FIFA" or "Just Dance" game haha . Never mind scratch the last one.

[SGTShootToKi]

Great review. As a side note, you can switch your building to the old style of building by going to the building notes and selecting "Switch modes". This will allow you to build prefabs.

[aquilaFUN]

I really, really REALLY do not understand how its still small indie studios delivering bombs like this in the survival genre. Valheim blew everything out of the Water and now Sons of the Forest is here with actually innovative and unique Twists to the formula and, to be honest, insane visuals, if you consider how few people are working on this.

You would think that AAA studios start to recognize the potential and try to deliver, but nothing so far. Many people are tired of the endless online competetive grind and are looking for relaxed open world crafting experiences where you can immerse yourself in. I guess its harder to turn this type of game into a games-as-service grind where you can milk the audience for years to come, better make generic shooter nr. 54624 and slap some micro-transactions and seasons onto it

[StringBlazer]

That stretch of gameplay from 9:10 to 9:31 where it lines up with what Falcon is describing, from the cave monsters being scary/grotesque, to the mutant sighting, was oddly perfect. Definitely had me like 👀

[cbogus]

My friends and I are having a great time with the building and exploring. Can’t wait for more updates

[Hushkababa]

This game is a ton of fun and looks amazing. Never played the first one but I have 50 hours so far and don't think I'm stopping too soon. I've been building a zipline network from one of the 3d printers, to a big waterfall near the mountain, then to a downed airplane. Looking to see how far I can get it going :D

[kizunadragon]

the island looks absolutely stunning and the AI is once again top notch. GOTY contender

I saw an eagle swoop down and snatch a turtle off the ground near to where i was standing and i was like

"holy crap the animal AI actually hunts one another."

[mttzvl]

Is anyone going to talk about how amazing and smooth that transition was at 9:40?? Bravo!