Forspoken

While Forspoken delivers a solid action-based combat system and an array of challenging bosses, it fails to create an engaging narrative thanks to the surface-level characters and at times, unbearable dialogue. Not only that, the outdated open world feels like more of a checklist rather than an opportunity for exploration, leaving you yearning for landscapes from other games that are more memorable, and less lifeless. Ultimately, Forspoken lives or dies with its combat, so if you fell in love with it in the demo, it may be worth your time. However, if you’re looking for an engaging RPG that immerses you in its world with a strong main narrative and interesting side activities, this is certainly not it.

Forspoken is so uninspired and mired in cliches that its fantastic voice acting cast can only do so much to keep the game afloat. And while the movement and combat systems are interesting, they're often on the cusp of greatness without ever really realizing their full potential.

A below average game that does nothing well. It’s ugly, it’s boring, I’m tired of it. Steer clear of this mess.

Despite the sheer amount of words that have been written about the game – including by me, I’ll acknowledge as I pass the 1,500 word mark on this review – the reality is that it’s just a forgettable, mediocre game. It does plenty of things very poorly, but it also does one or two things well enough that you can’t say it’s completely and irredeemably awful. There’s no real reason to seek the game out, and there’s no reason (apart, maybe, from that stupid talking bracelet) to avoid it at all costs: Forspoken is just kind of there.

Despite enjoying some aspects though, Forspoken was unfortunately overall an incredibly disappointing experience. I can absolutely see it working for those who just want an open world with things to tick off, but any form of substance beyond busy work is severely lacking within the world of Athia. It was rather unsurprising to see the game label its side quests as 'detours' - momentary distractions from the driving path. But you quickly figure out once you rejoin the main road that it is, unfortunately, leading to very little.

That’s Forspoken’s biggest problem – everything I like about it gets dragged down by the unrelenting dullness of everything else. The story is boring, the characters are boring, the enemies are boring, and the world is boring.

What a shame that Luminous Productions didn’t capitalise on its best assets. Frey’s taken some heat for being overly chatty in Forspoken, but without Ella Balinska’s fantastic performance, the game would be totally forgettable.

Where Forspoken should’ve been a striking and appealing fresh start for Luminous Productions, the end result sadly is a game not only bland and unpolished, but deprived of a reason to care for its unfolding mystery. A bevvy of technical inconsistencies, lackluster open world design and most disappointing of all, a handful of systems with genuine enjoyment at times that don’t see their potential fully realized.

Forspoken is somewhat reminiscent of the fusion cuisine that caused a furor in the average bistro in the early 1990s...The result is a potpourri of uncomfortably poorly written dialogue, a giant open world of cardboard and struggling to find 'meh' action and combat.

A litany of missed opportunities results in one of the most aggravating action role-players of recent years, with irritating characters, dull combat, and a frustrating movement system.

Those who stick out Forspoken until the end may derive enjoyment from how certain elements were tackled like I did, though, ultimately, it’s all too little too late. At the very least, exploring the open world and completing optional tasks after completing the story can be fun, albeit in brief doses, since there’s not much of interest within the environments.

Altogether, this is not just a keenly disappointing full-price PS5 exclusive, it’s also particularly discouraging as a female-fronted production with a story focused on the magic of relationships between women, and a rare triple-A game with a Black lead. Its message is almost entirely lost in the pyroclastic flow of missteps and missed opportunities. [Issue#25, p.78]

Forspoken is an absolute disappointment with ridiculously cringe storytelling, a dead open world and lacklustre AI that prevents the creative combat system from really reaching its potential. With obnoxiously bad optimization for both PC and consoles, this is a game that just tries to be an average open-world experience with some assumed original twist but fails even to meet its mediocre expectations.

Overall, Forspoken is a failed experiment. The few moments of joy are rarely not succeeded by the most absolute boredom or by questionable gameplay decisions. Look for something else, really.