Sons of the Forest sticks to its thrilling roots

By Graham Breitbarth Multi media editor

The 2023 game “Sons of the Forest” has become the talk of the gaming community in the last month. “Sons of the Forest” is the sequel to the popular indie game “The Forest” which was released officially in 2018. Over the years, the game grew in popularity, eventually leading to the sequel released in February.

“Sons of the Forest” is a game rooted in mystery. It follows the story of a special forces team sent to an island tracking a missing family. The Puffertons had gone missing 31 weeks before you arrived and it’s up to you to discover what may have happened to them, and what else is going on within the island.

The game brings back an amazing horror feel to an industry that hasn’t had many open world horror games. “Sons of the Forest” gives you a massive island map to explore, featuring brand new cave designs, terrain and even underwater exploration. It also has many new types of enemies which is a large change from the first game.

Aside from the horror aspect of the game, there’s a massive story behind what is going on.

The game doesn’t force you to play the story with objectives; there are objects you can find, clues you can miss. Each playthrough you do can change ever so slightly. It leaves a truly unique experience each time you play depending on the choices you make. It’s an environmental type of storytelling.

The game mechanics are another amazing but somewhat difficult aspect to the player. Combat has changed since the first game and this time actually requires more preparation for a fight. There are different weapons you can choose from that hold different effects, such as a stun baton or a craftable spear.

You also have to be prepared for the different types of enemies, some are resistant to being stunned from a hit and others are more athletic, able to dodge a lot of attacks from the player.

“Sons of the Forest” is still in early access and is constantly being worked on by the developers, Endnight Games. It will probably change from now till the official full release of the game.

The developers said that the reason they released both games in early access was to allow the community to give feedback and allow the developers to make the game even better.

In the end, time will see what type of game “Sons of the Forest” can become, but with a dev team like Endnight at the reigns it could very well become one of the top games of 2023.