There’s always something very satisfying when one group of fanboys start to hype up an exclusive game… that releases to an absolute mess of reviews… and this works both ways… here we have Forspoken, a PS5 exclusive game much anticipated that landed with a very similar splatting sound that awaited the Xbox exclusive Redfall.
The back tracking from the rabid, console loyalists is always amusing to see… how they always thought it looked dull and uninteresting but nobody listened to them, okay so they can’t quite remember where they posted a comment saying that, but they definitely did… it’s amusing and sad in equal measures.
But in both cases, there are people out there who will find enjoyment playing those games… now occasionally these people will tout them as potential “game of the year” candidates despite the critical lambasting they received… those people are mad.
There’s nothing wrong with enjoying a game that scores 5 or 6 out of 10… but don’t try and bestow honours on it that it clearly doesn’t deserve… if that’s your game of the year maybe you need to play more games.
So… here we are, on the second part of my journey through a 6/10 title… Forspoken, that was a gift game that I took 6 months to start, but have enjoyed immensely to this point, nowhere near where the game supposedly drops off and starts to look rushed, but so far so good…
November 19th
Having spent around 28 hours up to the point where I took out the first 2 Tanta’s it then took me less than 6 to complete the story… rushed much?
After 30 minutes of story Frey leaves the city in a mood… you’re headed towards the area you first landed in to confront your mother, only to be whisked away back to New York in a huge illusion which you need to break to escape from… nice mechanic and this part was pretty decent… back in Athia it’s off to another castle to confront the Tanta, who you discover is already long gone.
*** MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD ***
As you approach the body and expect the new corpses power to be added to the spell sets you already have… nothing happens… and the true villain of the peace becomes apparent… the Cuff on your arm that has been offering so much sarcastic advice throughout.
Seems the one you find is that of your Mother Cinta, that, and the others from Sila, Olas and Prav, each contained part of a Demon set on destroying Athia… you’ve inadvertently been putting him back together and now, complete, he intends to destroy the city of Cipal… it was his influence on all of them that started the corruption to spread throughout the land.
Cue a long story section as you learn your heritage with flashbacks about the fall of the Tanta protectors, and how, as the daughter of a Tanta, you have your own powers… steadily you regain the powers you lost and the final set from Olas… off you go to fight the Demon and save the day.
Your mother helps… in her new form as the Dragon you fought early on in the game… with this battle done you finish with a Cuff tattoo on your arm as he becomes bound to you.
You are returned to the game, clean up is all there to be done along with a few small side missions to help out the townsfolk… this may take a while… I have no intention of hitting the platinum (the grind for the spell upgrades is too much) but most of the rest seem achievable even if they do take a while.
November 26th
After a further 16 hours of clean up I’m done with the game… 49/54 Trophies unlocked, my idea of hitting 50 scuppered by a side quest I missed meaning I missed out on a Necklace so I can’t unlock the Trophy for collecting all the gear.
I did manager to find all the cat familiars, complete all the combat trials, find all the spell pools and unlock all the spells.
Getting the 50 photos and defeating the 4 abominations was a different matter.
Not far from the main city of Cipal is an area of the map described as being “Nowhere” which contains my final phot spot and the final abomination… it’s a treacherous cliff top pass and isn’t easy to get to… not made easier by there being a breakstorm happening at the same time.
Now these crop up as you travel the land of Athia, after a couple of minutes combat they peter out and you can continue… I spent close to 20 minutes fighting here and still they came… so you have to complete the climb up the mountain path, leaping from one side of the “drop down and your dead” gap to the other, when you can barely see and are constantly under attack.
This almost broke me… at one point I deleted the game in a defiant “F**k It” moment, only to reinstall and complete it later when I discovered I was about 80% of the way through and that the final 20% was a couple more jumps and a run to the end.
This done you then have the final real boss battle of the game in the 4th abomination which was a doddle in comparison.
All this is quite annoying… with the corrupted Tanta’s now defeated… why do these breakstorms still keep appearing? They have to be the least fun mechanic in the game… and this final one was just a step too far for me… while I may have had thoughts of keeping the game and picking up the DLC when/if it goes on sale I’ve just lost any interest in keeping going.
And that final paragraph shows why the game scored as low as it did, there are some illogical story beats, some rough gameplay decisions and mechanics, and a very rushed second half of the game… which has ultimately lead to the break-up of the team and the death of any chance we had of a sequel that could have worked on the weaker points of the initial release.
All in all, I spent around 51-52 hours here, which is way more time than I would have guessed at when I played the uninspired demo at the start of the year and all the low review scores were coming in… it could have been more… I was around 25 hours or more in by the time I had dealt with the second of the 4 Tanta’s… I had expected this whole account of the game to stretch to 3, maybe 4, separate pieces… but the rush to release is visible in the later parts of the game… which is a shame.