The Forest

[Dark Drakan]

Endnight Games have released a trailer for their upcoming indie title The Forest which is a PC exclusive. You play as the lone survivor of a plane crash who's ended up on an island filled with cannibals.

We wanted to create a world where we could drop the player into and give them free range to do whatever they want, similar to something like Minecraft where a lot of the fun comes from decisions that you make. Players build up their skills and equipment in order to get to new parts of The Forest, but specific goals won't be spelled out. Instead, you'll be dropped in the world and will have to explore without any defined missions. If you want to uncover the story of The Forest, clues are hidden amongst the environment.
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There will be an ending, but it's optional and the developers think that many gamers will get so caught up in surviving that they won't even realize there's a conclusion. As for the cannibals residing in The Forest, we are taking a unique approach. These cannibals aren't evil, just hungry. If you kill their friends they'll cry over their bodies or in some instances they'll even run away. Other times they'll watch you from a vantage point in the trees without moving in & slowly stalk you waiting for an opportunity.

Those who can survive in The Forest long enough will be able to earn a spot on the leader boards. For the hardcore survivalists out there, permadeath will also be an option.

The game will be in Beta in the next few months and the footage in the following trailer is merely early alpha footage and work in progress.

 

[ef9dante_oSsshea]

looks pretty interesting

 

[Dark Drakan]

I love the concept & really liking all the survival games that are popping up lately. This goes a step further and adds horror but if they can get the co-op etc working it could be fantastic.

With Rust & DayZ doing so well it's nice to see something that not only sounds like a great concept but looks great too (even in alpha). Looking forward to State of Decay sequel too & hoping they get multiplayer working on it this time around. Just need a PC now to play most of them.

 

[Dark Drakan]

EndNight games have released a 3rd Trailer for their upcoming early access title The Forest and a little statement to go with it.

Hey everyone,

Here’s our third trailer, showing a more extended look at some of our survival systems and also what life is like in the forest a little further into the game.

Attached to this latest trailer is our new targeted release date – we’re a little behind with our ambitious early 2014 release but overall things are progressing really well. We’ve been adding lots of cool stuff and hope you guys like what we have been up to.

Thanks again for all your support, emails and comments both here and on steam Greenlight, Youtube and other sites. You guys have made this game possible and we really want it to be an amazing experience for everyone (which is why we keep delaying it!)

Ben and the team at Endnight Games

ALL FOOTAGE IS PRE-ALPHA AND WORK IN PROGRESS​

 

[Sieghart]

Looks like a real definitive survival game! Count me in on this one.

 

[Dark Drakan]

I love it's style & it's looking like perfect blend of multiple games. They are looking into bringing in a co-op element too & all in all it's looking VERY promising. I really hope it ends up good & sells well & I'm keeping a close eye on its development. For pre-alpha it's even "looking" impressive I have to say.

 

[Sieghart]

Co-Op? I'm not sure about that. Because based from what i have seen from the trailers, it's something better to be played alone especially considering it looks really immersive.

 

[Dark Drakan]

Co-Op? I'm not sure about that. Because based from what i have seen from the trailers, it's something better to be played alone especially considering it looks really immersive.

They said they want to strike a balance as they are aware of it being better fit for lone play. However I have read some of their ideas for co-op & it actually would up the tension in some aspects. They are being really careful with modes & striking that balance between scares, survival & immersion.

Here's a decent interview from PC gamer. Bare in mind the Interview is from nearly a year ago. More recent interview can be found here on Eurogamer.

 

[Dark Drakan]

Version 0.02 Changelog (Saved games from 0.01 won’t work with this version)​

New features and gameplay tweaks:

• Sharks
• Simple raft now buildable via book (No Sail yet!)
• Walls can now snap to form floors and roofs (experimental, can defy gravity)
• New suprise item added to yacht
• When being knocked out for first time you will now wake up in a random cave
• Lowered fall damage amount
• Birds can be killed with fire
• Stamina recharge now takes longer
• You can now block attacks with the red plane axe by holding down right mouse button
• Timmy taken scene a little more dramatic, better lighting, sparks
• Lowered intensity and range of fire light
• Lowered health on turtle
• Improved fish movement
• Increased range of lighterEnemies will drag downed friends out of danger again
• Females will sometimes freak out at dying family members

Performance:

• Improved load times
• Reduced stutter
• Overall performance increases
• Big memory optimizations, should help crashing on some pc’s
• Improved cave wall memory usage
• Dropped sticks and rocks are now pooled and shouldn’t increase memory over time
• Optimized hud rendering (10% faster on cpu)

World:

• Improved lake water swim zones
• Ocean swim zones now correctly rise and fall with tide
• Underwater visuals improved
• Improved terrain in some areas, reduced lumpiness in rocky area, fixed issues with caves poking through terrain
• Fixed super deep ponds that could kill players by falling into them
• Small old boat collision added
• Plane exterior collision added
• Improved balance on some grass textures (less bright)
• Lowered top heavy pine tree to be easier to cut
• Lots of small material/texture tweaks
• Sunset/sunrise made brighter
• Beach cave entrances made bigger and easier to enter
• Improved world collision in some areas
• Improved low resolution mountain textures
• Improved terrain rendering and missing specular
• Improved cave lighting and details (caves 4,5)

Bugs:

• Fixed shelter on fire spawning infinite logs
• Fixed bug where day count was 1 more than it should be
• Fixed countdown timer not taking different time zones into account
• Fixed issue where sticks,rocks and logs needed could go to -1
• Fixed not switching back to default weapon after holding lizard, rabbit or fish
• Fixed player not colliding with things tagged ‘Prop’
• Fixed light leaking into parts of some caves
• Fixed bug where you couldn’t cook multiple times on same campfire
• Fixed spear being able to cut down trees
• Fixed ponds flickering at certain distances
• Fixed some items not being saved in inventory when game is loaded (some might still vanish, expect more saving fixes/improvements soon)
• Fixed log holder not saving logs on load/save
• Fixed twinberries not having eat icon and having wrong leaf texture
• Fixed bloody tables in cave not being cut out of nav mesh
• Fixed lizard and rabbit skin triggers not being connected to ragdoll body
• Removed extra set of teeth and eyes appearing behind Timmy
• Chopping dead bodies no longer results in player flying into the air
• Animals no longer spawn multiple copies if on fire
• Cannibals shouldn’t run underwater or follow player out to the boat (they might run a little bit into water however)
• Fixed some bushes missing vertex colors when cut
• Fixed birds landing in sky, improved bird a.i. and performance
• Fixed some spelling mistakes in tutorials and in survival book

 

[Demi-fiend]

Why can't they put this into a game like Dark Souls? I really want some of that loner, "forest rogue" medieval survival action.

I'll have to put it into the book I'm writing; that's all I can do, for now.

 

[Sieghart]

I'm already so immersed in this game. Played this already for 9 hours straight.

 

[Chancey289]

It's like Cannibal Holocaust meets The Descent. I've been looking forward to this game for quite some time.

 

[Dark Drakan]

I like the thought of being alone & understand why some would want it to remain that way. However in such a huge world it just seems a shame for it to be experienced alone and with you being able to separate it would add to the experience. As the cannibals stalk your co-op partner and you both salvage for loot in different areas. Would be quite harrowing to hear their screams and frantic running in background it would make world feel like its bigger than just yourself and your own little 'box'.

Plus if they (or you) got kidnapped (when downed by enemies) and taken back to the creatures caves (which sometimes happens) you/they would have to mount a search and rescue attempt to find the captive and free them. With either of you trying to direct the other player to your location it could be quite the tension filled endeavor. I understand that some games do lose a little tension if they allow multiple players I can understand reasoning behind wanting NO other players but it could actually enhance it if done right.

 

[Dark Drakan]

I really liked the look of this 5 years ago (came out of early access last year) and I never got around to purchasing it. It has now gone through a lot of updates AND a co-op mode and has decent rating of 92% on Steam so I have taken the plunge (33% off currently). I have been after a decent PvE/Objective based survival game for a long time after so many promising looking ones evolved into PvP frag fests or Battle Royale style games and this has none of that and a bonus of co-op too.

The Forest Steam Page​