Forspoken reveals itself in an adventure that is meant to be daring. Risky bet but bet held for Square Enix?
This January 24, players who are fans of action adventure games will be able to get their hands on the famous Forspoken, one of the biggest projects of Square Enix studios. Otherwise known as Project Athia, it is a particularly anticipated opus, for a few years, as it promised to reconcile in the best way RPGs and more narrative adventure games.
After a rather convincing 3-hour preview, the game is revealed in all its splendor in our test over several dozen hours. Does Square Enix manage to combine the best of both worlds and provide us with the epic epic that we have been waiting for? The answer in this test of Forspoken.
Nothing new under the sun
A gripping story, grandiloquent stakes, and a strong heroine: what promises us Forspoken did not go unnoticed. It is also during its impressive trailers that the title has built a reputation even before being available on consoles and PC. Controller in hand, the result is very different from what we imagined.
The first hours are obviously used to introduce the story, the characters, the different gameplay elements and the red thread that connects everything. Frey Holland is a young New Yorker, a repeat offender and an orphan since birth. After yet another setback with the law, she finds herself unexpectedly propelled into a magical world, with no hope of immediate return.
Accompanied by a strange talking bracelet, she will have to familiarize herself with this new universe, of which she could be the savior or the destroyer. If at first glance the proposal is attractive, we finally find it more classic than it seems. We love his humor, his gap between the two worlds and the uniqueness of his characters, but we sometimes miss the caricature of his epic story, the predictability of events and especially his rhythm.
As in any action adventure game, the story is often punctuated by cinematics and phases that are a little more narrative. They are what allow the link between all the quests, primary and secondary. However, these are largely disappointing compared to the rest of the title. Often very static, with a Japanese style oldschool, Forspoken finds it difficult to anchor his universe in the modernity that he acclaims.
Visually, we must make the same observation. In a few ways, Square Enix’s game is impressive, especially when it comes to certain environments and the non-human characters. But the impression of photorealism is not there, and this applies to motion capture and overall modeling (facial expressions, hair, movements, etc.), the vast but empty and/or repetitive sets and even the embedding of NPCs in the scenes of the game. The textures are sometimes almost non-existent or sometimes collide to give an impression of incompleteness to the game. The attempts at naturalness are veins and we don’t project ourselves at all.
An infinite loot factory
A disappointment which leaves us crestfallen so much the potential of Forspoken is tall. The latter, however, does not lie in its plot, but rather in its extremely varied and simply addictive gameplay. With its enormous map, Athia offers you a gigantic world to explore at your leisure and very freely. Points of interest, side quests, loot dungeons, refuges and monuments punctuate almost all of your adventure and we would tend to think that this is an excellent thing.
Unlike the narrative phases, we see in this aspect all the dynamism and diversity that Square Enix promised us. Once launched in the open world, we find ourselves caught up in a billion things to do to increase our character statistics, recover rare and useful objects, kill enemies to improve our spells or even recover mana with a vengeance.
This way of approaching the universe of Forpsoken changes us from the ultra-guided adventures that we are now used to and we find ourselves here in an old-fashioned gameplay, fluidity and technological ease in addition. In performance mode, we greatly appreciate the rendering of actions, especially during large-scale fights, which remain completely understandable, although variable at times.
If there is one thing that we can regret, however, it is the lack of interactivity. Some will appreciate that the game is more focused on its gameplay, and this is indeed a strong point, especially when it is successful as it is on a few points. On the other hand, the very format of the title (which is intrinsically linked to its history and which we will not reveal here) does not allow us to have much human contact to get us out of this infinite zone from time to time.
To entertain you, hordes of enemies of all kinds that reappear all the time willy-nilly, but also and above all a few optional missions that show us that accessibility is not just a matter of difficulty. To increase some of your skills or earn rewards, some extremely simple objectives await you. Be careful though, the side quests are not all available forever, so we advise you to do them before you regret it.
Not so magical fights
Another sinews of war for Square Enix, the system of magical confrontations at the very heart of Forspoken. As a chosen one sent to an unknown land, you have access to a few spells granted by Krav, the famous magic bracelet. If you are offered a few options at the start, it is possible to expand them as you explore and improve them thanks to the many resources you find.
Despite all the possible options, however, you will only be able to use two skills at a time in combat, although these can be changed at any time. Frey has only two angles of action: attack or defense. Whatever the spell used, the fights are often repetitive and do not necessarily energize phases which nevertheless deserve to be more active.
This does not take away from the difficulty of the altercations which will delight fans of challenges… at least at first. If you’re the type to explore all places and loot everything to improve your skills, then the challenges will quickly become unattractive. Especially since we have to deal with the super speed of our heroine, which is not always easy.
We won’t say she’s completely out of control (oops, we said it anyway) but you’ll need a hell of a helping hand before you can trust Frey’s magical parkour. This one comes in handy for you to climb walls, jump to unlikely heights, or move faster to dodge. Its consequences often turn out to be random and that is why this addition ends up being more of a curse than a gift. It’s a pity for Forspoken which gets lost in its overly grand ambitions, even when it comes to one of the studio’s most acclaimed aspects.
