Between the new build of Project Zomboid, the freshly announced sequel for The Long Dark, and the continual success of, Rust, Valheim, and State of Decay, the survival genre is arguably stronger than ever right now. But The Forest is still The Forest. Ten years after it first fully emerged onto PC, Endnight’s pioneering building-and-brutality sim is suddenly more popular on Steam than it’s ever been, and although its current resurgence can be explained by a seriously generous discount, its decade-long popularity is the result of something much more special – there’s one thing that keeps The Forest on top.
More than all of its survival game rivals, The Forest is scary – the impressive thing about Endnight’s debut and most enduring work is how it feels both choreographed and written, but also organic and completely open-ended. Take the monsters that roam the eponymous, wooded island for example. Wherever you build your camp, they’re designed to track you, find you, and attack you. They come at night, and the noises they make – those high-pitched, almost animal screeches – are guaranteed to rev your pulse rate. That’s the design half. But even though you won’t know it on a first playthrough, how you react to The Forest’s predatory residents is completely up to you.
They’ll charge you. They’ll try to intimidate you. They might even hit you a few times. But if you stay calm and don’t kill any of them, they’re less likely to view you as a threat, and they won’t escalate their attacks – they may come up again the next night, but they won’t bring reinforcements, and they’ll be less likely to try to murder you on sight. On the contrary, if you brutalize them on first contact and kill a few of their number, they’ll return with better weapons and more people. Eventually, they’ll roll out the dreaded ‘Armsy.’
That’s what makes The Forest so good. Endnight’s design keeps up the pace, the pressure, and the terror, but at the same time, leaves you with the space and freedom to find your own way. It’s the wonderful middle ground between a tightly penned story game and a do-it-all-yourself sandbox game. Little wonder that after almost 500,000 user reviews, The Forest still carries the prestigious and exclusive ‘overwhelmingly positive’ rating on Steam. But now it’s just earned a fresh honor.
As of today, Monday December 23, The Forest has just hit a new all-time concurrent player record: 97,964. In terms of 24-hour peak, that puts The Forest neatly above rivals like Project Zomboid, DayZ, Valheim, and even its own sequel, Sons of the Forest. With regards to lifetime records, The Forest still comfortably outstrips both Zomboid and DayZ, and also the original Dying Light. The recent surge is thanks to a gigantic discount. Right now, until Thursday January 2, you can get The Forest on Steam for $1.99 / £1.54. All you need to do is click here.
Otherwise, try some of the other best horror games, or maybe the best co-op games available today.
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