Forspoken: Test & review

Frey’s adventures in the land of Athia

A New Yorker destined for great things

On Forspokenwe are led to embody Alfre ‘Frey’ Holland, an orphan living in New York who tries somehow to survive. Desiring to escape her current life, the young New Yorker has a plan: to settle down and start a new life elsewhere. By the time we meet her, her project is already well underway, as Frey has managed to set aside some money. Unfortunately, not everything goes as planned: following an altercation with gang members, Frey’s apartment is set on fire. His savings go up in smoke.

Totally helpless and alone, Frey finds, one evening, a most mysterious golden bracelet. Curious and interacting with it, the young New Yorker suddenly sees herself being teleported, through a portal, into another world, that of Athia. Very soon after arriving, Frey discovers that said sentient bracelet is now attached to his right arm, and grants him magical powers, in addition to parkour skills (although she already has a tad mastery of the disciple, judging from the introductory scene).

In search of answers and a solution to return to New York, although nothing awaits him there, Frey then goes to the capital, Cipal. On the way, she realizes that the world of Athia is far from a dream destination: the whole country is plagued by an evil, infecting and transforming humans as well as animals. An evil she calls “The Mist”. Also, Frey learns that Athia was once ruled by four benefactors, called “Tanntas”, who unfortunately went mad from the appearance of this corrupting miasma. However, the Mist does not affect Frey. She represents, then, a hope for the last survivors, who hope to obtain help from her. A quest that Frey accepts, in the end, and which will allow him to know himself better, but especially to know more about his origins..

As it concerns the lifetime of Forspokenthis one seemed relatively correct to us: count between 12 to 15 hours of play, in a straight line. However, if you want to perform the various quests / side activities and visit all the places (monuments, refuges, sealed labyrinths, etc.), you will easily spend more than 30 hours on the software. And most certainly close to double, to obtain the 100%/Platinum of Forspoken.

Jagged writing

Overall, the writing of the game (in its most general sense) has, unfortunately, seemed to us to be jagged. Understand by this that some elements are more captivating and better written than others, which seem (too) generic. This is especially reflected in the characters. We found that Frey, Krav and the Tanntas benefit from a beautiful and true work of writing. The psychological evolution of the protagonist is well brought and the narrative background of the Tanntas is interesting to discover.

Besides, actress Ella Balinka (Charlie’s Angels)playing Frey, is quite convincing and gives a lot of soul to the heroine. Just like the interpreters of the former benefactors of Athia: Janina Gavankar (Tannta Sila), Pollyanna McIntosh (Tannta Prav), Claudia Black (Tannta Olas) and Kendal Rae (Tannta Cinta). However, other characters in the Forspoken universe do not benefit from this same quality of writing and are, for once, a little more anecdotal.

This is also felt in the dialogues. On this subject, note that we have traveled the game in VOSTFR. Several exchanges pleasantly surprised us and even made us smile a few times. However, some conversations between Frey and Krav, and more specifically during moments of free exploration of the world of Athia and during fights, are much less relevant, in addition to being repeated. Note that there is an option, in the game settings, to lower the frequency of these dialogues in particular.

Forspoken thus offers a story, made up of a few plot twists, which turns out to be quite nice, although some sequences/dialogues are meant to be below the rest and are all in all quite generic.

A journey through a magical open world

Twists and turns

Offering a little more than ten chapters, articulated around main quests, Forspoken invites us to travel through different regions, in search of the Tanntas. Each of them has taken refuge in a very specific area: for example, it is in Praenost that we meet the Tannta of Force, Sila, while Prav, that of Justice, is in Avaolet. These meetings with the former benefactors of Athia lead to a final confrontation. However, these fights do not follow the same pattern. However, we will not tell you more about it. We enjoyed these slight, meaningful changes that are distilled over the course of the adventure. This has the gift of bringing a bit of novelty and freshness to the whole.

On the sidelines of history, Forspoken also offers its share of side quests/activities, called “detours”.. Thus, it is possible to accomplish some additional objectives, although it is quite anecdotal in reality. The most interesting is to explore the regions of Athia. In each of them, we find refuges, in which we can rest, craft objects, improve Frey’s equipment, but also all kinds of monuments and places, allowing us to unlock bonuses and items.

For example, it is by completing a sealed labyrinth, composed of several rooms infested with creatures and a boss, that we unlock a cape for Frey. Clearing a ruin increases one of the protagonist’s stats (health, mana, stamina, etc.). Beneficial sources, on the other hand, allow you to unlock a new spell. As you will have understood, Forspoken really invites us to explore, and therefore to perform a few twists and turns, in order to obtain various bonuses and equipment. However, it is undeniable that everything can quickly tire. Note, moreover, that it is quite possible to continue his game, and therefore to complete the missing tasks, after having completed the campaign of the title of Luminous Productions.

Full color magic

As said before, as soon as she arrives in Athia, Frey finds herself endowed with magical powers. Quite basic at the start of the adventure, these tend to become more complex and diversified over the course of the adventure.. Indeed, by defeating a Tannta, we then unlock its powers, affiliated with an elemental and a color. But, we will not reveal further details, in order to leave you the whole surprise. Thus, the gameplay of Forspoken is renewed as we progress, which is rather well seen and appreciable. Besides, switching from one magic to another is relatively simple and only requires pressing a key (at least, on PS5).

Of course, as you might already suspect, the variety of these powers suggests that certain enemies are resistant or vulnerable to a type of magic. Which distills a slightly strategic aspect to the whole. Especially since the game invites us to vary our attacks and movements during a fight, in order to gain a maximum of experience points (which is represented on the screen by a rank system).

Note also that these spells can be unlocked as well as upgraded. In the world of Athia, we can, indeed, find luminous halos, scattered in the four corners of the regions, which are actually points to unlock new spells. In addition, it is possible to complete sorcery challenges, asking to perform certain actions (“Kill 3 flying enemies”, for example), in order to increase a particular power.

On the equipment side, we have access to capes, collars and varnishes. This last element is quite original and well brought into the game. Capes and necklaces can be improved, against certain materials to be collected in the world of Athia. This increases their statistics and therefore benefits from various bonuses: more points in purple magic, health, defense, etc. Varnishes, on the other hand, can be equipped in order to benefit from buffs for spells.

Good Ideas and Flaws

Forspoken’s PS5 Version Features Multiple Graphics Modes : the one titled “ priority to quality ” ensures a stable frame rate and this in 4K while “ performance priority increases FPS but decreases resolution. Finally, the graphics mode Ray tracing » activates said technology for better rendering. For our part, we tried these different options and we preferred to go through the adventure with the first one. This seemed to us to be the most interesting in terms of rendering and general stability.

In general, Forspoken is satisfying on PlayStation’s latest console. The DualSense’s adaptive triggers, offering a certain resistance depending on the spell cast, make everything immersive. Without forgetting also, the haptic feedback as well as the very short loading times, which always have their little effect.

The soundtrack, composed by Bear McCreary (God of War and God of War Ragnarök) and Garry Schyman (all three BioShock games), features beautiful music tracks. Special mention for “Athia’s theme” and “Frey’s Theme”, which we listened to several times after finishing the game.

About the artistic direction of the software, again there are good ideas, but some flaws. As we cross the regions of Athia, we can’t help but feel a certain emptiness (admittedly, this is justified by the story). This is accentuated by the fact that the environments are very large, although they can be traversed quickly thanks to Frey’s parkour skills. Some facial expressions, especially secondary characters, are also not the most accomplished and realistic. Otherwise, some landscapes are quite pretty, but not memorable, and the diversity of environments (by region) is quite appreciable.

Forspoken offers many cutscenes, which benefit from a good realization. However, some seem to be of little use, especially those introducing one or more enemies that we will have to face in the seconds that follow. This tends to break the rhythm somewhat. On the other hand, we really enjoyed Frey’s magic-related particle effects. It brings real character to the game..