3.6 hours played
Written 4 years ago
Let me first say that although I don't think this game is properly polished yet, for a one-person indie game there is A LOT that this experience does really well. The atmosphere is quite creepy, the landscape and textures are beautifully detailed, the lighting and flashlight effects are photo realistic, and The Forgotten avoids the cardinal sin of most first-person games: we have a body! Nothing worse than being a disembodied perspective in a world, so it's nice to have such a well-detailed body to help us feel we're in the world. Other nice touches include an excellent, creepy soundtrack, and the courtesy to provide us a crouch toggle so we can crouch without having to hold a button down.
The game attempts to do something really brave by immersing us in a world in which we know almost nothing except that our friends have vanished. The game drops us in a creepy world filled with monsters, and gives almost no directions -- in many games this setup would not work, but I found the mystery and my confusion really do add to the experience. The map turns out to be essential, as a result, otherwise I'd have been totally lost.
That said, The Forgotten has some significant in-game issues, both technical and gameplay-related.
I also experience lower-framerates and skipping, and I am playing on the lowest graphics setting, which is a shame because the game has fantastic artistic detail! The developer has been making adjustments and improvements, and this may get better with time.
I also noticed that the E button doesn't easily appear when I approach notes or objects I should be able to pick up. I usually have to spin around an object until I can get the E button to appear.
While I love the open world concept, it would be helpful to have clues at each stage where I should look next for keys and meteorites, etc. There's a little too much trial and error in the game. I accidentally got lost and ended up in the northern cave before I had explored most of the valley. That meant going all the way into the cave only to reach an inaccessible door and have to hike all the way back out. That kind of backtracking is avoidable if you either provide the player clues to make sure we find items in the proper order, or if you use in-game scripts to prevent players accessing areas like that too early. Unfortunately, the key card never appeared on my map, and I was never able to get through the cave door to complete the game.
The enemy encounters also need work. They're sufficiently creepy, but it's never a good idea in a game to have a player suddenly inexplicably encounter enemies without any clues as to the enemy mechanics. For example, is The Forgotten stealth-based? Am I supposed to sneak past enemies in a crouch, or hide in the shadows, or use the tall grass? It feels to me that as soon as I get near to them, they just chase me relentlessly. A little more in-game guidance on how to navigate enemies would be appreciated. They do heavy damage and it does not seem they can be dissuaded or easily lost without lots of running putting raw distance between me and my assailant.
Both the enemies and the animals (good work adding animals to the world! Nice touch.) occasionally get stuck against world objects, running in place or other game-breaking issues. Not a "problem" but it is distracting.
There's more I can say but I'll stop there for now. Thinking about the genre of this game, I would place it in the same category as Kona and Someday You'll Return. Obviously those titles come from larger teams, and it's totally understandable that a one person developer will not build something on their scale, but given the high standard they set for games like this one, unfortunately The Forgotten is not yet to that level of quality. But it is my hope that the developer will keep at it, and maybe someday the game will improve to become a more cohesive and enticing experience. If it does, I certainly will change my review.
