Our review of Forspoken has us calling it a good game that lacked the confidence to truly lean into its strengths. It had a lot going for it with a few flaws that did not take away from the fact that its visually stunning world and excellent combat were awesome when you got to engage with them freely.
But things didn’t go well for the game even before it could hit the shelves and actually have a chance at success. Frey and Cuff’s conversations became the focal point of derisive smear campaigns that colored many gamers’ early impressions of the title, creating the impression of bad writing and a lackluster dynamic between the two central characters.
But was that focus on a single flaw the right way to evaluate the merit of a game that brought a surprising amount of depth to areas that mattered? Perhaps not, but Forspoken fell prey to a form of culture that could make or break the success of a new IP looking to break into a very competitive genre.
But, nearly three years after the original release and a very solid DLC chapter later, Forspoken has finally managed to win us over completely. It’s a good game with minor flaws and deserves the chance to shine just like any other title. Still a bit sceptical? That’s all right. Join us as we try to change your mind.
Bad Publicity
A few stray lines of dialogue, along with complaints from early preview builds of the game, showcased a lot of dialogue between protagonist Frey and the mysterious “Cuff” as they embarked on their adventure brought one of its most well-known flaws to light: Frey’s characterization.
As a girl thrust into an adventure she had no intention of undertaking, her troubled childhood and life as an orphan were great narrative avenues to flesh out her character. However, her foul-mouthed, brash nature did receive a lot of backlash once the game was released but much of it was colored by opinions formed before that?
An endless flurry of memes ridiculing the game and its writing, talking lines out of context to show a inconsistent opinion on the quality of its writing and dialogues. While we must concede that they could have been better, things were nowhere close to being as bad as some painted them out to be. Forspoken didn’t really stand a chance in the court of public opinion, not when it hadn’t even made it to its players’ hands yet.
Another interesting facet of the situation was the game’s positioning. The Luminous Engine was meant to make good use of current-gen hardware to craft an experience that combined excellent visuals with solid gameplay, an effective recipe for an action-adventure title. Thus positioned as a flagship PS5 title, Forspoken was burdened with high expectations it had no hope of meeting as it was at the time of its release.
It also had to compete against other great releases like Elden Ring which continued to stay on top of the conversation despite being nearly a year old at the time of Forspoken’s release. It didn’t help its cause when its PC version brought performance issues with it, a serious offence considering the game’s high price tag.
Working in tandem, all of these factors acted against Forspoken, making the game quickly fade into obscurity despite all of the promise it showed. But for those who managed to play through it, things were a little different.
The Hidden Potential of Forspoken
Lurking deep within the storm of bad press was a solid game that delivered on its vision while also being a reasonably fun experience to boot. As a visually stunning experience that aimed to make traversing its open world as fun as possible while also delivering an action-packed adventure, Forspoken wasn’t too shabby.
For starters, its unique brand of magic and parkour was both simple to use and quite a sight to behold. Frey’s newfound powers were put to excellent use, allowing her to leap, bound, and soar across the world with reckless abandon in a traversal loop that we still find quite addictive. It’s always great when an open-world title has you favoring actual travel instead of teleporting between locations via fast-travel, after all.
And then there was the combat. Dive deep enough into Frey’s arsenal of skills and there was a lot to like just waiting for players to discover and use. Elemental attacks, crown -controlling AoEs, attacks that made good use of Frey’s mobility, and a few very cool abilities like a rapid-fire lightning gun made the combat system a real treat for players who liked a meaty action-focused gameplay loop.
The visuals helped things along, with spells bringing some very well-implemented particle effects to the table while the world’s desolate state and the imposing stature of bosses like the Tantas were all quite engaging and helped sell the story that was on offer. And speaking of the story, Frey’s character arc was often written off as a generic coming of age story but did actually make sense from a narrative perspective.
Her rough life and a distinct mistrust toward the world around her made her aversion towards her destiny make sense for the most part. We’d probably be swearing at the top of our voices too if we were pulled away from our lives and asked to help save a kingdom we’d had no stake in before too. Her dialogue, even the weaker bits of it, fits a lot better when taken against the narrative backdrop that the game sets up as opposed to a few isolated clips that do not convey the nuance between their lines entirely.
However, it wasn’t all rainbows and butterflies with Forspoken, and the game did have its issues. In the interest of fairness, we’re going to take a look at those too.
Room for Improvement
While Frey’s lines weren’t all bad, there were a few instances where her modern sensibilities did not merge well with the game’s fantasy setting. Her dialogues did have a few genuinely awkward lines, a problem that was made more evident thanks to how chatty she was with Cuff, and the constant repetition of scripted banter between them. They soon became an annoyance instead of a fun way to flesh out the story’s leading lady and her companion.
And while the world we got to explore was indeed stunning, the things we got to do in it soon became repetitive. Too much of the open world relied on outdated methods of structuring progress, and the side content delved too deep into generic objectives to make it worthwhile. This was an issue that combined with the game’s pacing to become quite a hindrance to a good time.
With most side content requiring Frey to clear out a lot of enemies, the opportunity to put the game’s combat front and center was always there. However, with a lot of important abilities hidden away behind important story encounters, that opportunity was wasted in favor of a story that spent too much time with exposition and too little time allowing its players to actually enjoy the adventure it was trying to involve them in.
The pacing is especially egregious in the game’s opening hours, and it’s going to be a while before you get to the parts of it that are actually good. Minor performance inconsistencies also hampered the game’s success. However, none of these issues deserved the fallout that followed the game’s release, an unfortunate situation for Luminous Productions, despite the story expansion bringing a more focused experience, a stronger story, refined combat, and the general impression that it was what the entire experience was meant to be.
A couple of months was all it took for the studio to be merged back with its parent company, a move that was meant to ““strengthen future AAA development”, but potentially intended to offset the critical failure of Forspoken, and the high costs of maintaining the Luminous engine in the absence of the means to justify its presence.
Forspoken might have saved Luminous from its fate if only it had been allowed a fair perception of both its strengths and weaknesses by the gaming world at large. It’s failure to garner a response that could justify the costs associated with its engine has now shut the door on a potential sequel that could address all of the issues that the IP’s debut brought to light.
It’s a sad case of wasted potential, and an unfortunate situation for a game that might have had a better time of things on the commercial front with better marketing, positioning, and a stable launch. But alas, Forspoken will remain a title that’s easy to recommend but unlikely to gain the appreciation it deserves for the things it manages to get right.
But if you’re willing to look past its flaws, it might be a great choice for the holidays if you have nothing else to play and no plans.
Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.
