Forspoken is a new and really mysterious game when you look at it in terms of the usual AAA games that come out every year. A lot of people condemn this game or love it endlessly, but what is this game really like? How is it played? And how is it possible that this game was almost awarded the worst game of 2023? These are all questions that can only be answered the moment you play or finish the game.

Story

Forspoken offers a story that at first glance resembles a typical story that happens to some people in ordinary life. Our heroine Frey experienced one of these herself. You are an orphan who was raised on the streets and has to deal with really tough challenges all the time and especially every day. To be honest, the beginning of the game, where the story puts you on trial in connection with something Frey did, doesn't really evoke the best emotions in you at the start, but it puts you into the story so that you can feel how Frey actually lives. Although she doesn't have parents, she can deal with problems quite well and ... or rather, she runs away from them quite nicely ... literally, her Parkour style reminds the main character from Dying Light and adds an interesting feature to our character. However, after Frey runs away from her problems, the so-called Avalanche effect begins to intensify even more. Homeless, catless, hopeless... just in time for Christmas and her... birthday. Literally, this would be the worst day of anyone's life, but Frey doesn't give up and thanks to a firefly, she finds an interesting bracelet... or whatever the hell it is... Which takes her to a literal Fantasy world, stuck somewhere in the Middle Ages... nada of that world is really atmospheric and can awaken a huge portion of curiosity and excitement in you. However, there is one problem... the dragon.. yes the dragon. Thanks to the bracelet, Frey gains some abilities, but otherwise she doesn't improve much against the dragon... We move on to where Frey finds herself in front of the gates of some huge mansion and goes to court again... Poor thing. This is just an outline of what awaits you in the game, in my opinion this game has a really well written story that can evoke a really special feeling in you and especially some emotions. It can practically draw you into the story within the first twenty minutes. However, the avalanche effect can also quite convince you whether you will like the game or not.

Gameplay.

As I mentioned the bracelet that Frey finds will definitely give her powers. She can control the elements. She can throw rocks, form plant traps, and use the ground as her battlefield and sandbox. You can either use such "SMG" that at the end of the volley will make a discharge that will give huge damage or choose a "typical" style of "shooting" in combination with parkour. Honestly, I've never seen a game that combines parkour, running, and element control as well as this game. Although your abilities depend on what Frey can actually do, you will probably be surprised by the fact that our heroine can do quite a lot of moves and make a nice mess when you are fighting against a group of enemies or against one huge enemy. The gameplay as a whole revolves mainly around combat, which is practically always active whenever you move around the world. Although this game is Open Word, some activities can really knock you out of that feeling, like the Trial, which locks you in some big building where you have to fight your way to get rare items. Your gameplay practically moves like this
Talking > Traveling > Parkour > Fighting > Parkour Fighting > Collecting Items > Doing Trials > Collecting Skill Points. It seems like little, but don't worry! That's a lot, even if we summarize it in such a small column.

Optimization and Visuals

Here a lot of people hit the iceberg as hard as the Titanic did! Game optimization really failed on a lot of Hardware. If you have a GTX or RDNA 1 graphics card don't even bother buying the game. I myself played the game on a GTX 1660 Super, AMD Ryzen 5 2600 and 16GB of RAM and I have to tell you that even on the smallest details, by reducing the resolution and turning on AMD FSR 2.0, I achieved a maximum of 40FPS, which is not very much. Now with the new PC I have permanently over 200FPS which is a really big increase. But I have to say that although in some areas the game looks great and the graphics really stand out, there are areas or times where the textures and area look like if you had the game set to Minimal Textures, let's say Night. At night, when you are walking through the city or in a village, the textures, shadows and lighting are more reminiscent if you reduce the shadows to Minimum. It can give a really negative impression, but if you care so much about how the game looks, you probably won't notice it at all. The truth is that if you want the very best enjoyment from the graphics side of the game, you have the choice to turn on Ray Tracing (My graphics card, which has the RDNA 3 Architecture and supports Ray Tracing, has this option, but I don't use it, because this option seems really unnecessary). Although while we're talking about the minuses, I also have to point out that the facial expressions and their expressions are practically at freezing point. Since the developers did not play around much in this area and it can be seen that they did not pay much attention to it, unfortunately it is a lot to recognize. However, if you have a High End PC or an Edge PC, I think that Optimization will not be a problem for you.

Evaluation

Forspoken is a game that just by its price tag determines that it will be a definitely unforgettable experience, but here is the question whether it will be a good or bad experience. And the answer is... it depends on your personal preference, some may like this style of Open Word RPG games and some may loathe it. It's really up to your preference. For me, even though I don't have a lot of experience with such games, I have to admit that I quite enjoy the game and it's definitely fun to play (I especially enjoy it more when I don't play it at low FPS anymore).
The gameplay of the game is quite innovative, but again, it may seem to someone that it is not exactly their style. This game really has a lot of things in it and it's up to the players to keep them interested. However, I think that I could recommend this game to you, but only buy it at a discount, it's not a good idea to spend €80 on a game that you will find you don't enjoy at the end. So, if you decide to give the game a chance, I can only wish you good luck and have fun!

Played on:
AMD Ryzen 5 7600X
AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT 16GB
G.SKILL Trident 32GB (6000MHz) DDR5
Windows 11


Pros and cons

✔ Great gameplay
✔ Good Optimization (For High or Edge PC's)
✔ Open Word and a lot of activities

✘ Face expressions
✘ Game feels lifeless
✘ Really High Hardware requirements

[b]Forspoken is a new and really mysterious game when you look at it in terms of the usual AAA games that come out every year. A lot of people condemn this game or love it endlessly, but what is this game really like? How is it played? And how is it possible that this game was almost awarded the worst game of 2023? These are all questions that can only be answered the moment you play or finish the game.[/b] [b]Story[/b] Forspoken offers a story that at first glance resembles a typical story that happens to some people in ordinary life. Our heroine Frey experienced one of these herself. You are an orphan who was raised on the streets and has to deal with really tough challenges all the time and especially every day. To be honest, the beginning of the game, where the story puts you on trial in connection with something Frey did, doesn't really evoke the best emotions in you at the start, but it puts you into the story so that you can feel how Frey actually lives. Although she doesn't have parents, she can deal with problems quite well and ... or rather, she runs away from them quite nicely ... literally, her Parkour style reminds the main character from Dying Light and adds an interesting feature to our character. However, after Frey runs away from her problems, the so-called Avalanche effect begins to intensify even more. Homeless, catless, hopeless... just in time for Christmas and her... birthday. Literally, this would be the worst day of anyone's life, but Frey doesn't give up and thanks to a firefly, she finds an interesting bracelet... or whatever the hell it is... Which takes her to a literal Fantasy world, stuck somewhere in the Middle Ages... nada of that world is really atmospheric and can awaken a huge portion of curiosity and excitement in you. However, there is one problem... the dragon.. yes the dragon. Thanks to the bracelet, Frey gains some abilities, but otherwise she doesn't improve much against the dragon... We move on to where Frey finds herself in front of the gates of some huge mansion and goes to court again... Poor thing. This is just an outline of what awaits you in the game, in my opinion this game has a really well written story that can evoke a really special feeling in you and especially some emotions. It can practically draw you into the story within the first twenty minutes. However, the avalanche effect can also quite convince you whether you will like the game or not. [b]Gameplay.[/b] As I mentioned the bracelet that Frey finds will definitely give her powers. She can control the elements. She can throw rocks, form plant traps, and use the ground as her battlefield and sandbox. You can either use such "SMG" that at the end of the volley will make a discharge that will give huge damage or choose a "typical" style of "shooting" in combination with parkour. Honestly, I've never seen a game that combines parkour, running, and element control as well as this game. Although your abilities depend on what Frey can actually do, you will probably be surprised by the fact that our heroine can do quite a lot of moves and make a nice mess when you are fighting against a group of enemies or against one huge enemy. The gameplay as a whole revolves mainly around combat, which is practically always active whenever you move around the world. Although this game is Open Word, some activities can really knock you out of that feeling, like the Trial, which locks you in some big building where you have to fight your way to get rare items. Your gameplay practically moves like this Talking > Traveling > Parkour > Fighting > Parkour Fighting > Collecting Items > Doing Trials > Collecting Skill Points. It seems like little, but don't worry! That's a lot, even if we summarize it in such a small column. [b]Optimization and Visuals[/b] Here a lot of people hit the iceberg as hard as the Titanic did! Game optimization really failed on a lot of Hardware. If you have a GTX or RDNA 1 graphics card don't even bother buying the game. I myself played the game on a GTX 1660 Super, AMD Ryzen 5 2600 and 16GB of RAM and I have to tell you that even on the smallest details, by reducing the resolution and turning on AMD FSR 2.0, I achieved a maximum of 40FPS, which is not very much. Now with the new PC I have permanently over 200FPS which is a really big increase. But I have to say that although in some areas the game looks great and the graphics really stand out, there are areas or times where the textures and area look like if you had the game set to Minimal Textures, let's say Night. At night, when you are walking through the city or in a village, the textures, shadows and lighting are more reminiscent if you reduce the shadows to Minimum. It can give a really negative impression, but if you care so much about how the game looks, you probably won't notice it at all. The truth is that if you want the very best enjoyment from the graphics side of the game, you have the choice to turn on Ray Tracing (My graphics card, which has the RDNA 3 Architecture and supports Ray Tracing, has this option, but I don't use it, because this option seems really unnecessary). Although while we're talking about the minuses, I also have to point out that the facial expressions and their expressions are practically at freezing point. Since the developers did not play around much in this area and it can be seen that they did not pay much attention to it, unfortunately it is a lot to recognize. However, if you have a High End PC or an Edge PC, I think that Optimization will not be a problem for you. [b]Evaluation[/b] Forspoken is a game that just by its price tag determines that it will be a definitely unforgettable experience, but here is the question whether it will be a good or bad experience. And the answer is... it depends on your personal preference, some may like this style of Open Word RPG games and some may loathe it. It's really up to your preference. For me, even though I don't have a lot of experience with such games, I have to admit that I quite enjoy the game and it's definitely fun to play (I especially enjoy it more when I don't play it at low FPS anymore). The gameplay of the game is quite innovative, but again, it may seem to someone that it is not exactly their style. This game really has a lot of things in it and it's up to the players to keep them interested. However, I think that I could recommend this game to you, but only buy it at a discount, it's not a good idea to spend €80 on a game that you will find you don't enjoy at the end. So, if you decide to give the game a chance, I can only wish you good luck and have fun! Played on: AMD Ryzen 5 7600X AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT 16GB G.SKILL Trident 32GB (6000MHz) DDR5 Windows 11 [code]MY RATING: ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✘ ✘ ✘ 7 / 10[/code] Pros and cons ✔ Great gameplay ✔ Good Optimization (For High or Edge PC's) ✔ Open Word and a lot of activities ✘ Face expressions ✘ Game feels lifeless ✘ Really High Hardware requirements