The Forest is one of my favorite survival games and so I was obviously really excited for it's sequel. I've been following the development from Sons of the Forest closely and played it during it's early acces phase rather sporadically. Now the full Version has been released for roughly 2 month and I've finally beat the game with my friend.
Our overall experience was positive but we both agreed on the fact that Sons of the Forest doesn't reach the heights from it's predecessor. Due to the Map being way too big and rather empty, traversing it often feels like a slog. Yes they added vehicles like the Golfcart or the Knight V which are both cool additions but using these vehicles can get annonying because you are running into trees all the time. There are also less animals and less blueprints, examples for this would be the missing of boats. I found the story also less compelling then the story from the first game because it lacked motivation. Which was better executed in The Forest with the big hole in the middle of the map being a core driving factor for mystery and your reason to explorer.

But it's not all bad, the overall production value is higher, every mechanic feels more fleshed out and the many new animations are a great addition. The performance is also way better then in early access and the game runs way smoother. I also liked the improved building system and it was just fun building your base with your friends. But the problem was that there is no real reason for your to build a base. Since you can carry every important item in your inventory and exploring takes so much time due to the size of the map that you are rarely at your base. My favorite new additions would be Kelvin and Virginia, both characters were very useful even if the AI wasn't the best at times. The ending that you get with Virginia was also hilarious and I would have never expected that you impregnate her

All in all still a really fun game with beautiful graphics, a solid survival foundation and it's even more fun with your friends. The story is rather lackluster because I think finding your own son is more compelling then finding a random billionaire.

Games I finished in 2024 ranked

My favorite survival games ranked

Platinum Trophies Exhibition

played on and off with some friends for a bit, but now that i havent returned to it for a while, i gotta say that it's both fun and disappointing. the ai companions are a neat idea, but i never really got much use for them. coop definitely hampered that, but even when kelvin was still alive he was mostly there to jumpscare my friends and i (which i missed after he died). paranoia is still very good. besides the survival mechanics, paranoia is what this game continues to do good from its predecessor. the woods feel alive, the wind is ominous, the night darkness is an engulfing evil to be avoided. the one improvement i like the most is the building system, it feels very intuitive and promotes curiosity in what can be achieved through it. it's very formatted. the building is almost like rust's walls and foundation system, but it's more intricate in that you can carve out windows and doorframes or build ramps versus stairs instead of walls, and more. so aside from being more of the forest and a more fun building system, the biggest downsides are progression pacing and the fact that the game's still unfinished. back when i played, it felt like there were some missing things like animal head trophies. they added these back in though so eh, but i felt like i had seen pretty much all that was added. i think in my very first play session i had already gotten my hands on the pistol which was insane because in the forest i hadnt even ever gotten the crossbow. granted i never finished that game, but it felt cryptic and rewarding to find any new equipment in the first game! here, the pistol is just laying out in the open in a raft offshore instead of a hidden cave or buried box. its obviously unfinished, but since i enjoyed the first forest and i like this new building system i just hope that it can leave early access in a good state. really only get this game if you LOVE the first game and crave anything like it.

I am confused by Endnight thinking that this is a nearly finished game and only needs "polishing".

This is basically The Forest on a new map. A map that is bigger, but absolutely does not have anything fun or new in it. Just a lot more space to run around in. The lack of a story was understandable because the first one was like that, but they did not improve on the sandbox elements to the game in any meaningful way. In fact, there's actually no point to having a base in this game because it's so easy to get to weapons that just one shot everything. Your backpack can carry an insane amount of stuff too. So, why build a base?

Overall this is an early access survival game. Lots of missing features, a lame ending, and overall there is horrendous optimization and polish and it certainly needs work. But it is good, and promising. Lots of stuff to do and a lot of the caves feel cool to explore and fight in, with really awesome rewards for exploration because you can find some very unique tools. The building is both better and worse, because it is harder to use but also you can build more and have more creativity. The mutants are a little safer in design and not as freaky, a little too humanoid but the companions you get are really cool. The enemy AI of course is top notch and they feel like actual, breathing people that will run away or give up or ignore you depending on things. I hope they keep their promise of expanding on the game and updating it constantly but we will have to see. You certainly have to understand it is an early access game to enjoy it right now. I will update this review as time passes and I do more playthroughs and hours. If you don't mind early access or have friends, grab it. If you do mind early access you'll have to sadly wait a couple of months.

I ultimately don't think the tale is that great since I don't think this game is as amazing as The Forest game. Even though it is in early access, this was my first experience with the survival game genre. The gameplay is ok, nothing to get too pumped about in my opinion. It gives away enough about the overall plot of the game, so I doubt I'll play it when it's fully released. I was disappointed to learn that this is a sequel to The Forest, even if I just had the opportunity to watched the plot and gameplay of that game. I don't want to draw any comparisons. I just did not like it.

Absolutely in love with this base-building system. Putting something like this together is bold after your last game went with the conventional approach of click-to-place prefab structures, but I respect it. The whole idea of building your own base is now its own puzzle that requires advance planning, and I've spent basically my entire playtime in the game so far engineering modern marvels and then lecturing my friends when they interrupt my Lunch atop a Skyscraper moments by demonstrating their poor understanding of terminology any 5-year-old would know 💅

There aren't any robust physics calculations happening, but being forced to build custom structures brick by brick means that you'll develop an appreciation for even slightly large structures and will take way more psychic damage IRL when some graceless goober manages to knock them down. Any friend who plays these #EarlyAccess #Survival #Crafting games for the base building will get sucked into this like quicksand, developing a terrifying fervor for the proper procedures of placing struts/supporting beams in order to reclaim the materials later.

Coming at this one as a guy who never played the first Forest title and jumped right into the sequel. This open-world survival horror sandbox makes a pretty strong first impression as you try to survive the mutant freaks around you with little supplies and get your bearings. Unfortunately, the game quickly lost its luster for us.

I think my main issue with this game is that it's actually too easy, because your backpack is just ridiculously big. There's no real motivation to make a fort. I get that in a lot of survival sandboxes, the base-building is a "make your own fun" sort of feature, but in a game like Sons of the Forest I was hoping for it to actually have some utility, where I'd need to store stuff there and pick it up later. I realized how undangerous this world felt when I randomly decided to make a trek across the map and the mountains at its center without a care in the world. Why spend time building a shelter or managing your resources when you can just carry everything on your back and build a makeshift tarp tent with a clicks and survive the night that way.

Sons of the Forest is at its best when you're exploring the caves to find new items, or the secret lab bunkers spread across the map. I liked exploring these areas that give such a stark contrast to the look of the rest of the game, but they are all very linear. There's nothing stopping you from just going all the way to the back of the cave, finding your item, and leaving. The progression is simple and after a while my friends just said screw the survival element and made a beeline to the end.

The climax is rather poorly designed since there was nothing stopping us from running by the enemies and not engaging with them at all, and then you get an utterly wacky final reveal that didn't make any sense at all and I can only assume is teasing lore for a third game, and credits.

Sons of the Forest looks great and has moments where a really quality survival title shines through, but it is ultimately just too easy and forgiving since I could just carry everything I could ever need at any time, and generally didn't feel at peril out and about in the world. Just didn't really get into this one.

after putting about 50 hours into it, i have not finished the story, in fact i've barely progressed in it, because this game is so cool to just build around and fight occasionally, the building is intuitive and gimmicky but in a really cool way, it's also never really all that annoying as getting materials doesn't feel like farming as much as other games, given that the materials that you use are reallistically reflected on the buildings as opposed to, idk, needing x number of fictitious wood that's in your inventory to make random chair, the building being tree trunk and stone based makes it simple and satisfying and eliminates the dissonance caused by other building systems in other games. the combat and survival mechanics are good enough too, and the exploration is also fine, the caves are somewhat punishing but it's not all too bad, maybe frustrating sometimes. it's really the type of game to dump your time into and chill out building and finding cool items around the map, which is surprising for a game about cannibals and mutants

survival games without needless complications that i can just chill out in are my bread and butter really

i figure i'll try to beat the story sometime but idk, i'm fine the way i am

also the game is getting regular patches since it's on early access so about every two weeks there's new cool content and it only gets better really

This game is very obviously not finished, so I could not in good faith try to give it a full run down, but as it is I think its really great. Everything that's here is really great, and I'm excited to see how it evolves as they finish it throughout the year. The story as it is right now is disappointing, with literally one voice line in the entire thing despite crediting multiple actors, but I'm confident they'll bring it together by the time of it's full release based on the first game. The ending in the game right now is somehow both over and underwhelming, but I do think they'll pull it out. I've spent 65 hours with the game already and I can easily see myself breaking 100 before it leaves early access, and god knows how many more after that.

Haven't gotten to far into the game yet but:
-Building/crafting is wonky & convoluted and nothing like the original
-Inconsistent mouse cursor speeds between aiming/looking/inventory/options menu
-Game is still way too dark, darker than the original, Even with Gamma and Brightness boosted, my friends and I can't see anything at night/dark areas
-Things feel needlessly slow (pulling out things from inventory, swapping weapons, etc)
-Inventory is WAY too big. The original was great with everything in easily reachable areas on the screen, meanwhile now you have to slowly scroll your way to different areas of the inventory. I couldn't even SEE that sticks are now in the bottom left of the inventory because they were covered up/that far out of viewing distance

I'm hoping this gets better with time, as the original did, considering it's Early Access, but this long of a development time for Early Access that feels like 2 steps backwards from where they polished The Forest at is just annoying.