There are a certain breed of games out there that earn their popularity not on the battlefield of reviewers and public discourse, but in their ability to attract that most free of advertisers; Streamers. Titles that cultivate scores of viewers through streaming sites such as YouTube and Twitch are often lucky in that their imminent success is then written in the stars. Whereas usually such affection is incredibly hard-won in today's varied assortment of genres and titles, 'Youtube Darlings' are the titles that get to skip that drama and poise themselves for the top. A few years back this phenomenon was known as 'The Pewdiepie effect', for reasons that should be fairly obvious, and it is a philosophy that still holds true as evidenced by the recent surge of love towards 'Untitled Goose game'.
'The Forest' is not a title that, by traditional definition, was worthy of the praise and attention of millions. It lacked in a unique concept, stable gameplay, tight controls and attractive graphics. In fact 'The Forest' was, by-and-large, another forgettable survival title that should have vanished into the ether along with all the others. But for whatever reason, that's not what happened and various Internet personalities, including Pewdiepie, latched onto this shell-of-a-game and turned it into a popular success. I guess one could say that 'Endnight games' won the proverbial lottery, and now that inexplicable success is starting to pay off with an impending sequel; 'Sons of the Forest'.
The original 'Forest' was a simple enough game to understand. You played a potato man with his potato son aboard a plane enroute to somewhere; Cue the 'LOST' contrivance and your plane ends up falling out the sky and crashing into a mysterious island in the middle of nowhere. (A very forested Island, hence he title.) Once there, players are expected to undergo the typical routine of a 'survival experience game'; they must build shelter, secure food and water, and craft themselves rudimentary tools in order to survive the wilderness. The twist came in the fact that players were not steeling themselves to fight against wild animals (I honestly can't remember if the original game even had wild animals in it.) but rather to battle against the throes of naked 'natives'(?) that lived on the island and would throw their forces against you night after night. As development of the title went on, players were encouraged to delve deeper into the island's caves in search of their potato son, and doing so would reveal Human limb monstrosities that made this story verge on the supernatural at times.
As a resident early access title, The Forest, was the kind of game that was notoriously rough at launch and continued to be for several years into it's life cycle. The game looked and played like an unfinished mess for so long that it eventually became part of it's identity and people didn't bat an eye when a series of fixes would utterly fail to fix anything in a meaningful manner, that was just the way that 'The Forest' worked. After all of those years in the workshop, I suppose the title must have achieved some level of polish, (the title doesn't crash with depressing regularity anymore) but it still isn't anything pretty to look at and if you told me that this game would ever be finished, let alone warrant the development of a sequel, I would likely laugh in your face. Funny how things turn out.
Sons of the Forest seems to want to replay the success of the original by going over the same general story beats, leaning into the 'horror' angle that they developed in the later stages of the first title, and play up the 'eroticism' angle that I honestly thought was an accident the first time around. (I mean. I known that everyone was naked, but I thought that was more of a practicality thing.) We start off by seeing our new protagonist, a wannabe Booker Dewitt soldier with the tattoo "Fight Demons" on his wrist. (A little on-the-nose there, guys) Predictably, his military transport is bought down by something that bears a passing resemblance to GOW's Nemacysts, and you wind up on the 'LOST' island once again.
The most talked-about moment in this trailer, however, follows next after the horror elements start to creep in. You see one of your squad dragged off into the woods and then come across a pale form of what appears to be a ghost woman. Ghosty, as I have called her, then starts literally humping some nearby rocks in what I'm going to straight up call one of the most uncomfortable moments in the Game Awards; then her limbs start splitting into duplicates and everyone immediately breathed a sigh of relief that this trailer is venturing into body horror instead of descending into a supernatural Porno. (I'm all for games taking more 'adult' themes but there has to be a line in the sand somewhere.)
One of the biggest changes we see in this trailer, in comparison to the original title, is the way in which your character appears to be a trained special forces soldier. This hasn't changed the baseline of equipment you are saddled with (We still see the player character equipped with the weirdly iconic tactical axe) but it should have an effect on the type of items you interact with. We've already seen a decent amount of ballistic weaponry being tossed about and it should be interesting to see how it all comes into play. It should also be noted that this trailer, assuming it's in engine, displays an incredible step-up in fidelity, perhaps showing that all of 'Endnight's profits are being allocated appropriately.
Given the lack of high quality horror titles that are out there today, I'm marginally more inclined to appreciate this product given it's recent redirection. Although I'd be lying if the 'survival game' routes of the franchise doesn't leave me with lingering trepidation. I haven't really given this studio a chance in the past, their choices haven't quite gelled with my own opinions on what makes a 'good title', but I generally do enjoy to see a budding Indie studio inject their own unique perspective on ostensibly tiered genres, so I'm willing to give this title the benefit of the doubt. Whether the final product can live up to the trailer, however, is the real test today.
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