One of the most intriguing games to come out of 2023... Forspoken, developed by Luminous Productions and published by Square Enix, has been available on PC and PS5 since January 24, 2023. The game was revealed in a presentation trailer on November 3.
Forspoken follows the adventure of Frey, a New Yorker catapulted into the beautiful and cruel world of Athia. Frey must use her newfound magical skills to traverse vast landscapes, battle monstrous creatures, and return home.
Our review of Forspoken:
After testing the game for a good 20 minutes at Paris Games Week, and then at a press preview lasting over 2 hours, how did Forspoken turn out? After more than 20 hours of play, the game confirms our main idea that it's a surprising game overall (in the good sense of the word), proposing an old-fashioned, yet refreshing type of game.
A pleasant surprise, particularly in terms of its gameplay, which, although relatively simple, remains fluid and ingenious. It's easy to switch from one spell to another, making combat particularly fluid and dynamic. Intuitive, well-thought-out gameplay saves the game from a half-baked graphic.
Graphically speaking, however, it's a bit of a letdown: the rendering of clothing (our heroine's cape springs to mind), as well as certain environments (trees in particular), are unfortunately a little too muddled. For a next-gen console release, it's far from living up to expectations. But the beauty of the scenery makes up for this. We recommend playing in performance mode, to maintain the fluidity of the gameplay.
We also appreciate the story, which is particularly well-written, and the characters, whose backgrounds are complete yet endearing. A real surprise, given that the previews only showed us a tenth of the story. The magic parkour, meanwhile, is also a real refresher, offering an innovative type of movement, and allowing you to run faster than the software (and many others of the same style), but also to quickly climb certain walls and other mounts.
In short, Forspoken goes from being a great promise to a relatively good game overall, despite the huge graphical problems. We, at least, had a blast with it... Have you tried it yourself?
Dates and Opening Time
Starts January 24th, 2023
Official website
forspoken.square-enix-games.com
