Is Forspoken Finally Worth Playing In 2024?

This is currently $19.93 on Amazon Links in the description.

Gameplay: 9.5/10 (gets exponentially better as you learn and upgrade more spells)
Performance: 6.5/10 on PC (passable but the frame drops and long load times are real)
Story: 7/10 (believable story and dialogue, and a very intriguing lore, but the story’s emotional beats didn’t feel as compelling as in other games)
Graphics: 6/10 (can’t really enjoy the visuals because the graphics have to be reduced for the sake of performance)

Other Comments:

I personally loved the banter between Frey and Cuff, to the point that, during a long segment when that banter wasn’t happening, I actually missed having it around. But for those who maybe don’t like that, there is a setting to reduce its frequency.

I ADORED the boss fights against Tantas Sila and Prav. The move sets and behaviors changed noticeably between phases, and though they were both challenging, they were extremely fun and engaging challenges, and defeating them feels like a great achievement.

The final boss fight, by comparison, was a bit of a letdown. It erred more on the side of “hard for hard’s sake,” which contrasted with the “hard for fun’s sake” I experienced in other boss fights.

The clothing upgrade system is something that is easily missed, but makes a massive difference if you take the time to work it up. For example, I had no idea until post game that the hard stats could be upgraded directly — crafting wasn’t confined to adding 3-4 special effects to your cloak and necklace.

Speaking of effects, I wish they had a system for automatically switching your cloak and necklace when switching between magic types. Some effects favored one magic type over others, so being able to have this freedom would have been an amazing improvement to the overall experience.

The magic types each play very differently from one another, evoking a feel similar to the subclasses from Destiny 2. Purple magic is your first experience, red is melee-focused, blue excels in level, open spaces, and green magic rewards you for chaining your basic attack with your charged attacks.

Overall assessment: a hidden gem in terms of gameplay and movement, with a unique world of discoverable lore, hindered mostly by poor PC optimization and a passable main story.

First of all, I would like to thank you for taking the time to provide a balanced review of this game called Forspoken. I believe that one of the hard things for many to relate to is that this is a story about a person who grew up on the streets. If you've had any type of normal life growing up your cultural bias will kick in and you'll miss the subtle but often poignant affect this has on Frey's view of the world around her. Too often in the reviews I've watched for this game, the people reviewing it appear to be critical over a game it becomes apparent they have had little experience playing. I bought this during the Steam Summer Sale, I now have 128 hours in on the game.

Of course there are several things that contribute to it. One, I relate to the character having grown up part of my life as a street urchin. Two, I recently celebrated seventy one candles so I am from a generation whose view of the world around them is quite different from many who play this or have reviewed it. I would like to end by providing some additional perspective below on the story and an offer to many that life is often not a black or white decision. More often then not, there are colors of a different sort that influence a story, a person's choices, and the outcomes the experience.

Forspoken – The Story

“Forspoken: First, the word choice itself says a lot concerning what the story is about. Forspoken means to predict, foresee, to arrange or speak of in advance. It also meant to attract and fascinate; enchant or cast a spell over. Its origins are an old Scottish archaic meaning to bewitch.”

“What is Forspoken about, it is a story about a girl, born as an orphan raised in foster care in New York City. It’s about choice and how she found her own journey to the streets after being abused by those who were supposed to care and raise her by the courts of New York City.

It is about a smart street girl who is compassionate but also angry about what fate has given her. It’s about a young lady who has the capacity to show kindness to those in need, human or animal, but as often as street life can do, it leads her to petty crimes.

Those petty crimes find her in front of a judge who must determine her fate. It was almost Christmas day and right before Fray turned twenty-one, the judge showed her kindness and mercy by allowing her off with just a sentence of community service. By doing so, the judge inadvertently sets Fray on a course with her destiny.

The story is surprising at times, it is full of touching moments. It has all the things that make the hero’s quest worth taking the journey for. What is the hero’s quest? In story writing or telling, it is also known as the hero’s journey or the monomyth. In simple terms, it is a story about a person that through a series of adventures, becomes victorious in a crisis, and comes home changed or transformed.

Story telling:

“This is a story about hope, although the story about people growing up on the streets of any big city are common enough, I would challenge the person who plays this game or watches this play through to consider what it would be like if it were you who was homeless.

Consider the perspective through that person’s eyes. A world that has abandoned her since birth on the streets, nowhere to go, not knowing what they would do for food that day, how do they stay warm in the winter or cool in the summer?”

“This is a story about a person overcoming a hard start in life, about someone despite having the worst that life can throw at you, still having a heart that cares a great deal about people and animals.

This is about overcoming personal conflict rising from a somewhat tainted experience of what life is, verses what it was meant to be. It is in fact, the hero’s quest, where one person can not only change themselves but change the lives of everyone else to a place of hope, not failure and loss.”

Final Take Away:

“The path to understanding requires a person to shed the illusions of sight, listen with empathy, and unlearn their cultural biases. Through servitude to kindness, compassion, and non-judgmental knowledge, we can begin to embrace the value of the journey, to break free from the limitations of identity. “

The game isn't perfect, but it got a lot more hate than it deserved. Your review is one of the most balanced explanations of good and bad that I've seen, so thank you! One of the game mechanics I enjoyed was how the spell challenges encouraged you to try out all the magic and figure out what worked best for your play style (like Prime my beloved murder rock). But at it's heart, the game is also telling a story. It's about Frey, and so you have to understand who Frey is for the story beats to make sense. It's not a self-insertion or make your own avatar type game, and I think some of the disappointment comes from folks expecting one and getting the other.

1 year later:
Dev studio: lol get scammed

Haven't played this one, but based on reviews seems like I would enjoy the gameplay but might not be able to stomach the story and characters

I bought this yesterday for $5. I figured there's almost no AAA title that's NOT worth $5. Despite what people say about it

so reading all the reviews ive come to the conclusion : the game is worth 10$ lol

Bro I swear you are the best game reviewer ever. Your channel is slept on big-time.

I liked this game was different too everything else out and £10 bargain with crude language which is actually funny and welcoming

Great review. I'll pass on this one.

I fully agree. Now with the loading time issues mediated, the game is good, and especially the twist at the end is great. Plus: people might complain that Frey behaves selfish and swears a lot, but she is a kid from the street that needed to fight for herself all the time. She's just portraied as she should be.

If they released a mod that did nothing but start the game halfway through, I think a lot more people would love it 🤣

I greatly appreciate reviews like this! Thank you sir, I'll get this once it's on sale! Awesome video 🎉

sorry, but even if its good, never buying woke propaganda nor political messages, gaming is gaming and its a global thing, has no place for any specific country to try to indoctrinate us about political bullshit that only pertains a single country, while fucking up and firing all the rest of the world, like if said country owns all gaming around the world
thats invasive, abusive and not gonna tolerate that shit in my magical and special place that is my gaming time
and nor any of you should, the industry is falling apart because of this abusive behaviors
freedom of speech/artistic liberties are getting smashed one by one and threatened by a very select group of woke people because they can use victimism, and are abusing it, while taking everything thats important for the world, but taken away by a single abusive, over-privilegded country like the united states of america….
this game can rot in hell for all i care

Great analysis. Thank you!

This game is on sale on Steam. These post launch reviews are important. Thank you for taking your time to make this. You convinced me to give it a try.

uninspired and dead. The main 3 tantas fights were the highlight of the game. The world was lack luster, with very boring side quest. After defeating Tanta Olas I was already burnt out at 40 hours. I just wanted to finish the game and get on with my life. I even skipped the final boss, but then replayed it to beat him on easy lol. Oh one more thing. The voiceovers were the worst I’ve heard.

No, new game plus+ mode , now that’s lacking! Every game should have this after completing the game at least once.

I bought this game for 15 euros for ps5 from a mall in Germany and it's actually pretty fun, the movement doesn't feel floaty at all which I enjoy

I’m not going to lie the game is good it’s not great or amazing but it is good I just think people didn’t look at the gameplay and just focused on the main character but hey I got the game for 13$ soooo worth it.

I never finished the intro and still regret those $70