The Forever Winter

No

It's easy to slap a negative and go on, but really – sometimes you wish Steam had a "mixed" review option. Despite all the game's shortcomings and flaws, which make you absolutely not eager to play it anymore, it's still early access, and might get better. It should, because for now The Forever Winter is an absolute waste of one of the most interesting and visually pleasing settings. The idea of a desolate and ruined world, torn by the endless war driven by factions that have long forgotten what they're fighting for – and us being a tiny ant somewhere in-between this enormous death machine is absolutely gorgeous. Too bad the execution failed for now. First of all – you feel like being forced to fight way too often. The enemies become way too easily triggered by just you being there. Despite "stealth-based" gameplay being suggested as the default, even the most stealthy class like Scav Girl lacks the tools to support this style of play. If the enemy discovers your position, you're cooked and forced to run and fight - because it's unlikely you'll lose them easily, but being stationary is also a bad idea, because fighting attracts more enemies. Seriously, even the simplest distraction mechanic would be nice. Especially in the tunnels where the chance of enemy factions engaging in skirmishes is extremely low – but actively searching for you, because one Ropan troop had you in his FOV for 0.5 seconds while on the other side of the giant hall, is a big one. Plus, if you happened to alert something slightly more powerful than a troop – good luck, you’re dead. Don’t get me wrong – I like that the enemies are the maximum threat, but give the player something to actively avoid them without being at the mercy of their absurd perception and tracking abilities. In its current state, The Forever Winter is not very engaging in the long run. When the awe of the amazing world wears off, the only thing that remains is an extremely punishing game with obnoxiously slow progress. And when you realize that there is not much to struggle for (at least not much worth the struggle), the will to play further diminishes quickly. And the moment when one of the factions shows itself with an offer to join the conflict – the sheer foundation of the idea that sold this game kinda starts to collapse. I haven’t had to test the game in co-op – probably it’s better, like everything, when played with friends; for a solo player, the game is rather a Sisyphean experience. So you may ask – why the positive review? As I said: it’s easy to slap a negative and go on, but I see the potential this game has. The only thing to do is change some stuff a bit, tune enemies’ perception, maybe give them a little more opportunity to fight one another, and offer proper tools for a stealth approach. Also, it would be helpful to give the players something to struggle for. At the moment you don’t give two damns about the Ramparts – and no, returning to “then you’ll lose water now” won’t solve it. Expanding and building might be a thing, but also – more engaging, more appealing, and more purposeful. I hope I’ll return in a few patches to see the game being better. For now I’ll wait – and I recommend the same to you, dear reader – unless you didn’t fall in love with the setting and don’t have a friend or two who did too.