Sons of the Forest

Sons of the Forest is a survival video game developed by Endnight Games and published by Newnight. It is the sequel to the 2018 video game The Forest, and was released via early access on February 23, 2023, for Microsoft Windows on Steam.
Gameplay
Similarly to The Forest, Sons of the Forest puts players in control of a protagonist stranded on an island inhabited by cannibals. Players can build weapons and buildings to aid in their survival. Several new mechanics have been added to the game, such as 3D printing, as well as friendly NPCs. One of the aforementioned NPCs is a companion named Kelvin, who is deaf and unable to speak. Players can give Kelvin written commands on a piece of paper to help with simple tasks such as collecting crafting resources or setting up fires. Players will also encounter Virginia, a three-legged, three-armed woman who can be equipped with weapons to aid in combat situations. The map in this game is four times bigger than that of its predecessor. The game supports up to eight-player cooperative multiplayer, though players can also opt to play the game solo. Depending on their actions, players can receive different endings.
Synopsis
Many years after the events of The Forest, a team of private military contractors hired by PuffCorp is dispatched to an island called "Site 2" to search for Edward Puffton (PuffCorp's founder and CEO), his wife Barbara, and his 20 year old daughter Virginia, who have been missing for several months. The team's helicopters are shot down by unknown assailants. One of the contractors survives their helicopter crash but is knocked out by a man in a silver coat named Jianyu Zhang, who is an employee of PuffCorp. The Contractor then awakes with another surviving teammate named Kelvin who was rendered deaf in the crash.
Working together, the Contractor and Kelvin set up camp and obtain resources to survive the wilderness as well as attacks from mutant cannibals. As the Contractor begins to explore the island, they find various underground bunkers and facilities built by PuffCorp and learns more about the true nature of Site 2 and PuffCorp's intentions for it. Like Site 1, Site 2 possesses ancient artifacts of unknown power, as well as a previously undiscovered golden ore. PuffCorp acquired the island under the guise of turning it into a resort, and are in secret competition with the owners of Site 1, Sahara Therapeutics, over control of an artifact known as the "Cube". The Contractor also finds surveillance footage showing Edward and PuffCorp executives suddenly mutating into cannibals during a dinner party, revealing the cannibals to be Site 2's previous inhabitants.
The Contractor also encounters Virginia Puffton, who became a mutant but somehow managed to retain her mind and sanity, and she joins the Contractor and Kelvin in their survival. Searching another bunker, the Contractor also comes across Tim and Eric LeBlanc, the son and father from The Forest, who were also hired by PuffCorp to search for the Pufftons. However, the Contractor is separated from them when Jianyu accosts the LeBlancs, and the Contractor is knocked unconscious by a mutant. The Contractor then continues to explore the PuffCorp facilities, eventually discovering research notes on the Cube, referencing its potential to travel between alternate dimensions. The Contractor also learns that the Cube will "activate" every eight lunar cycles, and that the only safe haven is inside the Cube itself. The Contractor deduces that the Cube's activation was what caused the mass mutations on the island, and the next activation is due soon.
Along the way to the Cube, they encounter a different type of highly aggressive mutant that shows an aversion to crucifixes, and to the golden metal found on the island. The Contractor eventually reaches the Cube along with Tim, and they both make it inside the Cube before it closes, locking Jianyu outside. When the Cube activates, Tim has a seizure and briefly splits into multiple versions of himself before the Cube shows them a vision of a futuristic, alien city. The Cube then deactivates and reopens, showing that Jianyu has mutated. The Contractor and Tim then return to the surface where Eric is waiting in a helicopter, and, after fighting an enraged and mutated Jianyu, two endings are possible:
If the player decides to go retrieve their survival pack or simply waits, the Contractor decides to stay behind on the island, and the LeBlancs leave without them.
If the player decides to board the helicopter, the Contractor leaves the island with the LeBlancs. If Kelvin and Virginia survived and accompanied the Contractor to the Cube, they will leave on the helicopter as well.
Development
Sons of the Forest was delayed twice. Announced in December 2019, the game had an initial May 2022 release date. On March 25, 2022, the game was delayed to October of that year "to be able to deliver our vision of the next step in survival games", according to the developer Endnight Games. That August, the game was delayed again to its final release date of February 23, 2023. It was later announced on February 3, 2023, that the game would launch in early access to avoid further delays.
Reception
Sons of the Forest surpassed Starfield as the most wishlisted game on Steam. The game sold over 2 million copies within 24 hours of release, and had over 250,000 concurrent players on Steam during its launch day. It became the best-selling game on Steam at the time.
IGN said that "Sons of the Forest takes everything its predecessor did well and does it a little bit better," including the improved AI, larger map, and graphics, but noted poor performance optimization and an unfinished story.
GamingBolt stated that Sons of the Forest is "exciting, immersive, and beautiful (...) extremely scary and absolutely packed with content", thus claiming the game was a success and "absolutely worth your time" despite not being complete as of its Early Access release - ultimately calling it "Greatness in Progress".
References
2020s horror video games
Castaways in fiction
Deaf culture
Early access video games
First-person shooters
Indie games
Multiplayer and single-player video games
Open-world video games
Survival video games
Upcoming video games
Video games about cannibalism
Video games developed in Canada
Video game sequels
Video games set on fictional islands
Windows games
Video games about missing people