The Cursed Forest

Finished my play-through of this on my Youtube channel several days ago (link at end of review for anyone who wants to see a gameplay sample before buying), so here are some thoughts. This is a short horror game that you'll likely beat in about 4-6 hours. The gameplay essentially consists of exploring the cursed forest after which the game is named, finding items you need as well as notes that gradually reveal the underlying story. So nothing particularly special there, but if you're into that kind of more sedate, slow-burner type of gameplay, then this won't be an issue for you. The game's biggest strengths are definitely it's visuals and atmosphere, complemented by a decent sound design. The forest itself is gloomy and dark, so the setting works well with the story that the game tells. Whilst there are occasional traps and threats to watch out for, there's no chase sequences where you'll be running for your (player character's) life. There are occasional jump-scares, but nothing huge or obnoxious. Most of the puzzles you'll encounter are fairly easy to solve, though there was one puzzle in chapter 1 with a slightly convoluted solution that could benefit from reworking. Namely, you go through a ravine, carefully wander along a narrow cliff edge to trigger a landslide (without falling), turn around and climb up a series of rocks to a path above (which is slightly janky, as the rocks are big and not the easiest to climb up), follow said path through a cave that takes you under the place you need to go just to emerge on a lower ledge, look at the place you need to go above (and in doing so activate a trigger, I guess), then basically go back the way you came back to the cliff edge where magically there's now a proper way across. Yeah... needlessly convoluted. But fortunately it was the only example I came across when I played this game. One other thing to be aware of: the save and load system in this game can sometimes be buggy. As you explore each chapter, there are a combination of autosave checkpoints as well as small mystical altars where you can manually save your progress. For the most part these worked fine; but in chapters 4 and 5, I found that loading certain save files from the main menu wouldn't work properly - the loading screen would function as normal, but then I'd get a black screen with sound but no visuals. Note to anyone reading this review: if you buy the game and find this same bug, take multiple save files in previous chapters; find the last save file that loads in correctly, then load back to your most recent save file from the in-game pause menu. This worked for me. So all in all, The Cursed Forest does have some slight jank to it; but nothing that seriously broke the game and prevented me from progressing. Combined with the strengths I mentioned earlier, it's not a game that'll be winning any awards for innovative gameplay or the like. But if you just want an atmospheric, spooky game where you explore a well-designed environment and piece together the story, then The Cursed Forest is worth giving a shot. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWUqPvnvc6s&list=PL05Yc3_TEBpPXdO6h9HF47It8MpAMoKnz&index=1&t=331s

A decent horror game with a good atmosphere and the underrated CryEngine in all its beautiful glory. It's one of those Russian indie walking simulator horror games, but actually well-made. It's not inherently scary, although it does have some unsettling moments but if you pay attention to the notes and lore even the story is interesting. I give it a solid B.