Unfinished: The Forest 07/02/2014

Forest is like a box of chocolates. It's unfinished and all the chocolates are heads.

Boy did it feel weird to hear Jason instead of Drew as the voice of god. That aside, this game looks really cool already.

OMG Brad! Just a cursory glace will tell you you can build a fire pit that you can relight! I love you man but you have to read the words that are in games. They are not always there for show.

I like Dan's approach to these games, you can tell he has a vast history of gaming knowledge, which of course we knew already but putting it to good use with his input. Brad, it's always cool to hear you more talkative lately.

The genre kinda does have a name. This is a survival game. With crafting/building elements if you really want to be specific bordering on redundant.

Someone mentioned the plane making a decent shelter.

Normally yeah, it might. In this game it attracts too much attention. Which is why, if you stay there, you'll run into natives on patrol checking out the site.

About those enemies:

They are tough to fight, but on your first encounter you can totally stand your ground, remaining motionless, and they'll leave you alone for a bit.

They are attracted to your impact on the forest. They'll stay away from fire (despite clearly using it themselves). And you can avoid them via stealth mechanics. You can even stealth kill them.

@spwn: Nah I prefer what Patrick does in Spookin when it's just him sitting alone in the dark, it would have a lot more tension and ramp up the creepy factor.

This is a lot more polished than I actually expected. Looks aight.

N0ice GraFix

The combat kinda reminds me of Condemned. Game looks neat, I wouldn't mind sinking some hours into it, or watching one of the Duders play it for an extended time.

Within the first two minutes I'm instantly reminded of Thomas Gripp from Frictional stating the first rule of horror is don't introduce your monster in cut scene.

Game looks fantastic for such an early version. Great atmosphere and visiuals.

My only inputs so far is that your hunger goes down just a tad bit too quick. Not saying it should last forever, but I'd like some more exploring time to be able to advance somewhat before having to worry about cooking again.

Also it shouldn't take that many hits to take someone down, crazed lunatic or not. A good whack with that stone axe or the other axe to the face should bring someone down instantly if it's in the face (which a few of the shots were)...no more than 3 whacks total IMO...unless it's a rare one of kind enemy then feel free to make them harder. Brad had no chance there with three of them pouncing on him when one guy wouldn't even go down after like 7-8 hits...same thing happened to Jeff on UPF

And @danryckert, 2 for 2 on great quicklooks buddy, keep up the good work! Nice to hear from you too Jason!

Absolutely. DayZ wasn't the first game to do this stuff. It was just the one that exclusively did this stuff without any sort of narrative or intended structure. I'd have to say DayZ, and thus the open world survival movement, wouldn't exist without STALKER.

Posted by Jason Oestreicher | Jul. 3, 2014 6:00am

@straightgrizzly: I'm glad someone got the Commando reference! One of the best opening montages ever.

This... He looks at the page of the survival guide at least 3 times and misses it every time even when he purposely looks to find if there is a bigger/better fire and torches...

0_o

The Stomping Land is a pretty awesome game...when its finished

Yup! Looking good new GB people!

I thought it was pretty well established this genre was called survivalcraft

DayZ started as a zombie mod for Arma. It isn't hard to imagine it existing without Stalker.

Game seems like a lie. Most of the other early access games of this ilk look like games should look when they are super early. Seems like they really polished up what they have for this to make it look good especially for youtube videos and stuff like this. I'd like to see what people think of this after playing it for more than five hours

I really like the idea behind this kind of game, and I'd like to play these kind of games but... yeah none of them seem to be finished.

I was hoping for more cannibalism.

I now deem this genre the 'Survival Genre', seeing as how hunger, shelter, and overall survival are defining characteristics of most of these games. I also deem the STALKER series to be the first of these to exist in my knowledge.

I'm glad Dan did pick up on Brad's initial "What do you think of the forest?" question, and instead answered it about the game.

It really tells you all you need to know about the character of JOHN MATRIX.

If Jason wrote this deck, then congrats, because it's excellent. Very Vinny-esque.

This game looks interesting. Need to look at it better. $15 sounds fair for it.

Almost got this, since it at least it's single player, which means you at least have a chance of having some kind of fun without being griefed all the time, glad I didn't now.

Looks ridiculously frustrating, apparently you have to eat constantly, which is just a pain in the ass, also it looks like once you run into the natives or whatever that's pretty much it.

It sure is fortunate for the protagonist that the only people on the plane, apparently, was them and a single 3-year old child.

It's even more fortunate that the airplane fuselage is apparently made from adamantium, to the point where it can split apart, strike the ground, and crash through pine trees and boulders without anything more than cosmetic damage.

It's ALSO-ALSO fortunate that, judging from the amount of time it took the passenger compartment to strike the ground (after the cockpit detached ala Star Trek), the airplane was flying at an altitude of approximately 60 feet. :b

Okay, okay, I know that the plane-crash thingy is just a narrative vehicle to get the protagonist to their predicament, but I'm starting to think LOST had a more realistic plane crash scenario (what with its magical turbine engines that can still run at full thrust despite being completely removed from a fuel source, electrical power, or control surface). ;)

Man Dan just fits right into the GB team doesn't he? It's like he's been doing QL's for six months. Plus he's a pretty chilled mother fucker. Kinda compliments Brad's laid-back disposition.

Drew got really good at spotting that stuff over time.

Reporting in from West Virginia, no corndog fields here, like the John Denver song says: 'ALMOST heaven'.

Also I would totally play a Hatchet-esque survival game, but the monsters totally turn me off from this.

My heart-rate goes up and my hands begin to perspirate every time I watch that intro with the crashing plane.

That scene would be so scary/awesome with VR.

This is nothing like Rust. I guess you can cook food, but danger of hunger is pretty much non-existent. The main component in Rust and DayZ is surviving against other players.

I think the comparison to Don't Starve is pretty accurate.

I wish they'd encountered that "sex demon", as Shaun called it on the Shaun Method on GameSpot, when they were in the cave.

reinstalling The Forest because of this QL..

that iphone wasn't in the game last time I played, or maybe I just didn't find it

I have a feeling Brad and Dan quick looks will be excellent after watching this.

Also Jason in the control room was great.

Wait, are tennis balls in the game because of Wimbledon right now? :O

Good SAND BOX SURVIVAL game your playing there.

Videogames dude.

This game sounds like finding yourself in a Jack Kilborn novel. I'll probably play it... once.

(his novels are all about someone trying to survive against hilariously grim odds)

If there's anything you should've learned, it's that you shouldn't take anything Brad does in a game as what the game is like. I remember when he whined how hard it was to counter in Bound By Flame. I tried it and it was the easiest parrying that has ever existed. Super lenient.

What I'm trying to say is, you can survive against the tribal people quite easy. In your first encounter, anyway. You're not forced into combat or anything.

I do wish they'd make hunger less silly. Shouldn't need to eat every 5 minutes.

Sounds like Dan is about to be introduced to some weird ass games.

You mean "video-games-which-are-boasting-budgets-and-production-values-greater-than-many-Hollywood-films" dude? ;)

I'm just poking fun at the intro sequence, which obviously is attempting to add tragedy and gravitas (look, an anonymous little kid is sitting next to you, alone, for he sole purpose of tugging at our heartstrings when his digital life is cut short!). Obviously, the intro may change between now and retail release, but right now the sequence seems pretty flat in my eyes.

@elwoodan:The devs have said they'll be including a survival only mode in the final release. http://survivetheforest.com/faq/

Thanks Jason !

When I heard Jason's voice, I was like, "Wait a minute, is that Jason Oestreicher?" Giant Bomb is poaching some good people from GameInformer! Not that I mind--anything that gives me my Dan Ryckert fix.

hahaha oh sht