Across my roughly three hours of time spent hands-on with Forspoken, I arrived in a fantastical new world, battled a dragon, and took part in a prison break. This all sounds like it should be very exciting, but in truth, so far Forspoken feels like a game getting in its own way. The latest action RPG from Square Enix definitely does display some potential thanks to a promising combat system that could become excitingly nuanced over time, but its opening sections sadly often feel uninspired.
I was able to play through chapters two, three, and five, which allowed me to gain a pretty good grasp of Forspoken’s rhythm. The open world of Athia is littered with things to do including side missions, dungeons, and battles aplenty, its variety of activities is not going to come as too much of a shock to those who have played a game in the genre. Encouragingly, some of those fights really can be a challenge, and I definitely encountered some fascinating foes that I was simply far too underleveled to take on despite my best efforts.
Regardless of my defeat at the hands of more daunting foes, combat is where Forspoken is at its most engaging. Its quick nature and the way it always keeps you on your toes as you juggle its many magical abilities harbours genuine tactical promise. There are over 100 spells to wield in Forspoken – many of which appear genuinely exciting in gameplay trailers – but you’re limited to an unexceptional select few in those first chapters. This can lead to early stretches feeling a bit one-note as you hold the trigger to fire chunks of rock at enemies while occasionally dodging an attack. That primary ‘fire’ can be toggled between Scatter, Burst, and Shield Shots, effectively acting as a magical assault rifle, SMG, and shotgun respectively. Once new unlocks start presenting themselves, however, it all becomes a whole bunch more interesting. I had fun mixing these standard spells with much more interesting support skills, such as conjuring roots from the ground to tie down enemies and summoning a little plant turret friend to help out in sticky situations.
All of these abilities belong to the earth-based magic skill tree, one of four different elemental types you’ll acquire over the course of the adventure. I do fear that being restricted to these fairly basic abilities for so much of the start of Forspoken isn’t the best way to introduce its combat systems, as it offers barely a taste of its promised excitement. It wasn’t until the very end of my playtime that I unlocked the much more interesting fire magic, for example, which sadly meant I wasn’t able to wield it. It does like good fun, though, as we mentioned in our previous preview.
There are over 100 spells to wield in Forspoken – many of which appear genuinely exciting.
While I’ve so far been unable to use them, I’ve seen glimpses of extensive skill trees, filled with bigger and better abilities that tease evolving and exciting gameplay. It’s a battle system that does show genuine promise, and it left me with reasons to be excited about the possibilities of juggling different magic types and the effects combining spells can have on enemies. I’m holding out hope that it develops substantially and with greater speed, because in truth there was sadly little else about Forspoken that held my attention.
The story is the age-old Alice in Wonderland/Wizard of Oz tale of a stranger being transported to a magical land and (presumably) leaving as their saviour. Protagonist Frey Holland is an abrasive character who doesn’t have much time for anyone or the fish-out-of-water scenario she finds herself in. I have seen hints at her softening though, which hopefully points in the direction of an endearing character arc. She’s capably portrayed by Ella Balinska, despite being saddled with a rather flaky script of which every other word written appears to be “f**k”. Seriously, I must have heard it over 100 times in my few hours, and whilst I’m no prude, it doesn’t lend itself to creating a subtle or nuanced protagonist. More painful were the conversations between Frey and her anthropomorphic bracelet companion, Cuff. While walking around with a charming Paul Bettany sound-a-like on your wrist could easily be a pleasant experience, in Forspoken it comes across as less J.A.R.V.I.S and more jarring.
Further offputting are the visuals of Forspoken, which certainly doesn’t display the sort of graphical firepower you’d expect from a new-gen showcase despite being a PS5 and PC exclusive. Textures are muddy, draw distances are limited, and outside of some pretty particle effects, it’s not exactly a looker. It just all feels quite barren and lifeless, an atmosphere especially highlighted in the city I spent a good chunk of my playtime in – a grey, anaemic series of streets full of nondescript townsfolk. It’s also the location where I witnessed Forspoken commit its biggest crime so far: a frankly abysmal breed of auto-fail stealth mission that deserved to die with the PlayStation 2.
Once I made it through that particular nadir, however, Forspoken did continue to show more promise. Chapter five takes place in a wholly more interesting area of Athia – a red, fiery land painted using similar brushstrokes to Elden Ring’s Caelid. A vertically varied landscape with danger hiding at every layer, it’s a place where my combat skills were fully tested alongside my magical parkour abilities. When it all clicks, darting across chasms and flipping over enemies can be a real delight. But for a game that places so much emphasis on these slick movement options, it can be frustratingly unreadable at times; I found this out the hard way after unconventionally bunnyhopping my way up one too many cliffs. Like so much of Forspoken, it feels like real fun is there to be had when it hits its stride, but it just trips itself up far too often in these early chapters.
The final part of my hands-on was a big boss battle, which was easily among the highlights of my playthrough. Consisting of two difficult but-varied phases, it constantly made me think on my feet and juggle all of my cooldowns and spells that I had learned up until that point. The first section was an exciting fight against one powerful enemy and a group of soldiers that displayed genuinely smart battle design. I focussed most of my firepower on the boss, saving my super useful tendril attack for the weaker enemies, which whipped vines around in a large area of effect and restored my health with every connection it made. This sort of clever encounter left me encouraged that Forspoken could throw up some inspired boss designs further down the road that will combine spectacle with challenge.
While phase two of the fight did display some of that spectacle I found it far less entertaining, and even bordering on annoying, as I was channelled into a narrow arena and asked to repeatedly avoid some pretty unreadable attacks. It also fell foul of one of Forspoken’s visual calling cards, where the world’s colour is drenched by a blue filter. It’s meant as a representation for “The Break” – the evil force that plagues this fantasy world – but just doesn’t look very nice and removes any sort of distinct identity away from a certain area. It also means you’re missing out on some of the impressive creature designs; a massive dragon I met early on more often than not appeared to me as a giant winged silhouette.
I’m fairly convinced that there definitely is enjoyment to be found in Forspoken, but its early chapters don’t seem like the place to consistently find it. The magical combat promises to develop and become more and more interesting over time, but whether that will be enough to overcome an uninspired script and the world it aims to bring to life remains to be seen. When we have so many open-world action RPGs at our fingertips these days, Forspoken really needs to set itself apart. Despite leaving a less-than-impressive first impression, I am hopeful, if not confident, that it can.
Simon Cardy doesn’t want any piece of his clothing to start speaking. Follow him on Twitter at @CardySimon.
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