​​The Forest is a decent open world survival craft horror game that is better spent playing with friends. Playing with a group of four friends, this was a pretty intense gaming experience. The story, gameplay, horror, and random encounters with cannibals and monsters were all pretty good. The sound quality is next-level fantastic.

All the little sounds while running around the ​​game were brilliantly done. Everything from bugs and birds chirping to the sounds of wind, trees, rain, thunder, and especially the water effects was excellent. The sound elevates the atmospheric horror you’ll find while exploring, scavenging, and trying to survive.

The weapons you find along the way are pretty good. Axes, crossbows, chainsaws, katanas, all serve a purpose and amplify the gameplay once you discover them. Speaking of which, the gameplay is fun to a degree, even though the hit markers are all over the place. When fighting enemies or hunting animals for food, this became a bit annoying since clear hits don’t always register, and you’re left swiping at air even though you hit an enemy​ directly in the head or chest.

Also, please be mindful that this game was released in April 2018 and has numerous bugs, glitches, and unaddressed save progress issues​ that likely won't be fixed. Nameplates disappearing, the hit marker issues, lag, and the random loss of everything in your inventory, and even story progression due to server or disconnect issues. Even while saving, it can bug out, and you’ll have to do things all over again. Either way, I enjoyed my time with The Forest and look forward to playing Sons of the Forest soon.

​I give The Forest a 3/5 and would recommend it to gamers looking for an open world survival craft horror game with some of the best audio I’ve ever heard in these ​kinds of games. Make sure to play with headphones on for the best atmospheric experience. This would have been a higher score in my book if not for the bugs, save issues, and gameplay not being as tight as it could be. Regardless, it’s a ton of fun with friends, but playing it solo could be a bit boring in the grand scheme of things. Part of the allure is just going into this game blind with a group of friends, ​everyone on Discord, and just figuring things out as you explore, scavenge, kill, and most importantly of all, survive. If you love this kind of gameplay on top of horror, The Forest is worth giving it a whirl.