The Forest Video Game! Lets Talk About It!

Hello everyone and welcome back to my blog!

I hope you are having a wonderful day!

Lets talk about a horror video game that has recently been introduced to me called The Forest, that came out in 2014 created by Endnight Games.

The Forest is a survival horror video game that has a solo story line that you can follow. But you can also play an open world part of the game with up to four people in the party with you. When playing both versions of the game it is completely up to the player what happens and each experience while playing is unique to each person. You can build up your campsite and do some of basic tasks on the game or you can go off and get deeper into the storyline and explore the island more. There are about 47 different achievements that you can do while playing the game, depending on how you play it but they are not set to where you have to do all of them to beat the game.

It is all based around a plane crash that leaves passengers stranded on a deserted island overtaken by cannibals. The main character, Eric Leblanc is on a plane with his son, Timmy, when the plane suddenly crashes into a island and Eric is separated from his son. At the site of the plan crash a mysterious red figure is seen in and out of Eric's vision taking Timmy away from him. Looking around the crash site Eric finds no other survivors. He is forced to survive on the island as he looks around for clues as to where his son was taken to. While looking for clues he runs into these strange creatures, some that look like normal human beings while some are mutated and no longer resemble a human at all. He figures out that they are cannibals and that they are the only living inhabitants of the island but there is no real explanation yet as to how they got there or why some of them are so horribly mutated. As he explores the island more he finds proof of other people that were once stuck on the island just like he is now. He finds abandoned campsites deep in the forest and even as he explores some of the caves. More times than not he finds the bodies of the people who were stuck there before him either close to the camp sites or down in the caves hung up on the walls and displayed in shrines. But the more that he searches there is no proof of anyone every getting off of the island. As Eric explores the island in search of Timmy he stumbles across strange drawings looked to be done by a child, and some of Timmy's toys. This makes Eric believe that his son is still alive and all he has to do is find him and get them both off of the island somehow.

As he is investigating the island looking for his son, he finds a lab where he learns that the cannibals were once people that were experimented on in lab using an artifact from the island that is said to bring the dead back to life with the human sacrifice. Lead by a doctor named Matthew Cross who was once part of a research team that was original just trying to learn more about the artifact that was on the island. They were trying to use the artifact to help children live longer lives, to then try it on adults to see if it made humans live longer. Then Matthew took over and started trying to use the artifact to resurrect his dead daughter Megan. It is not very specific as to what happened to Megan other than she was sick and died young and her father was looking for ways to bring her back. His experiments were going horribly wrong when the artifact just started to mutate the people that he was experimenting on and sacrificing. Some would turn into human like creatures that no longer had any sliver of humanity left in them other hunger making them cannibals. But also causing some of his test subjects to mutate into these horrific looking mutated creatures. After exploring the lab more Eric finds the doctor dead in his lab, chest and face impaled by crayons, next to the lifeless body of his son used in a sacrificial ceremony. Eric then goes deeper into the lab following bloody footprints to find out who did this to Matthew and he finds a resurrected Megan sitting in the middle of a large empty room coloring. She is covered head to toe in blood and as Eric gets closer to her she has a seizure and is turned into a huge mutant cannibal. Eric kills Megan and tries to resurrect Timmy with Megan's dead body, but the attempt is unsuccessful. Eric needs a living sacrifice to bring his son back to life. Eric also finds out that the doctor is to blame for the plane crash, because when they flew over the island a artifact that the doctor had in one of his labs caused the plane to malfunction and crash.

There are two endings to this game and the player gets to choose the outcome.

1. Keep using the artifact in one of the labs, causing another plane to crash into the island and then go searching for a child to sacrifice to bring his son back. Which then leads to them escaping the island but his son still turns into a mutant cannibal and spends the rest of his life suppressing the urges that the artifact holds on him after bringing him back to life.

2. Eric can destroy the artifact, never use it again, making it to where no one else crashes onto the island and he is then stuck there for the rest of his life alone.

The game play for this game is very detailed and specific when it comes to the different things that you can do while playing. Whether it is making weapons, building camps, hunting and cooking food, finding tools and weapons on the island, and just exploring the island in general it is almost like how it would be in real life if you were ever trapped on a deserted island. Things break and go bad. Eating certain things on the island like plants can be poisonous to you, and the only way to know that is to read the survival guide. You have to constantly keep checking on your vitals to make sure you have enough food and water to have the energy to explore the island. You have to look around the island for the materials to build camps but to also make and upgrade weapons and tools to make gathering those materials easier. You have to trap and hunt for your own food. Find bottles and cans in the luggage dropped from the plane crash, or build things to hold rain water so that you can drink on the move and in your camp. You have to defend yourself against the cannibals and some of the animals on the island decreasing your health and stamina. You are effect by all the elements on the island. You can even use the skin and bones of the cannibals and mutants that you kill to create body armor to help protect yourself from attacks and lesion the damage done to you. It makes it to where you have to think and react quickly when playing the game in order to survive just like you would need to do if this type of situation happened to you in real life.

I am not sure if many of you have heard about this video game. But my boyfriend and his brothers recently have shown this to me and I absolutely love it! I am not the best at it, if I am being honest, but it is still a fun game to play. It opens up your mind because the game gives you the ability to choose what to do in a situation where you are stranded. You are far away from civilization, forced to either be eaten by the cannibals or survive on the island and find a way off of it. But there is no right or wrong way of playing the game since there are no set missions or goals that you have to meet. You go where ever you want on the island, exposed to the different environments and creatures; both natural and unnatural, looking for a way to either survive or get off of the island.

I cannot speak on how the game feels when playing solo, I can only speak from the stand point of playing it with friends. Just the fear that you experience while playing the game with a group of friends is so nerve-wracking that I cannot even imagine playing the game by myself. It is definitely a game that keeps me on edge the entire time that I am playing. Especially when it is nighttime and the cannibals jump out at you from no where. If I am playing in the dark with my headset on I easily jump and scream when the cannibals come and attack me. The cannibals are more active and more aggressive at night, and each day there are more and more of them that show up. Going from just a few here and there on the first day to herds of them coming at you all at once. Starting off with the basic cannibals and working up to the stronger and creepier mutant cannibals that are on the island. All while I am trying to build up camps to keep myself protected, find food and water to drink, and find things that were left in previous plane crashes and camp sites that can help. It is definitely a game that can suck you into that world and you can be playing it for hours and lose track of time. Every time I play I want to keep adding to my campsite and find more food and materials to gather to make it to when it is nighttime I can just hide behind my walls safely till daylight. I am definitely a chicken when it comes to going out after the sun has gone down on the game because I am easily scared by the cannibals. The fight or flight instinct kicks in very quickly and if I am alone I run because like I mentioned before I am not the greatest at this game. But if I am close to the group that I am in I am not all that worried and will help fight the cannibals when they show up.

A few things in the game that stood out to me to be very interesting was how much detail was put into the cannibals and mutants and the different artifacts and sacred trees that you see in the game that you discover as you play. (Which I only know they are called artifacts and sacred trees after doing some research on the game)

There are 8 different types of cannibals and 8 different types of mutants that you will run into while playing the game. All of them are absolutely terrifying and the people who created this game really put in a lot of detail with each different cannibal. They all have the same characteristics but each one looks somewhat different and has its own personality. Some are more timid while others are extremely aggressive. Some hide in the shadows until the right moment to strike and some are quick and swift with attacks and don't waste a minute when trying to kill you.

1. Cannibals, are human like creatures that you run into on the island. Some are timid and keep their distance, while others are aggressive and will follow and attack you as soon as they see you. They look like normal human beings from a far but once they get closer they are anything but human. There are 8 different types of cannibals that you will run into while exploring the island. Skinny Cannibals are the most common cannibals on the island, they are weaker in attacks and have actually been seen on the game eating the bodies of the dead cannibals that you defeat. They can be male or female and are quick when running. Regular Male Cannibals are stronger and more aggressive in nature. They use weapons when they attack you, and if you kill a female cannibal in front of them they become even more violent. Regular Female Cannibals are faster and more aggressive than the male Cannibals in the game. They typically do not attack with weapons and just use their nails to scratch you and if they see the dead body of another cannibal they will stop and cry over their body. Leader Cannibals are typically found scouting out where you are and if they are near one of your camps they will try and go destroy it while you are fighting off the other members of his pack. They will typically howl for back up and more of their pack will show up in the middle of a fight, and if the leader is killed the straggling cannibals will retreat and return back later. Fire Throwing Cannibals are typically not close to you when fighting packs off, they stand away in the distance throwing things at you that are on fire and fighting them in hand to hand combat leads to the risk of them setting you on fire. Starving Mutants are the weakest cannibals that you will come across in the game but they are the fastest out of all the creatures on the island, they sometimes will even run on all fours in packs. Though they are still violent they will more times than not just try to feed themselves in a battle or if you run into them while hunting and they see the animal before they see you. Pale Mutants are mostly found down in the caves. They never have a leader or females in their pack and are stronger than regular cannibals. They are extremely aggressive in their attacks especially down in the caves. Painted mutants are cannibals that have crosses painted all over their bodies. They are stronger than both regular and pale cannibals with their attacks. Masked Mutants are the most aggressive and strongest cannibals that you will run into in the game. They wear the faces of their victims as masks so at first you may think that you are running into a survivor but as you get closer you see them for what they really are and hopefully get away or kill them before they can land an attack on you.

2. Mutants, which are mutated human test subjects that all are highly aggressive and will follow and attack you as soon as they see you. They either are made up of multiple body parts, or they are underdeveloped human bodies and these creatures are the scariest part about the whole game. The people who created this game put a lot of detail into these things and they are so incredibly life like that it is unsettling when you see them. Armsy, which is entirely made up of nothing but arms. Virginia, which is entirely made up of nothing but legs and is suspected to be the creator of the mutant babies that you will see in the game. Cowman, which has some human features like 2 arms and 2 legs but they are extremely overweight and their faces are deformed. Babies, which are said to come out of the Virginia mutants and they are just like the name suggest, they are deformed babies that jump and crawl around making very unsettling noises that as a new mother make me want to gag. Blue Armsy, which are just like the regular Armsy, but they are stronger and much harder to kill. Blue Virginia is just like the regular Virginia, but they are also stronger and much harder to kill. Worm, which is a mutant made up of many different bodies and can fly and run quickly. Each part of the worm has to be killed for it to die completely or else it will multiple into more worm mutants. Lastly, we have the final boss mutant, called Girl that is just like the Megan mutation that appears at the end of the game and these mutants only appear if you keep playing the game and stay on the island. It looks like a mix between a spider and praying mantis completely made out of human body parts and once killed a worm spawns out of it and you must kill the worm before it multiplies. These mutants are extremely creepy and haunt my dreams because of the way that they look and sound on the game. They are a lot harder to kill then the regular cannibals on the island. They cause more damage to your health and they can even destroy some of the things that you have built in the game. They do not have any human behaviors like some of the cannibals have. They have no emotions, no personality traits. They are just aggressive monsters that will not stop attacking you once they find you.

Not only did the creators of this game put a lot of thought and detail into these creatures but they also put a lot of thought and detail into the artifacts and sacred trees that are on the island.

There are 2 different types of artifacts in the game but then after doing some research there is actually another one that is not found in the game but hinted on with clues found while exploring the island. There is no explanation as to where these artifacts came from other than there was once a group of people who first inhabited the island called The Ancient Ones. They are said to be the ones that left some of the structures and the artifacts that you run into on the island and there are no clues as to what happened to them. The only other signs of earlier inhabitants before the testing on the island began were groups of Missionaries that you find things left behind in their camp sites.

1. The Resurrection Obelisk which is the artifact that is found in a lab deep in one of the caves that is responsible for resurrecting the dead with the price of a live human sacrifice.

2. The Power Obelisk which is the artifact that is found in another lab high up in the mountains that is responsible for the plane crash at the beginning of the game. It seems to act like a EMP device with the effect that it has with bringing the planes down.

3. The Death Obelisk which is at the moment just a theory from people who have played the game. This artifact is said to kill any living thing that is close to it by radiation. Any survivors of the artifact were lucky enough to get out of reach of the radiation are then mutated and turned into cannibals. The evidence supporting this is two groups of skeletons deep in the caves that are all badly burned and huddled together where they all seemed to die simultaneously.

Each artifact is supernatural in its abilities and is manipulated by man made machinery to make them work. Each one has a price it seems when using it, whether that be large amounts of energy or some sort of human sacrifice but all of them are things that should not be messed with. These artifacts play extremely important rolls in the game, seeing as they are the reason that the researchers are there in the first place. Once again mankind has found some sort of supernatural entity and manipulated it to make it benefit them in whatever way they are seeking it too, and things go horribly wrong.

Anyways, let me get off my soap box and talk about these sacred trees that I find to be extremely interesting and mind baffling.

While exploring the island more there are several places around the map where there are these huge bare trees, that glow in the moonlight and that cannot be chopped down and the cannibals seem drawn to. The trees are never touched by the cannibals, they just seem to be drawn to them for some reason without any explanation as to why. Some people who have played the game seem to think that the trees are some sort of object of worship to the cannibals. I think it is just the fact that there is no real explanation as to why the trees are so important to the cannibals in the game that makes it so intriguing. There is no rhyme or reason as to why they are so large and you cannot do anything to them. They are just there, sticking out of the ground majestically for no reason. But it leaves things open to interpretation to the person playing as to what they personally think the importance of the trees are.

When playing the game with my boyfriend and his brothers we actual built our main camp by one of these sacred trees up on a cliff. It seemed to be smart area to build a camp because the cliff is high enough from the beach below so no one can come up and attack you form behind. But then it is also far enough away form the forests tree line that you can see when cannibals and mutants are attacking.

All and all I definitely recommend this game. 10/10 LOVE this game. Great story line, amazing attention to detail by the creators, and just a very entertaining game all around.

So lets get this conversation started.

How do you think you would do if this type of situation happened to you?

Do you think you would survive the island for the rest of your life?

Do you think you would make it through the entire island, exploring every different part of it to try and find your way off?

Or would you be like me and probably die in the first ten minutes of crashing on the island because you were having a panic attack?

Let me know what you think in the comments below and lets start talking about it!

As always I will end the post with a quote. I just found this one to be funny because in the game the cannibals are just as confused of you as you are of them but inevitably they will just try to eat you.

“But if you're gonna dine with them cannibals

Sooner or later, darling, you're gonna get eaten . . .”

―CANNIBAL’S HYMN by Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds―

*******Keep an eye out next year for a post on the part two to this game Sons of the Forest that is coming out May 2022!*******