Matching the critical drubbing it received from games media, Forspoken now also faces a mixed reception from the fans, as can be seen in Steam reviews.
Our source noted 48 % out of 542 total reviews had come out negative. As of this writing, that is now up to 852 reviews, and sadly 51 % of those reviews are now negative.
Rounding up the metascore from graded game reviews, Forspoken’s individual scores are actually all over the map. The commonly cited positives seem to be the parkour and magic systems. However, the game’s narrative and gamefeel didn’t get as positive a reception. There are also criticisms that Forspoken didn’t really do anything with its open world RPG approach, and is mainly unoriginal.
Notably, the dialogue that seemingly continues to make the game viral online doesn’t seem to be particularly notable in these reviews. It may be the case that those dialogues were taken out of context, and don’t fully reflect what it feels like to actually play through the game and discover the story.
The Steam user reviews tell a slightly different story. To get things out of the way; no the main complaint with this game is not the story or dialogue. It turns out Forspoken launched poorly optimized for PC.
Some gamers with higher specced PCs are saying they are running the game with no issues, but the minimum recommended specs are not reflecting a minimum of what would be required to play Forspoken at an acceptable level. There doesn’t seem to be a big problem with bugs and glitches so much as that it needs better optimization, and given how AAA games are nowadays, it may take quite a while before Forspoken reaches an acceptable state.
The next issue that Forspoken has on PC is the story. No, not the dialogue. Many players seem to have simply changed the options to minimize banter. As Square Enix promised, the setting works so that players can just enjoy the game without being annoyed.
But Forspoken has been structured so that players will have to spend the first two hours going through cutscenes and tutorials. While some gamers may have gotten used to such conventions, there appear to be enough complaints to consider this a real issue with the pacing.
On the flip side, Steam players are mirroring game reviewers in praising the traversal/parkour systems and the combat. The parkour really does feel as enjoyable as it’s looked in previews. Square Enix has also brought their polish in creating magic systems to Forspoken as well.
Overall, Forspoken seems to be enjoyable on PC, but very flawed. Sony and Square Enix probably cannot brag about it being one of the biggest game releases of the year anymore. It seems some issues with the game are so fundamental to the design that it is probably prohibitive for Square Enix to address them.
But the dialogue turned out to not be as big a deal as it seemed, and if you were looking forward to this one, you may find it’s an enjoyable experience for you.
