A few weeks ago I bought a game called The Forest. The game has been around for a while now and it’s a survival/horror game which can be played either as singleplayer or multiplayer.
The game follows a story of the main character (the player) named Eric LeBlanc who is on a flight with his son Timmy. The plane that they were on crash lands on a deserted island and when Eric is in a stunned state because of a crash a mysterious man covered in red paint takes his son Timmy. Eric is the only survivor of the crash besides Timmy and playing as Eric, you have to survive on the island and find Timmy. The island is filled with different clues and items that can help you find Timmy. However, on the island, there are strange humanoid-like creatures called cannibals that can be found in their villages scattered around the island or in caves. At first, they won’t attack you unless you provoke the first. Later on, as you destroy more the environment for resources like trees they will begin to attack you. There are also strange mutants that look like disfigured monsters and they come in different variants. Both the cannibals and mutants have different behaviors and are, for the most part, the main antagonists of the game.
I got the game after a few friends of mine already had it and we were able to play multiplayer together. For the first few weeks I only played multiplayer, but I soon tried singleplayer. I found that it was definitely more enjoyable to play with friends. At least for me, I more confident in exploring knowing that someone has my back if something unexpected happens. After all, The Forest is a horror game.
In both single and multiplayer you do have to save at a tent or house that you may have made or found around the island or in caves. However, even though you save, if you somehow die then you will lose all of your items and have to start at the beginning all the way from the plane crash. This was an issue my friends and I had because we were coming out of a cave and it was the night. During the night the cannibals are a lot more active, and can easily spot light sources such as fire which is essential for being able to see things in the dark. We ended up emerging from a cave exit right into the largest cannibal village in the game. Instead of running away back into the cave we decided to fight our way back to our base, but that didn’t go too well. Only a few of us managed to escape without dying, but it wasn’t that bad of a loss. The same sort of situation happened to us in another cave exploration when all but one of us got lost in a huge cave system, and we pretty much lost all of our items. Since then, we haven’t played the game again since nobody really wants to start back from the beginning.
Overall I think The Forest is a really fun game with friends and if you’re into survival games and don’t mind a little bit of horror then I would recommend it to you. My only problem is having to start all the way back from the beginning if you die, and that you can’t really save wherever you want.