In terms of gameplay, Forspoken has already convinced us in the first few hours. However, we are still disappointed by the story. This is particularly unfortunate for one reason.
Frey Holland has no more desire. The young woman wants to get away from her life in New York. Although her cat Homer purrs there, otherwise her everyday life is dominated by violence and trouble. She dreams herself out of the big city and suddenly ends up somewhere else entirely.
In Forspoken, we discover the world of Athia together with Frey, and it is above all a great playground for the protagonist”s numerous tricks. Not only does she have a lot of fun in the process, but so do we. Because for the first time Square Enix put the controller in our hands and allowed us to take our own first steps in the world of Forspoken. For three hours we were able to gain an impression of the new open-world game, which will be released on 24 January 2023 and for which a PS5 demo is currently available for download.
A particular highlight in our version was a fight against the Tantas, Frey”s arch-enemies, so to speak. There has been almost nothing of these boss fights in the trailers and presentations so far. At the latest, it became clear to us that there is little to worry about with Forspoken in terms of gameplay. The story and the way it is told, however, are a different matter, as we explain to you in our GlobalESportNews preview.
Table of Contents
I”m new here
At least in the three chapters at the beginning of the game that we were able to complete during our visit to Square Enix, Forspoken”s story remains fairly heavy-handed. It follows a familiar pattern that is also often called “fish out of water” in films and series, or “isekai” in anime.
This means that a character is thrown out of the real world into a fantastic or unknown environment that is also new to him. Together with the viewer or, in the case of Forspoken, the player, the foreign world is explored. This principle is known, for example, from Harry Potter, Digimon or “Back to the Future”.
So it is easy to identify with the title character because he or she is just as overwhelmed with the new world as the person in front of the screen. For the authors, this often offers a great advantage because the rules of the respective world can be explained more easily.
In video games, this way of telling stories has not been used so often before, which offers Forspoken a refreshingly different perspective. It is simply an unusual sight to see Frey fighting dragons and monsters in a check shirt and jeans at the beginning. However, she seems so serene and calm that we were a little irritated.
So she lands in this new world, meets a dragon directly, has to face deadly monsters and gets superpowers out of nowhere from a talking bracelet? Sure, who wouldn”t stay cool and comment on the situation with a light-hearted joke?
In New York, after all, it was “only” a few harmless street thugs that were unbearable for her. The fact that Athia doesn”t give her so much grief in comparison does seem a bit unbelievable.
However, unfortunately we couldn”t play the first chapter in New York and ended up directly in Athia. So maybe there is still a conclusive explanation for her detachment. However, the video footage shown so far from the immediate beginning of the game gives us no reason for Frey”s coolness in the face of mortal danger.
Known authors
Our irritation continues at a later point. For example, Frey befriends a very young character in the first hour of play, who is murdered only minutes later by the aforementioned Tantas. She swears revenge on this and it seems as if the demise of her young friend is the biggest motivation.
Clearly there is an attempt here to build an emotional connection and give Frey a motive for her fight. However, we felt blindsided by it because it was very quick and the connection and friendship had no depth yet.
We would have expected a bit more. Especially because the Japanese developers are so proud of their collaboration with renowned Western authors, as they told us in the interview. This includes, for example, Amy Hennig, who has written for almost the entire Uncharted series. But Gary Witha is also involved. Among other things, the author was part of the team responsible for Telltale”s first The Walking Dead. The two aforementioned titles have been able to convince above all with their stories. Forspoken is still far from this level in the first hours.
The Rupture and the Tantas
A magical plague is raging in the world of Athia, known by its inhabitants as Bruch. The rupture has transformed animals and humans into soulless monsters that now roam the otherwise depopulated world, attacking anything that comes near. The only safe town is Cipal, which serves as the capital in Forspoken. Here, merchants, quests and side hustles await, such as a dice game that can give Frey a buff.
The biggest threat posed by the rift, however, are the Tantas. They were once the four rulers of Athia, popular with the people. After the rupture, however, the once benevolent Tantas have become cruel witches and cause fear and terror. Frey herself is immune to the rupture and remains unaffected by its effects. That is why it is up to her to confront the Tantas.
We were already able to try out the first fight. The staging is bombastic and it becomes clear how important the Tantas are for the story and Frey”s journey. Each of the Tantas represents an element. If Frey defeats one of them, she gets a part of its abilities. This is how we gradually unlock the other elements.
The smartwatch with a difference
A close second, at least to Frey, is the Reif wristband. This not only has a very large vocabulary and a suitable name, but also humorously provides Frey with all the necessary information about Athia. At the same time, the magic bracelet also serves as a navigation device and tracking sensor for interesting objects. So Reif is as useful to Frey as the witch”s sense was to Geralt.
The bracelet with the smart mouth is also responsible for Frey”s supernatural abilities. Only a few minutes after her arrival in Athia, she finds a hoop on her arm and suddenly she can run like the wind and leap light-footedly over any obstacle. Right from the first second, Frey”s nimble locomotion is a lot of fun and looks absolutely fantastic. We move fluidly through the world, jump over obstacles and dance around enemies.
We defeat them with the help of elemental abilities, which were also given to us by the magic bracelet and which we select via a ring menu. At the beginning and for the course of the three hours we played, we could only use attacks of the element earth. In the trailers you can see fire, water and lightning as further elements.
Although we only had a limited number of abilities at our disposal in the demo, the battles made a very varied impression. This is also due to the fact that we could always choose between defensive and offensive spells. Depending on the situation, there was always a different battle.
To unlock further talents within an element and to improve existing ones, we have to collect mana, which can be found in the world of Forspoken and is often presented to us as a reward for various tasks. Literally another source of additional spells are the blessing springs. These are a kind of pool of water into which Frey plunges.
What is there to do?
We haven”t been able to see much of the Open World and side quests yet due to the limited time we had with Forspoken. However, the small section that opened up for us already showed the direction it was going. The world seems deserted and empty. However, this is also explained conclusively by the rupture (see box) that haunts the world of Athia in the story.
In contrast to the somewhat lifeless environment, the enemies we encountered made a spectacular impression. Gigantic animal-like creatures, afflicted and changed by the rift, stood in our way.
But it quickly became apparent that these intermediate bosses were still a bit too strong for our Frey, who only had access to a small part of her abilities. Even simple enemies were a challenge. But you don”t need to expect the difficulty level of a Soulslike, Forspoken has nothing to do with this genre.
Frey”s equipment also provides more power. However, the game did not shower us with a flood of loot in the first few hours like Borderlands or Diablo. Instead, the items are only given as rewards for certain tasks. For example, we explored a labyrinth and defeated increasingly strong floods of enemies to find an item in a chest at the end. In addition, there are always small shrines hidden in the world that provide us with mana for a completed task.
A nice climbing spot
So we still have to put a question mark behind the quality of the side tasks and the occupations in the Open World. However, we are far more convinced by the design and the technology.
As the developers revealed to us in an interview, the world, which is powered by the in-house Luminous Engine, was developed with the gameplay of Forspoken in mind.
At first we had doubts whether Frey”s parcours manoeuvres would work at all well in a game world without urban canyons and densely populated residential areas as we know them from Spider-Man or Assassin”s Creed. However, our doubts disappeared very quickly as we played.
The two areas we were able to look at offered a lot of freedom of movement, variety and opened up in many different directions. Athia thus seems to be the perfect playground for Frey”s skills.
Beautiful Views
This playground also looks fabulous. We were able to try out Forspoken exclusively on the PS5 and both in performance and quality mode, the game made a very good impression visually.
Only a few exceptions marred the otherwise positive appearance. Some textures still looked a little pale and washed out – but these were really exceptions. The most negative thing that struck us, and this may sound like a small thing now, was the hair. In particular, the strands that fall into the main protagonist”s face do not fit in with the rest of the game”s visuals and appear washed out and blurred.
Other than that, we have little to complain about in terms of technology; fast travel, for example, takes place almost without any loading pause. Should the story pick up even more speed in the further course of the game – the developers speak of a 30-hour campaign – we have high hopes for Forspoken. In terms of gameplay and technology, it already seems mature and brings new impulses to the open-world genre. We can hardly wait to see how Frey, with all her abilities, moves butter-smoothly through beautiful Athia and defeats the Tantas.
Editorial Conclusion
Clearly, I have now grumbled a lot about the story of Forspoken. However, I have also only seen the first three hours of the game. In the other 27 hours, Frey still needs to be much more believable and the emotional connections to other characters less forced for me to follow the story spellbound.
I would really like that too, because Forspoken is a lot of fun. I can”t wait to try out the other elemental abilities. The game clearly benefits from good technology. I can tell that development started with the new consoles and fast computers in mind. The action runs smoothly and the effects are impressive. Forspoken is a feast for the eyes, apart from a few minor technical inaccuracies.
What I find particularly successful, however, is the fast movement and the course manoeuvres. These work excellently in the expansive game world and look fantastic. If the open world offers even more interesting incentives in the finished game, Forspoken will successfully bring a breath of fresh air into the genre.
