The Forest
2018, PC, Single Player (Steam/ Proton on Linux)
Bad combat is aplenty in the video game industry. Depending on the perspective, it can often be masked as “difficult” game that “noobs” don’t get. With support of a few keyboard warriors rushing for their 5 mins of self-righteousness by downplaying any neutral gamers’ concerns, the devs do not see why they need to “learn” how to make a good, engaging game.
The cheapest way to make a game “difficult” without understanding how those Castlevanias and Elden Rings became fan favorites, is to make the enemies spongy.
Basic Game Design 101: in every turn of combat, there is a damage by the player to the enemy, and vice versa.
Skyrim had the simplest way of explaining it, by using the ratio of enemy-induced damage to player-induced damage. A value of 1 meant the player and enemy will both induce same damage to each other, whereas a ratio higher than 1 will make the game more difficult, lower than 1 would make it easier.
Designing this ratio for different difficulty options is not exactly rocket science. At the very least, a game should follow the 1:1 ratio in what they define “normal” mode (not hard, not easy). Of course, narcissist developers often consider their game to be “above the fold”, and if it helps them get good sleep at night, sure they may put this ratio higher in the normal mode itself, but in that case the least we can expect is a lower mode that “does” have the unit ratio, especially if there is no learning curve like FromSoftware games.
The Forest, an open world “tactical” survival game, has neither. It has 4 difficulty modes – Peaceful (no enemies), Normal (easiest mode to actually have enemies), Hard (more difficult enemies), and Hard Survival (more difficult survival added to the previous option). So people wanting to play “with” enemies have to select at least “normal”. What if now, Endnight games the developer, make the ratio ridiculously high so that an enemy can kill you in 3 hits, but you need at least 10? A fan-made wiki promptly defines the combat as “aims to be realistic”! Because as we all know, realistic combat must have this ratio higher than 1. As a neutral gamer, if you die on the 10th day, you’re supposed to feel proud and compelled to put more effort to “learn” the game, “strategize” your moves, “upgrade” your weapons, or even follow the “saintly” advice of running away from combat altogether until you become stronger!
Your time has no value. Your enjoyment does not matter. Only matters is your money that you’ll spend in the blink on their “Early Access” game, which they will finish after 2-4 years. They want you to pay* for that “demo” so that they can earn even before offering the complete product, and the only way to make you do so is to build an aura around that you worship. A false sense of non-existent learning curve needs to be induced upon you. And did I mention that this is the only game existing in the world so if you don’t learn, you’re missing out?
What if your katana cannot block but a cannibal with her bare hands can block fine?. Come’on, cannibals are “hardened” right? That is why when you hit them with a burning weapon, the cloth immediately burns out as if you hit a water sack. And even if they burn full body and get charred, they are still hardened enough to come at and smack you for the next 10 mins. What if you spend mana while descending a rope but you don’t spend a dime of it while rowing your raft with 2 hands even in a storm? Surely you can forgive because it is “aiming to be realistic”? Or so much you can carry that you spread them out like a bedouin vendor at the push of a button but you cannot carry more than 5-6 tablet case medkits or 2 Aloe-Vera leaves?
The design doesn’t make sense in so many areas. Why would you build a gazebo or a fireplace (that is useless for anything) instead of finding your son?
What is the point of building a theme park when you can just hide from the cannibals or make faces at them from a distance at sea?
The story does not turn the game into tower defense at any point. Why do skulls not have any impact on keeping the natives away, since they already use it to depict their residential boundaries?
How does meat become edible after drying for just a day? If drying works so fast (perhaps we are in an equatorial island where the Sun is hottest), why is there no concept of dried leaves on the ground that we could have used to extend the fire? Or perhaps use the sticks lying around everywhere for that purpose? And speaking of short-life of the fires, why is there not a fire extinguishing option, if not with water, at least by stomping on it? You cannot sleep arbitrarily. I get that, and in a way prevents misuse of food. But what I don’t get is why we cannot pass the time? Say wait for some time when seated on a sofa in the yacht that is safe enough?
Darkness is stupidly dark. Even if there is a moon shining brightly and human eyes usually get adjusted to darkness, we cannot see jack unless one of the color gradient options are used, that too only marginally better. Inside a cave too, human eye adaptation does not work. It is not an RTX implementation. It is just that lights are set to disabled at places as a lazy way of thumping their chest – look how realistic our game is! The terrain design too, is frustrating. There are gradually sloping cliffs that you cannot climb, even if you can jump that much height from one platform you built to another. There is not much variation in the flora or fauna, so if it was meant to be an equatorial paradise, its residents certainly don’t fit the ecosystem. Maps and documents have a weird angle and do not fill the entire screen. It was quite a few days before I could actually see what was in the map after I had collected it.
Did you know that you cannot make the crashed plane your first home? About 10 rows of 3+3 seats which you cannot rest/ sleep on, but have to build a bed or a shelter to save. You cannot build a wall at the aircraft’s opening, which would have made it a really secure base giving you enough time to expand it if you want. You cannot make a makeshift blanket from so many unpicked clothes in those luggage cases, even if you can make armor from much smaller animal skins by the same principle. You cannot yank one of the protruding iron rods and make it your first weapon. Because you are playing a “realistic” survival game, where realism is defined only by the devs and their cultist disciples.
“They’ll fix it, perhaps already working on it as we speak” you say. Yes, being in Early Access for so long gives them the advantage of not having to bother with accountability. That is what video games have become. Release the first version as Early Access, and perpetually keep patching after getting feedback on even the basic stuff. As long as the developer “listens” to feedback, why would they need to get it right the first time?
Because they did not learn to make a game by following the most basic lesson in gaming – playing it. It is their “learning-by-trial-and-error” experiment which we the customers should sponsor. The Overwhelmingly Positive reviews do not paint the full picture, because combat has been tweaked several times in this game from Early Access days to full release. They provide cheats though, and this might be one of only a few games where you can still get Steam Achievements with them enabled.
The worst thing about this game’s design is that the enemies on the island spawn effectively only after the 7th day, when you are first exposed to the piece of crap combat, by the time you would have passed Steam’s return window and cannot refund. Intelligent, isn’t it?
*Thankfully, I resisted the temptation and bought the game only recently at 75% or so discount. I don’t buy early access games neither do I ever pre-order. But that is just me.
Pros
- Excellent performance on Linux. Steady 60 FPS with minimal frame drops only when loading new areas
- Visual fidelity at par with some AAA games. One of the first games to use Unity Engine
- Environment is designed to deforest and build upon. More versatile than Fallout 4
- Enemy jump scares and horror moments. That demonic laughter!
Cons
- Spongy enemies.You’re not though
- Badly designed melee combat. Enemies can block. You, on the other hand, ha ha ha!
- Hilarious mutant design. Stupid-legged animals
- Forced to build new shelter even with usable aircraft. You’re playing “their” game, not yours
- Grindy resource gathering in single player mode. All sins forgiven with multiplayer support, right?
Hello, new world! 