The Forest

Worth buying? What 300 Steam reviews say.Worth buying? Here’s what 300 Steam reviews actually say.

Overwhelmingly PositiveOverwhelmingly Positive · 96%2018

The verdict

A creepy survival-horror sandbox with strong atmosphere, cave exploration and chaotic co-op. It's buggy, and its progression is cave-driven and vague, so skip it if you want a polished or solo experience.

Great for

Friends who want chaotic, scary co-op base building and cave exploring on a discount

Main risk

Bugs, save problems and aimless cave-driven progression make it tedious, especially solo

What players love

Great co-op with friends

Mentioned in ~1 in 4 positive reviews

“Playing with another person makes this game 10x funnier because something dumb is ALWAYS happening.”
Steam review · 80.8 h played ↗

“Especially with Co-Op, this game is pretty much like weekend oxygen to me at this point lol”
Steam review · 48.7 h played ↗

“Co-op is pain: one builds, another goes into the caves and never returns, a third eats everything, a fourth goes insane.”
Steam review · translated from Russian · 86.7 h played ↗

Scary, immersive atmosphere

Mentioned in ~1 in 5 positive reviews

“I love this game, lack of technology makes it scary especially at night, it is pitch black without your little lighter which makes it so immersive”
Steam review · 77.5 h played ↗

“it's not about jumpscares or running monsters, it's about building fear by unknown.”
Steam review · 1.3 h played ↗

Mysterious, engaging story

Mentioned in ~1 in 7 positive reviews

“Watching the story unfold is one of my favourite moments I've ever experienced in video games”
Steam review · 8 h played ↗

“The game doesn't explain everything right away, which gives you plenty of room to create your own theories”
Steam review · 72.8 h played ↗

Eerie caves and exploration

Mentioned in ~1 in 8 positive reviews

“the caves are especially fun and creepy”
Steam review · 65.8 h played ↗

“Exploring caves is pure nightmare fuel, but also insanely fun.”
Steam review · 19.1 h played ↗

Fun, free-form base building and crafting

Mentioned in ~1 in 8 positive reviews

“you can spend literal days building a base”
Steam review · 27.4 h played ↗

“I loved the fact that there is so much to do. I am playing with my brother and we love the fact that we can build what we want.”
Steam review · 123.8 h played ↗

Smart, unsettling cannibal and mutant AI

Mentioned in ~1 in 19 positive reviews

“These aren't just mindless zombies; they watch you from the trees, they circle your camp, and sometimes they just stare at you to mess with your head.”
Steam review · 210 h played ↗

“Their AI is very well-made and has a lot of different patterns and behaviors depending on the situation”
Steam review · 110.7 h played ↗

What players complain about

Bugs and glitches

Mentioned in ~1 in 3 negative reviews

“How old is the game? As old as its bugs.”
Steam review · translated from Russian · 463.6 h played ↗

“this games age shows with how bad the glitches and bugs are”
Steam review · 5.3 h played ↗

“Looks to me like this old game is experiencing code rot”
Steam review · 15.9 h played ↗

Repetitive, boring gameplay

Mentioned in ~1 in 5 negative reviews

“It quickly becomes a repetitive lumberjack simulator filled with endless tree chopping and resource grinding.”
Steam review · 6.3 h played ↗

“Very boring, only co-op saves it. Unbearable solo.”
Steam review · translated from Russian · 26.3 h played ↗

Clunky combat and weak enemy AI

Mentioned in ~1 in 5 negative reviews

“the combat system is trash and doesnt register any hits regardless of where you are aiming”
Steam review · 4.4 h played ↗

“Combat is easy but exceptionally janky (poor hit detection).”
Steam review · 12.8 h played ↗

Base building feels pointless and tedious

Mentioned in ~1 in 6 negative reviews

“Base building is completely irrelevant since you spend all your time in caves.”
Steam review · 10.3 h played ↗

“What's the point of building a base for hours if you won't be in it after it's built?”
Steam review · translated from Russian · 3.2 h played ↗

Vague progression forces dark, samey caves

Mentioned in ~1 in 6 negative reviews

“Should be called The Cave not the forest seeing as 90% of all story activities are in a damn cave.”
Steam review · 28.4 h played ↗

“Unless you know caves exist and use the wiki, the game is extremely hard to beat blind.”
Steam review · 27.1 h played ↗

Save and progress loss

Mentioned in ~1 in 9 negative reviews

“PLEASE DONT FORGET TO SAVE BEFORE EXITING I JUST LOST 9 HOURS OF WORK”
Steam review · 8.8 h played ↗

“No matter where he saved, he still spawned at the plane.”
Steam review · translated from Russian · 6.5 h played ↗

System requirements

From the Steam store page

Steam Deck: Playable

Minimum

OSWindows 7

ProcessorIntel Dual-Core 2.4 GHz

Memory4 GB RAM

GraphicsNVIDIA GeForce 8800GT

Storage5 GB available space

Recommended

OSWindows 7

ProcessorQuad Core Processor

Memory4 GB RAM

GraphicsNVIDIA GeForce GTX 560

Storage5 GB available space

OSWindows 7

ProcessorIntel Dual-Core 2.4 GHz

Memory4 GB RAM

GraphicsNVIDIA GeForce 8800GT

Storage5 GB available space

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