Percy Bartelt, Staff Writer

After nine years of Endnight Games’ successful original release of the survival horror game, “The Forest,” the developers released its highly anticipated sequel aptly named “Sons of the Forest.” Released officially on Feb. 23, there was no shortage of content creators starting their own playthrough of the games and showing the ridiculousness that comes with new, early access games that have yet to fix their bug reports or create more content to finish the storyline. 

Endnight Games’ first completed game, “The Forest,” follows the main character through a plane crash landing on an island and the kidnapping of his son by the island’s cannibalistic monsters. You then have to travel across the entire island looking for caves to uncover the island’s hidden mysteries that are part of a bigger atrocity. “Sons of the Forest,” while still in early access, has the same mechanics as its predecessor. The main character is sent with a crew to a remote island looking for a missing billionaire, but the island’s inhabitants are less than enthused to see you running around. Similar to the first game, they’re very hostile, cannibalistic monsters, but their design has changed wildly, and all the more effective for a horror game. I found a new mechanic that was added very interesting. One of the NPCs named Kelvin, who lands on the island with you, can be ordered around via notepad, even when in multiplayer mode. If you want Kelvin to cut down trees, build a house or find some rocks – he’ll do it for you!

Once again this game is still in early access but already has very positive reviews! Its main criticism is that new content is likely to take a very long time. The first game was released in 2014, but it wasn’t until 2018 that the game was fully released and fleshed out. Despite this, people are excited to see what “Sons of the Forest” will release, and enthusiasts have already developed theories surrounding its unknown ending. 

However, many critics are unhappy with the rushed nature of the release. It feels very unnecessarily pushed out to the public despite its very large map being kind of barren in terms of content, lore and collectables. It was much like the release of another game, “Cyberpunk 2077”, being rushed in time for the Christmas season when it badly needed at least another year’s worth of development. But fans of the game series are looking on the bright side of things, appreciating the game for its wonderful graphics, its new and interesting mechanics and especially the larger and more organized crafting menu, which I, myself, appreciate! 

In my own opinion of the game, “Sons of the Forest” has already taken a clear step forward in the graphics! You can tell the developers have really stepped up their game and have built up their amazing skill for world building and game design. Despite being early access, the bones and silhouette for an amazing, and highly engaging game are there and I’m very excited to see this project in its final form.

You can check out the sequel to “The Forest” for yourself today. “Sons of the Forest” is playable with Microsoft Windows and is available on Steam.