Forspoken Review

Forspoken is not the bad game it is hyped up to be but at the same time it isn't a very good game either, it's about as "middle of the road" as middle of the road can get. I had some fun with it which is really all I can hope for when playing any game and Forspoken wasn't a completely miserable experience at the same time, the whole game from a gameplay standpoint made me wish I was playing other games that did what this game does but better.

I'll start with the story and writing, while it's not the worst thing ever, at the same time, it isn't that great either. I kind of like what the story was going for with Frey basically a loner who doesn't really trust anyone but when going on this journey she discovers herself and learns to accept greater responsiblities and other people, it's a premise that has been over done but it can make for a decent story when done well and some aspects of the story I did like how Frey doesn't want to get involved but throughout the journey she slowly does, it's kind of realized even if it feels like the story is rushing through story beat after story beat with not a whole lot of down time in between which I get since it is a game. The dialogue isn't good but I don't think it's the worst thing ever, it's serviceable and I do like Cuff's voice acting and since I mentioned him, I might as well say what I disliked about the story, Cuff's transition to be a full blown villain felt completely out of nowhere and out of left field and felt like it was only there because the game needed a big, emotional and bombastic final boss to end the game on, I won't go too much into detail to prevent even more spoilers, it felt like the stars would just need to magically align for all the stuff in the game to transpire the way it does.

Now on to the gameplay and this is where I feel like the game "shines" and I only say so in a rather backhanded way. The best way of describing it is basically this game is to Infamous what Star Wars the Force Unleashed is to God of War. Every time I play Forspoken, I feel like I would rather play Infamous instead. I say this because both games have you use parkour, lets you dash, and gives you a wide array of superpowers to lay waste to your enemies with. The difference is with Infamous is that series takes place in a modern day setting where Forspoken takes place in a fantasy world. This difference is important because with Infamous, the parkour fits the tall buildings and lots of climbing you will be doing. The Infamous games takes place in an "urban" playground of sorts where you can jump from high buildings, glide, and quick ways of moving quick and fast darting around the world. Forspoken on the other hand takes place in a fantasy world where much of the terrain is flat with not many way to move quickly around the world outside of dashing, there is no buildings to speak of, so you will be holding down the circle button a lot with not many as many ways to move around quickly. You also get a stamina meter and take fall damage in Forspoken which is an odd adition for a game with superpowers since you are supposed to be leaping and jumping around constantly, it means players will be less experiemental.

Another issue is the combat, while combat in Forspoken isn't "bad", it's also inferior to Infamous, where the latter especially in the second game where you have a wide array of enemies to fight from close quarters enemies, long range enemies, bigger enemies, fast enemies and a mix of all the above, in Forspoken, all the enemies either come in close to attack you or or have bigger enemies that take a ton of damage to kill with the occasional enemies that throw really fast projectiles. The Infamous games also have a dedicated dodge button while Forspoken doesn't. Forspoken requires you to hold 2 buttons to dodge or use your unreliable dash which could potentially get enemies to land hits on you especially during bosses with fast moving projectiles. Forspoken doesn't have a dedicated melee attack button either and you need Silas' skill set to use which means I was using her moves for much of the game and only used Olas' because it did high damage. I am going to be honest and say if Forspoken didn't have it's customizable difficulty, I would've been unable to beat the game due to the above mentioned issues. You not only get to pick easy but lower the damage numbers enemies give you too. So thanks to this I was able to beat the game at all since the gameplay is way too clunkly and I didn't want to engage with the barren and empty open world and boring RPG systems in order to have fun with a game with elemental superpowers.

Overall, I don't dislike this game, I think it is alright but I can't help but think when playing this game I would rather play an open world Spider-Man, Infamous, Prototype, and Hulk Ultimate Destruction instead. This game is decent enough if you get it at sale price. 

In the Tanta We Trust Review:

I played the base game and got the DLC due to me doing some random impulse buying and after playing this DLC, my issues with the base game start to become more clear. I can't really call Forspoken a game I absolutely can't stand playing since I did get to the end, but at the same time, apart of can't help but feel a little down that a game with such impressive production values is wasted on a game that the game development team had no idea they want to make.

In my review of the base game, I said the game plays like Infamous minus everything that makes the Infamous series' action and traversal gameplay enjoyable and much of that can still apply.

But here is my big issue with Forspoken's combat, it can't decide whether it wants to be a shooter or a melee combat game. For example, all most of Frey's attacks are ranged projectiles but enemies often don't strike back at you using ranged projectiles of their own, most of the enemies attack at close range, or constantly love to come up close.

Then there is Frey's close range attacks which are really imprecise despite having a lock on and they lack impact or feedback to make them a worthwhile option and to top if all off there is no dedicated melee attack button so if you choose melee Frey will often flail her sword like mad with hits that don't make any kind of satisfying impact when they land. Compare that to Delsin Rowe's melee attacks or Cole MacGrath's in Infamous 2, enemies will get react and get staggered to the hits making it feel like you are actually damaging the enemies.

Then there is the lack of a dedicated dodge button, it sort of has one with the circle button but only if Frey is locked on and dodging works like a melee combat game and since her most effect attacks are ranged and melee lacks impact it's going to be a game of constantly dodge rolling. I really think an Infamous Second Son or Doom Eternal style dashing system could've worked here since dodging as it is is either going to lead into rolling or Frey using her usual parkour run as an evasion tactic which isn't precise since the camera tracks her running along with the movement of the enemies. The X button could've been a dedicated dodge button since the jump in Forspoken doesn't really do much of anything and most of your traversal is spent holding circle, and occasionally holding square to use the grapple hook, while we are it you could've made triangle the melee attack button, you could've easily had the context sensitive actions and melee be mapped to the same button, I'm not the biggest fan of this but it's better than what Forspoken comes up with.

This leads me to my final issue: the camera, I will admit that while I think dislike for the over the shoulder camera recently has been over done, I'm not sure if that along with the traditional fully controllable 3D camera melee combat game where the locks and follows the enemies movements makes for a consistently entertaining combat experience. This along with my previously mentioned issues just makes for one of the most confused combat systems I have ever played, it can't decide whether it wants to be something like Infamous or a melee combat action RPG like Kingdom Hearts.

The DLC doesn't provide much content either and much of it is spent on going the optional areas in Chapter 2, so if you beline it to the next story mission, there isn't much content here, all though I didn't mind since I was looking for a quick game to beat anyway. The enemies are also mostly very samey, you will mainly be fighting cultists, winged cultists and a dragon 3 times. Also, they tease a sequel that probably will not happen.

Overall, I have been complaing about this DLC a lot, but playing Forspoken's combat really was a fascinating experience in a backhanded way, I do find it's shortcomings to be fascinating, but you probably got the DLC already if you enjoyed the base game, I'd say if you have no problem with what have been saying this whole time, then get the DLC and play it. I did get some enjoyment from it and I wanted a short and quick game to beat and the game gave me just that.