The Forest was a game that I somehow completely missed when it first went through Early Access and its original release. When I found it, it felt like those old days before streaming services where you accidentally ended up watching Tremors at midnight on basic cable having never known that it existed, or that the franchise was already three sequels deep by the time you discovered the original. Because of this "found media" feeling, combined with the themes of the game itself, it felt like accidentally finding a really neat creepypasta in the form of a video game. The survival mechanics also worked decently well, and while the story required a fair bit of suspension of disbelief, it ended up being a mostly coherent narrative with a contemplative ending.

Then... they made this game. The survival stuff carries over and is improved and polished, but they also decided to vastly expand the narrative here and, christ in heaven, what a perfect example of not all ideas needing to be given life. I won't bother spoiling it, I'd suggest either playing through the insane nonsense yourself if you like the gameplay of The Forest, or just watching a youtube video summarizing it, but suffice it to say, this title was a gameplay mechanic in search of a narrative, and it would have honestly been better off doing 90% less, leaving a bunch of stuff completely ambiguous and just letting you kill body horror creatures in the woods. I also feel duty-bound to mention Kelvin. There, he's been mentioned.