![Forspoken Review - Screenshot 1/5](https://images.pushsquare.com/screenshots/132008/900x.jpg)
Forspoken is one of the most hit and miss games we’ve played in a long time.For all that it does, it tinkers with something else, resulting in a fantasy adventure full of ups and downs. A game that feels a bit confusing in terms of what it actually wants to do hundreds of Next to the open world map marker.
But first, the basics. You play as Frey Holland, a 20-year-old New York City squatter who has hit rock bottom in the prologue of the game. With her criminal record and chased by thugs, Frey’s escape plan ends in the abandoned building she called her home burning down and literally going up in smoke. She is basically nothing left, but comes across a magical gem and is transported to another world named Athia.
Most of the memetic dialogue you’ve probably seen online occurs when Frey first enters this new realm. She was clearly desperate for answers and the “cuff” attached to her right forearm began speaking in a sarcastic English twang.At first our heroine just wants to go home – prologue gave us no reason to believe it was there. anything But as Frey travels through Attia, she predictably develops an attachment to its people and their struggles.
![Forspoken Review - Screenshots 2/5](https://images.pushsquare.com/screenshots/132009/900x.jpg)
However, I’m not quite sure why. As cocky, awkward and dismissive as Frey can be, she topped it off with her frequent abuse of f-bombs, but she at least has a spark of personality. The same can’t be said… well, pretty much every other character in the game.Athia is populated by the most boring NPCs imaginable, both inside and outside her main story. Think Dragon’s Dogma. However, it has absolutely no charm inherent in that game. These farmers, merchants, quest givers, nobles, and arrogant council members will make you cry if you let them.
Sadly, “boredom” also explains a lot of Forspoken’s storytelling. The game ends with poorly paced and questionably directed cutscenes as the characters drone over and over again about Assia’s general fantasy lore, in an attempt to make Frey care about their plight. It’s full. By the way, this is the central plot, including his capture in motion and his actual camera angle. The rest of the game relies on frankly mind-boggling scenes of static character models standing with their mouths flapping for minutes at a time, with inexplicably long pauses between lines of voice. there is a stop.
These dialogue interactions are so badly presented that they honestly keep you away from sidequests.Forspoken has major issues with scene transitions. everytime It turns black on every little thing. Talking to NPC turns black. End the conversation and fade to black. Talk to another of his NPCs to continue the quest, fade out to black, and repeat. It’s never-ending and makes the game feel very disjointed. It’s another slog steeped in big empty streets, snoring-inducing dialogue, and chores going through black screens.
![Forspoken Review - Screenshots 3/5](https://images.pushsquare.com/screenshots/132010/900x.jpg)
It’s a real shame that Forspoken suffers from these pitfalls. Because outside the city walls, this is a much better game. Despite being completely filled with number-based map markers (many of which are barely worth your time), the open world is where action RPGs come to life. Frey can run at high speed across the countryside and fight monsters with the help of a magical cuff. At its best, exploration is a fun and fluid experience, but combat can reach glorious heights later in the game.
Frey’s stamina meter prevents him from dashing across the map, but he can climb and run through almost anything. , just speeding up from place to place can be fun.it’s not very It’s Marvel’s Spider-Man in terms of tactile satisfaction, but it’s still fun and frenetic.
Combat is a similar story. Forspoken is essentially a third-person shooter of sorts. However, as the system opens up based on your progress in the campaign, you’ll gain access to various attack and support abilities to push it beyond the basics of aiming and shooting.
![Forspoken Review - Screenshots 4/5](https://images.pushsquare.com/screenshots/132002/900x.jpg)
But again, the game finds a way to hamstring itself. Frey’s first spell is basically throwing rocks at enemies. They are bland, have no impact, and have stuck with them for too long. As the game’s divisive demo proves), the first iteration paints a bad picture of what a fun and flashy combat system actually is.
Needless to say, later spells are more interesting. By the end of the adventure, melt your enemies with meteor-like fireballs, tear them apart with brilliantly animated streams of water, and turn creatures to dust with a full-on lightning storm. It really makes you feel like a super-powerful being.
However, it takes too long to get there. To be fair, Forspoken has a decent sense of progression as you progress into the more difficult areas of the open world and develop your abilities, but due to other flaws some players end up It is very likely that you will not be able to see the light of the tunnel. It’s all too easy for boring story beats and harrowing side quests to seem to drag you in forever.
![Forspoken Review - Screenshots 5/5](https://images.pushsquare.com/screenshots/131997/900x.jpg)
It doesn’t help that the game struggles to make a lasting visual impression either. I have. Textures can be muddy, character models are mediocre, and lighting is disappointingly flat. Square Enix’s Luminous Engine can clearly provide some nice vistas, as Athia often attests, but it’s not optimal on the PS5, as demonstrated by the fact that the game’s dynamic resolution is all over the place. Image quality can drop completely, especially in large-scale battles, making targets harder to spot in the particle-filled mayhem.
Admittedly, Forspoken is technically rough. Aside from the lightning-fast load times (completely marred by the fact that every cut is blacked out) and the aforementioned particle effects, it’s far from the PS5’s masterpiece. and you’ll notice a noticeable drop in all three graphics settings of the game (performance, quality, and ray tracing).
But hey, the music is good. Forspoken has some inspiring orchestral tracks and I wish they were utilized more often.Many of the melodies that accompany exploration are wonderfully whimsical, but they often keep playing during battles and hectic moments, which is strange. but the music do It gives off a presence and definitely enhances the action.
Conclusion
Forspoken was supposed to be a better game than it actually was. Its strength lies in its core gameplay. It’s fast, fluid, and super fun. However, unnecessary open-world clutter hinders exploration, and the combat system is only hours into the adventure. If you can make it through an unpaced story packed with desperately boring characters, you’ll enjoy Frey’s fantastical abilities that are arguably show-stealing both in and out of combat. No, but it’s also not the PS5 showpiece it once promised.