7.5 /10 19

The Forest stands as one of gaming’s most compelling survival horror experiences, blending genuine terror with strategic base-building and exploration. After a devastating plane crash leaves you stranded on a heavily forested peninsula with your son missing, you must navigate a living world teeming with danger, mystery, and grotesque mutations. Developed by a small team at Endnight Games, the title delivers gameplay innovations that redefined survival horror expectations, creating genuine tension through environmental storytelling, complex enemy AI, and a narrative that unfolds naturally through exploration. This review examines what makes The Forest a landmark title in the survival genre and why it remains essential for horror enthusiasts.

How to Play The Forest

The Forest operates as a first-person survival experience where you must balance resource gathering, shelter construction, and combat against intelligent mutant enemies. Your journey begins in the plane wreckage, and from there, every decision impacts your survival odds. The game respects player agency, allowing multiple approaches to progression and combat scenarios.

1. Controls – Standard WASD movement with mouse-looking third-person or first-person perspectives. Building mechanics use intuitive snap-to-grid systems for structure placement. The learning curve is moderate; tutorials guide initial survival basics without handholding.
2. Progression – Advance through exploration, discovering cavern networks beneath the forest that contain story clues, blueprints, and increasingly dangerous mutations. Story progression ties directly to finding your son, Timmy, through environmental discovery rather than quest markers.
3. Combat & Mechanics – Craft weapons from found materials or scavenge military-grade equipment from crash sites. Mutant AI responds intelligently to your base defenses, construction patterns, and fire usage. Nighttime brings intensified attacks; crafting shelter and defensive structures becomes essential. Resource management drives moment-to-moment tension.
4. Tips – Establish a base near fresh water and protected from cliff edges. Cook meat thoroughly to avoid food poisoning. Explore caves during daylight to map exits. Use fire and explosives strategically; mutants fear fire but can adapt behavior. Build defensive walls and spikes before night cycles escalate encounters.

Who Should Play The Forest

The Forest appeals to players seeking meaningful survival challenges paired with genuine horror atmosphere. Success requires patience, strategic thinking, and comfort with unsettling imagery and creature designs that challenge conventional game aesthetics.

• Survival Enthusiasts – Players who crave complex resource management, base-building, and long-term progression will find The Forest’s mechanics deeply rewarding. The economy of materials creates genuine stakes for every decision.
• Horror Fans – Those seeking atmospheric dread rather than jump-scares will appreciate The Forest’s slow-burn tension and creature design inspired by body-horror cinema. Psychological horror elements through environmental storytelling and mutant mutation variety provide genuine unease.
• Co-op Gamers – The game supports up to 8 players in cooperative multiplayer, transforming survival challenges into shared experiences where base management becomes collaborative problem-solving.
• Skip if – You prefer fast-paced action without survival mechanics, seek games without horror elements, or dislike graphical depictions of mutations and body horror. Performance inconsistencies on console versions may frustrate those demanding stable frame rates.

The Forest Platform Performance

The Forest runs across multiple platforms with varying optimization levels. PC handles the game exceptionally well at high resolutions, while console versions experience performance trade-offs between visual quality and frame stability. Performance modes prioritize gameplay smoothness over graphical fidelity on current-generation consoles.

The Forest System Requirements

The Forest’s PC requirements are exceptionally forgiving, running on hardware from over a decade old. Even recommended specs demand modest components, making the game accessible to budget-conscious PC gamers. Modern GPUs vastly exceed these requirements and enable 4K gaming at high frame rates with maxed settings.

Similar Games to The Forest

The Forest occupies a unique niche blending survival mechanics with genuine horror narrative. Players seeking comparable experiences can explore these alternatives, though few match its specific combination of elements. Most alternatives emphasize either pure survival or pure horror rather than balanced integration.

• Grounded – Miniature survival in a backyard with creature battles and base-building; less horror-focused but shares cooperative multiplayer and crafting depth.
• Stranded Deep – Island survival emphasizing resource scarcity and crafting; lacks horror elements but offers similar progression pacing and solitude atmosphere.
• Subnautica – Aquatic exploration with survival mechanics and mystery-driven storytelling; zero gravity horror elements but emphasizes discovery over base defense.
• Sons of the Forest – Direct sequel by Endnight Games; builds on The Forest’s foundation with expanded building mechanics, improved graphics, and enhanced AI complexity.

The Forest vs Competitors

The Forest’s competitive advantage lies in narrative integration within survival mechanics. While survival games excel at resource management and horror games deliver atmospheric tension, The Forest uniquely melds these elements. Direct price comparison reveals strong value relative to production quality and content volume offered.

The Forest Story and World

The Forest constructs its narrative environment through environmental storytelling rather than exposition. After your plane crashes under mysterious circumstances, you awaken to find your son kidnapped by a man covered in red paint. Your investigation of the island reveals an underground facility, anomalous mutations, and evidence of sinister human experimentation. The world evolves as you progress: the forest shifts from mere survival arena to exploration of intentional design. Cavern discoveries reveal ancient artifacts, research documents explaining the mutations’ origins, and suggestions of forces beyond human comprehension. The narrative maintains ambiguity regarding what’s real versus psychological breakdown, enhancing the horror through uncertainty. Story beats are optional—you can ignore progression entirely and simply survive, or pursue answers through deep cave exploration. This structure respects player agency while rewarding curiosity with world-building depth that rivals many narrative-focused titles.

The Forest Multiplayer and Online

Cooperative multiplayer transforms The Forest from personal survival narrative into shared ordeal. Up to 8 players can inhabit the same world, dividing survival responsibilities across team members. Multiplayer sessions maintain separate save files for each host, ensuring progression continuity while allowing player flexibility regarding session participation.

• Survival Co-op – Players jointly manage base construction, resource gathering, and mutant encounters. Shared objectives create natural cooperation while individual crafting allows specialization in roles and responsibilities.
• Story Mode Cooperative – All story progression occurs simultaneously; players cannot progress individually in multiplayer sessions without the host present.
• Base Defense – Coordinated mutant waves escalate with player count; larger groups face intensified nighttime attacks and require more elaborate defensive structures than single-player equivalents.
• Cross-Platform – Not supported; players must use matching platforms (all PC, all console, etc.) to play together.

The Forest DLC and Expansions

The Forest launched as a complete experience without mandatory DLC. Endnight Games focused resources on free updates and patches rather than paid content expansion, maintaining community goodwill while supporting the base game throughout its five-year post-launch life cycle.

• Free Content Updates – Endnight Games released regular updates adding features, balancing mechanics, and fixing bugs from 2018 through 2023, improving stability and introducing new building options without monetization.
• VR Support – The Forest includes built-in VR compatibility, transforming the experience through first-person immersion with PlayStation VR and PC VR headsets.
• No Paid DLC – Unlike competitors offering cosmetic or content DLC, The Forest maintains a single-purchase model without additional monetization strategies.
• Sequel Focus – Developer resources shifted toward Sons of the Forest (released 2024), the full sequel expanding on The Forest’s foundation rather than legacy content support.

The Forest Community and Support

The Forest maintains an active player community six years post-launch, sustained by cooperative gameplay and creative base-building showcases. Developer communication remains responsive despite focus shifting to the sequel.

• Official Forums – Endnight Games hosts forums at theforestgame.com with developer participation in bug reports and feature discussions, though response times have decreased as development focus shifts to Sons of the Forest.
• Reddit Community – r/TheForest boasts 200,000+ subscribers with daily content sharing, base showcases, and gameplay discussion. This represents the primary community hub for strategy sharing and player support.
• Mod Support – Steam Workshop integration enables community modifications including quality-of-life improvements, visual enhancements, and gameplay rebalancing.
• Update Support – Last major update occurred in 2023; Endnight Games shifted to maintenance mode, addressing critical bugs while focusing development on the sequel.