Paired with a quippy talking bracelet, it feels like the writing goes for a messy Marvel movie dialogue, with Frey the Iron Man throwing out blasts while Cuff, the J.A.R.V.I.S, quips left and right about, well, stuff, when he's not throwing out exposition for everything at the player. While Frey does experience some nice character growth out of this rough early shell, the writing is going to make some cringe. And hey, one can sympathize with her situation very much while also feeling like the writing is a bit overdone. Especially early, nearly every other word seems to be vulgar for the sake of, well, just because, and it's a small portion of her dismissive approach to events. Onlookers won't have to look far to find the word abrasive used to describe protagonist Frey Holland and it's, unfortunately, spot on. It's not a new thing by any means, but receiving increased rewards for taking on fights in a skillful manner (ie good combos, amount of damage taken, etc.) is always a welcome feature.įrey isn't the most popular in Athia with all citizens-understandably-because of her powers and ability to survive outside in "The Break," the phenomenon responsible for the shattered, uninhabitable world and monsters. One place Forspoken battles really shine is with the grading system. Ripping off spells and traps while using the game's parkour system mid-fight is straight-up fun. Once Forspoken's gameplay really gets going and players get a hold of all the systems, it has some dopamine-riddled highs. One memorable spell is a give-and-take gamble for the player, as they trap themselves and the enemy in a circle of flames, putting the player at risk but also giving them bonuses to fire-based spells. Players initially only have access to the Earth-based skills, with the other trees opening up in time and greatly increasing variety.Įvery range of spell a player could imagine eventually reveals itself, whether it's an assist from nature to bind enemies or little turrets that add DPS. The elemental trees are a great example of what a slow-starter this game is. Players simply pick up rocks and throw them as attacks for what feels like a very extended tutorial. Like its protagonist, the combat is very limited and almost off-putting at first. Players can hop into the menus and turn on auto-swapping of support spells to help this, but the players shouldn't have to do that to help the game flow better. There's an impressive amount of tactical depth to the combat system, although it can feel very clunky needing to pop open a menu so often in what is otherwise fast-paced combat. Enemies carry the expected strengths and weaknesses to certain elements, something players can scan with their companion Cuff to figure out on the fly. Other things are a tad more basic, with Scatter, Burst, and Shield Shots available alongside support spells. The game boasts an eye-popping number of spells and the actual number (in the triple digits) isn't exaggerated. But it struggles at times too, leading to frustration as Frey gets caught on random things or a route simply isn't available (and she does a ton of extra flips, all the time!). Players can scale walls, ride magical items with stunning speed and, let's just say it beats the heck out of hopping on a horse and plodding along. It's an open-world navigation reminiscent of past super-hero-ish hits like the Infamous series. Traversing the open world is a blast when it works right. But it feels like the game intentionally tucks the interesting stuff out of the way instead of putting it up front to engross players. Things do open up a little bit later on with interesting things like floating islands in the sky and the sense of scale is always impressive thanks to absolutely massive and stunning skyboxes. And while the voice-acting performances feel top-notch, character models and especially the lip-synching just seem a little off, as if a little too on the plastic side of things. Where Aloy's adventure had drop-dead gorgeous biomes and different cultures and a sci-fi twist to explore, Forspoken doesn't really have any of that going for it. Forspoken's looks and world will end up getting compared to Horizon Zero Dawn and that's downright unfair. There's a narrative reason for that too, but it doesn't help. It's one part of the reason the open world feels empty. At first, the world is mostly muddy with some spotty textures, draw distances aren't very far and different biomes don't fare much better. In what quickly becomes a theme, Forspoken starts off visually bland and limited.įorspoken, unlike releases such as Returnal and God of War Ragnarök since the PlayStation 5's launch, is not exactly a looker or exemplary of what the next-generation hardware can do.
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