You could, if you wanted to, take a lone cannibal unawares – killing them and disposing of the remains far away from the watchful eyes of a patrol, keeping your presence on the island a secret for longer and thus providing you with ample time to fortify your position. Of course, you can react in a wide range of different, wholly satisfying ways. The denizens of the island have complex natures and behaviours which make them far deeper than the enemies you’ll have met in similar games previously. Stumble into their encampments and you can expect a much more aggressive response and from here, it isn’t long until these cannibals expand their patrols and look to track you down for something more than just a stern word. In the beginning, and as an accidental interloper, the denizens that inhabit the island will initially treat you as a mild curiosity – something to be stared at and occasionally shouted out, but little more beyond that.

Rather than just being a bunch of one-dimensional AI-powered goons stumbling over their own feet, these particular nasties are actually governed by an interwoven system of beliefs, natural instincts and sophisticated behaviours that make them both more dangerous and more fascinating than other enemies of a similar ilk. The Forest has the most complex set of villains you’ll likely ever meet Patrolling the island during both day and night, these monstrous hominids are an absolutely grotesque, yet deceptively complex lot to say the least – though you’ll likely witness their numerous, repulsive works in the form of displaced limbs, dissected corpses and flesh-stretched effigies long before you see these creatures in person for the first time.

In large part the fear that The Forest radiates emanates from the clans of cannibal mutants that you’ll come across on the island. The screams and shrieks that pour from the mouths of the cannibal and mutant alike are *horrific*. As such, the experience will prove initially familiar to players that have cut their teeth on those aforementioned games, but where the Endnight Games product diverges from those two titles is in how legitimately, pant-fillingly scary it is. The Forest puts the horror back in survival horrorīuilt to the same design blueprint as games like Ark: Survival Evolved and Conan Exiles, The Forest is largely about collecting materials, crafting stuff and generally ensuring that you don’t die horribly in the process of doing so.

Game the forest