Welcome to The Fabled Woods, a narrative adventure. Despite the picturesque beauty, ugly and terrible secrets lurk among the shifting boughs, darkness that no amount of dappled sunlight can erase. Take the first step, and experience an unforgettable journey.
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A hodgepodge of borrowed ideas, The Fabled Woods just simply doesn't have enough going for it to warrant checking it out, even for my fellow "Pretentious garbage" enjoyers.
Right off the bat, this game rips a lot from Firewatch and has an almost comical amount of references to it. And look, I'm all for leaving some easter eggs related to the things you like, but when your game is less than an hour long and you have 2 Firewatch themed achievements, some similar visual queues, and a similar soundtrack... Come on dude. I don't need you to constantly remind me of the fact that I could just go replay that instead of finishing this.
Firewatch aside, The Fabled Woods also takes its fair share of ideas from the last decade of narrative adventures, and I don't think it uses them in any interesting way, especially since its over in the blink of an eye. It also doesn't help that the writing is the opposite of subtle and they pretty much just have a character directly state every theme or idea. The big thematic punch of the ending is particularly bad in this regard, and it reads like a freshman college student's hilariously weak grasp on the idea of morality and forgiveness.
Though with how small the dev team was for this, I wouldn't be surprised if it actually was made by college students, which is why even though its bad, I don't have any strong hate for it. To me it just kinda feels like some inexperienced creators not having much of a voice of their own yet, so they're borrowing what they like for the time being. All creatives have been there, and if this is their first real attempt at a narrative game, its far from the worst starting point. The music was good (albeit derivative), the visuals are pretty solid, the concept is generic but passable, and I didn't experience any bugs. But the writing and gameplay needs serious work, which is what I'd focus on first before cutting some sweet RTX deals with Nvidia.
Right off the bat, this game rips a lot from Firewatch and has an almost comical amount of references to it. And look, I'm all for leaving some easter eggs related to the things you like, but when your game is less than an hour long and you have 2 Firewatch themed achievements, some similar visual queues, and a similar soundtrack... Come on dude. I don't need you to constantly remind me of the fact that I could just go replay that instead of finishing this.
Firewatch aside, The Fabled Woods also takes its fair share of ideas from the last decade of narrative adventures, and I don't think it uses them in any interesting way, especially since its over in the blink of an eye. It also doesn't help that the writing is the opposite of subtle and they pretty much just have a character directly state every theme or idea. The big thematic punch of the ending is particularly bad in this regard, and it reads like a freshman college student's hilariously weak grasp on the idea of morality and forgiveness.
Though with how small the dev team was for this, I wouldn't be surprised if it actually was made by college students, which is why even though its bad, I don't have any strong hate for it. To me it just kinda feels like some inexperienced creators not having much of a voice of their own yet, so they're borrowing what they like for the time being. All creatives have been there, and if this is their first real attempt at a narrative game, its far from the worst starting point. The music was good (albeit derivative), the visuals are pretty solid, the concept is generic but passable, and I didn't experience any bugs. But the writing and gameplay needs serious work, which is what I'd focus on first before cutting some sweet RTX deals with Nvidia.
Gameplay: I got stuck in the beginning. Turns out, I had to touch some random rock to open the passage. Never got the hint though. Uh huh.
And then I got lost in the woods, trying to find some interactable object to open the next passage. All the while switching between blurry reality and some sort of "predator" vision (it gets everything red and more blurry alright, that's what it does). Sounds tedious and somewhat rage-inducing, trying to find non-existent clues as to what random object to touch? It's exactly how I felt getting through this walking sim.
Narrative: I listened intently to Sara's story, and the dark, harrowing undertones her narrative was laced with felt more vivid than the main "grim and sinister" revelation. The rest is not very memorable.
Overall: I would not recommend it to anyone, even the hardcore walking sim fans. Although the premise was alluring, it's just not worth the time with its' incomprehensive gameplay mechanics.
And then I got lost in the woods, trying to find some interactable object to open the next passage. All the while switching between blurry reality and some sort of "predator" vision (it gets everything red and more blurry alright, that's what it does). Sounds tedious and somewhat rage-inducing, trying to find non-existent clues as to what random object to touch? It's exactly how I felt getting through this walking sim.
Narrative: I listened intently to Sara's story, and the dark, harrowing undertones her narrative was laced with felt more vivid than the main "grim and sinister" revelation. The rest is not very memorable.
Overall: I would not recommend it to anyone, even the hardcore walking sim fans. Although the premise was alluring, it's just not worth the time with its' incomprehensive gameplay mechanics.