Frey constantly clipped through the terrain and found herself stuck on finnicky edges (which sometimes required reloading from previous saves).
Even on performance-focused settings, framerates dropped to a standstill when there were high particle effects on screen. Though I haven’t hit major game-breaking bugs, there were a number of performance dips throughout the game. Given how delays often work, you’d think that it would release in a fairly optimized state. Unfortunately, an imbalance in enemy strategies bogs the game down in prolonged sequences that often reward players with only middling boosts.įor a game released on modern hardware, Forspoken took a while to launch. On paper, Forspoken’s combat offers a fluid way to take down enemies by seamlessly switching between spells and moving through the battlefield with magic parkour. Despite offering a wide array of moves, the risk of knockbacks shoehorn players into a slow run-and-gun tactic (which might not even play into an enemy’s weaknesses), instead of using each ability to the max. The player can hardly prevent this since it relies on chance. One mini-boss encounter took me 15 minutes, even with appropriately leveled gear and the right spells.īecause of the sheer number of enemies, an encounter can stun-lock Frey for an absurd amount of time.
What compounds this issue more is an insane enemy health pool which causes encounters to last a lot longer than they should. Prepare to fight five mini-bosses in one encounter for a lore entry. However, Forspoken does this to an obnoxious level. In moderation, relying on this strategy works. Though there are options to adjust difficulty, the game relies on a limited bag of tricks to make it more difficult for players: increasing enemy health and quantity. Plus, these don’t even scratch the surface of objectives wherein the main reward is literally just a lore dump you have to read from a menu.ĭifficulty shouldn’t always mean more enemiesĪnother issue with clearing out Athia’s large map is how Forspoken handles difficulty. Certainly, after completing a few of these, Frey feels stronger, but it’s not easy to see how much stronger, especially when most enemies are bullet sponges with absurd health pools anyway. The game does not tell you how much damage that conveys. Clearing out an enemy camp, for example, rewards players with +1 magic. The map’s major rewards - new cloaks, new nail arts, and experience - also do little to explain how Frey improves with each completed objective. Even then, I had little idea where each one went. After a dozen hours of collecting materials, I had a wealthy cache of each ingredient to make practically anything.
#Forspoken review how to
Most of which will go unused because the game doesn’t easily tell players how to use them. Treasure chests, which account for most of the points of interest on the map, reward players with a litany of crafting materials. Forspoken does not have this - not in an easily discernible way, at least. Even if a game is repetitive, earning substantial rewards is satisfying, at least. An open-world game necessitates a lot of exploring. With adequate rewards, this shouldn’t be a problem, but Forspoken also suffers from a communication issue.įor most roleplaying games, completing an objective on the map usually nets palpable rewards for the player: a significant experience boost, new skills, new gear, or a bag of loot. Do this over and over, and the game gets stale quick. Though abundant in number, every point of interest is separated by large distances, some platforming challenges, and a battle sequence. Forspoken’s map is much larger than it ever should have been. Unfortunately, the game’s novelty quickly evaporates after you figure out that you have to repeat the same motions dozens upon dozens of times. Neither the player nor the first enemies feel overpowered. Likewise, fighting balanced enemies with limited powers provides enough of a challenge to keep players on their toes in Athia. Eclipsed only by Elden Ring’s Torrent, magic parkour is one of the most innovative ways to quickly traverse large distances, especially after learning more advanced techniques. Exploring the incredibly huge map with magical parkour is enjoyable. Though it has all three, Forspoken struggles to keep up with its pretenses as a Western roleplaying game.Ĭredit to where it’s due, Forspoken is a fun game for the first few sections. All you need is a fish-out-of-water character, a vast open map, and a seemingly endless list of objectives. It doesn’t take a lot to create a decent roleplaying game.
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