Forspoken review: open-world adventure that gets good at the very end

Abandoned, is, above all, a Christmas game. It begins a few days before the holiday, which happens to be the birthday of main character Frey Holland. This is a fact we learn in the first scene where Frey stands in New York when the game forces him to review her printed arrest records. A city court charged him with grand theft and resisting arrest.

In the same scene, we learn that Frey had a mysterious birth, just like baby Jesus. Only in her case was it not a sage who found her in Bethlehem, but a Dutch tunnel firefighter. one in leopard print, the other in camouflage), then returned to his barren, boarded-up apartment and wrote a plan to leave New York. On cardboard taped to the wall. Alongside the cardboard decorations, Frey has a few books (alice in wonderland and a leather hard copy of something called “Law and Order” stands out most) and a wall rack dedicated to her beloved “Kick”. Her entire apartment quickly burned down, and as her clock struck midnight on Christmas Day, she began to reflect on her life while leaning on the edge of her Crossroads Hotel. Suddenly she finds her magic bracelet that is going to change her own life.

From the beginning, AbandonedThe tone feels absurd involuntarily. Developed by Luminous Productions and published by Square Enix, the game takes place in what is now New York City. This depiction feels less like New York and more like AI once upon a time, even if you’re not a New Yorker like me.ate Law and order Reruns and Tommy Wiseau room generate. (At one point, when asked what she misses about New York, Frey offers Central her perk and knish, the latter of which plays a surprisingly important role in the game’s plot.)

But soon a portal is sent to Athia, the true setting of the game. This is a medieval fantasy world filled with corruption that threatens to destroy life itself. There, you find your wrist chained to a cuff, a conscious armlet that hates you. Then the infamous trailer line is spoken and we go racing.

AbandonedThe opening hours are the worst. It took him 16 hours to complete the game, taking heavily on the side offerings of this open-world action-RPG, and being careful not to sprint too quickly toward the game’s conclusion, though tempted. His first 7 hours of those 16 hours (almost half the game’s running time, I think I should stress) are filled with long tutorials, one-note combat, lore entries, and terrifying dialogues of “magic.” Parkour” was dragged down by its claims to discontinue. , a sheep stroking minigame, a cat chasing minigame, and audio commentary detailing the intricacies of meat production in Sipar, Abandonedempty and ugly hub city.

For games that consistently reference alice in wonderland, one of the biggest disappointments is how bland Athia is, not only visually, but conceptually. Can the rich and the poor be divided into castles and slums? check. A mysterious disease that can be stopped with a special root poultice? Also check. A deranged old man might hold the key to solving this problem? Of course. And more and more.

It’s just a blessing that once you get your second magical ability, the game actually becomes a lot more fun. A true Christmas miracle. AbandonedCombat is its core attraction, and despite regular issues with lock-on and camera control, before swapping out a few magic sets on the fly and charging a circular sweep of the fiery sword It’s satisfying to have enemies rooted to the ground with vines in Watching vulnerabilities litter the screen while my combat rating soars.

Image: Luminous Productions/Square Enix via Polygon

Traversal is also fun.Frey is infamousFurther modified throughout the game – esque’s sprint ability allows him to dash through landscapes in an instant. ), a visually identical resting area called the Pilgrim’s Lair (no lighting changes), and a cat-approach mini-game (unlike the cat-chasing mini-game). ). Frey and Cuff joke while exploring, quickly start repeating within the first few hours of the game, and by the time the credits roll, they’ll be able to memorize their most memorable loot pick-up lines.

Absorbing the power of these magical queens makes the battle more fun every time you kill Tanta. By the time you get her fourth set of magical abilities, the game finally feels like it’s opening up and you have a full array of powers at your disposal. There was definitely some side content left to explore after I fought for my true power, but as for the rest of the story, it more or less amounted to a series of mini-bosses, some of which I It was a redo. I’ve already seen it. If the game hadn’t disappointed me yet, I’m sure it will in the end.

Image: Luminous Productions/Square Enix via Polygon

Before we wrap up, let’s spare a word for Frey, the conceptually black protagonist who joins the media’s growing trend of including black people in a world where race is insignificant. A New Yorker who, of mysterious birth or not, has spent her entire life growing up in a decidedly non-fantasy world where blacks are not non-factors. It is written and unfolded awkwardly.

An early plotline involves retaining the lifeless body of Attia’s black girl with whom Frey has bonded. This image does not carry the same weight in Atia’s world without race as it does in ours – and that of Frey’s. I swore As such, the game defines Frey’s identity as her love for “Kick” and at one point said she was “okay”.Unfortunately, like all Abandoned, the death is quickly relegated to being a joke, as Frey jokingly refers to the child killer as “the kiddie killer himself”. This brings us back to the drawing board. I think she got the money from the “motherfucker”.

Image: Luminous Productions/Square Enix

AbandonedThe final hours of . It was just playing against a big bad guy featuring hit kills…as a cutscene. Frey, of course, wins, but for a character who loudly proclaims most of the game that she isn’t a hero or doesn’t want to be a hero, I believe her late-game pivot to the savior is a slam dunk. Still, the plague-stricken world needs a rescue. Cuff fit or something like that.

Personally, I found myself more convinced by the game’s alternate ending where you can return to New York without saving the world. A cutscene accompanies the choices, but it feels like a more honest conclusion for characters, like me, who were ready to end Asia.

Abandoned It will be released on PlayStation 5 and Windows PC on January 24th. The game was reviewed on PS5 using a pre-release download code provided by Square Enix. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not affect editorial content, but Vox Media may earn commissions on products purchased via affiliate links.discoverable Additional information on Polygon’s Ethics Policy can be found here.