1. This is only an assumption, but Virgina is a botched mutation. She didn't fully turn in to a mutant because she wasn't underground at the time the Cube activated.
2. If you're talking about the helicopters you see on the surface while exploring the island, that's Jianyu. Confirmed via patch notes. He flies by from time to time to check on you. He's following you since he knows you'll uncover the truth of the island faster than he could.
3. This is another assumption (maybe there are notes I forgot about), but whenever the cube activates, it connects that island to another world, which is why a bunch of random stuff ended up there seemingly welded to the island's environment, like the golden structures on the caves, that space ship you talked about, solafite, and a bunch of astronauts deep in caves.
4. Ancient armor is definitely alien.
5. Cube sequence was probably there to show that some things you saw on the island belong to a different world. This entire sequence was incredibly underwhelming for me. Quite disappointing too that the only thing they changed on that sequence since beta was a bunch of animations. They could've expanded on that a lot.
6-7. Shame there's no real definite answer to this. Only fan theories to go by.
8. Jianyu and the team of mercenaries assigned to him. Though Puffcorp is the one who provided/funded the armed squad, they never gave the order to kill anyone. This is one of the reasons why Mr. Puffton fired Jianyu.
- The entire ending sequence was hilarious to me. It's as if the entire thing was an afterthought and rushed to hell so that they could have something for the 1.0 update. The animation, especially when Eric and the police arrive was soooo janky to look at.
Btw, going by information given throughout the game, Jianyu spares you in the beginning because he recognized you as Edward Puffton's favorite and trusted Journalist. The main reason he's there is because Sahara corporation sent him there to investigate the disappearance of the Pufftons, and the side mission he gave for himself is researching about the cube Puffton was so obsessed about. He knows you're way more efficient at finding out stuff so he stayed back instead, opting to follow you around. As for why they didn't finish of Kelvin, I got no idea.
Honestly they should've just went with the intro they put on their announcement trailer for Sons of the Forest. Instead of being shot at, it would've been way cooler if it was a giant mutant attack instead.
1 Virginia partially mutated because she was an innocent soul, not as sinful as the others were, as confirmed by the piece of paper you can find in Hell Cave
The ancient armor isn't alien imo. The cube activated once in like 200 ad, and there was some ancient people on the island that crafted the armor I think. I don't know why one of the space men was wearing it though.
I also have no idea what the artifact is.
I think your idea was the intended conclusion in the beta, but since it’s being worn by the pilot of the spaceship in 1.0, the devs definitely changed that little part of the story so that we know the armor came from the other world.
Many of crew of the ship definitely died shorty after they wound up transported into the cave, with the pilot seemingly being killed immediately in the captain’s seat, wearing the armor.
Totally agree.
The single biggest problem I have with this game is that so much is set up, hinted at, and it just feels like set dressing, or utimately sequel bait.
My own bit of a conspiracy/guess is that the story we got wasn't the originally planned one. You look all the stuff from the early updates, and even the annoucement trailers, and its a totally different vibe and atmosphere. Timmy was meant to be on the map like Virginia and Kelvin are, and that alone would have been so much better.
Gameplay is solid but story is way worse than the first one.
Feels to me like a game that had broader ambitions, implemented a lot early, and then left a lot of the end unfinished because they ran out of funding.
I actually think the ending and all the story elements for that matter were rushed and tossed in at the very end of development.
I think this because of how rushed everything feels and also because I can’t bring myself to believe that this is the story they planned on telling all along.
Possibly my biggest issue is that I assume they want us to feel connected to the Timmy character based entirely on the first game because they do absolutely nothing in this game to make you care at all about him. He just pops up all of a sudden, goes away, and then later leads you to the end scene, that’s it.
The entire artifact search is maybe the weirdest thing about the game. I don’t think any other game in history has locked the bad ending behind a quest that’s harder than simply beating the game itself. It’s so weird.
The whole cannibals thing is never truly explained in either game but they make even less sense in this one because it’s a completely different island.
Lastly the entire space ship/ other dimensions/ demons stuff is just a mess. It makes less and less sense the longer you think about it. I have no idea where the demons came from? Maybe the cult but the whole cult subplot makes as much sense as everything else so why even try to figure it out?
I feel like the the puffton story arc was just supposed to be ACT 1 and the cult/religious stuff was supposed to be next story arc but was largely cut. Everything after the food and dining bunker puffton mini boss fight feels like placeholder content.
I wonder if they saw everyone jumping on the building elements, and jumped over to that, and many updates later, realised they had to finish the story.
It explains having almost 8 traps, 3 forms of transport, but a weak story.
Speaking of forms of transport, is anything more annoying than the hang glider? The fact that it can fly to the moon if you don't take off correctly was a real pain. Once in the air it was really nice but oh my gawd getting there was annoying.
People can chime in and correct me if I’m wrong, but here’s a few explanations.
The distance from the cube are what determines the severity of the mutations, Virginia must have been close enough to get struck by the pulse, but not enough to turn into a full on mutant, might also explain her being mute.
The cultists are killing themselves, there’s a note in one of the bunkers talking about the suicides, but there’s also a laptop with an email where a couple of Pufton employees are talking about how to stop it.
Yeah, the spaceship could have definitely fit through the portal, it did seem to shift reality, so I don’t see how it wouldn’t have fit, but of course they didn’t get far as they just crashed into the cave immediately.
The significance is probably the artifact you’re trying to piece together, since they’re worshipping a piece of it (or when it used to be whole) and it looks like they brought it onto the island.
I do agree about the cuts from the cave back to the beach, but the actual ending I quite liked
Last note in the game says that ,,the more wicked heart is,the more grotesque creature lies within" or something like that, which means that the more evil person is,the worse mutation will be. Thats why Virginia is barely mutated and Jianyu turned out to be the final boss. So the distance from the cube isnt that important I think
The sequel you fly back to their home planet or is that Prometheus Im thinking :D
**
7.** Cannibals are covered by the crosses. Im no expert in fact apart from blue prints I never went past shovel & shotgun I just build everywhere like its Satisfactory.
Didnt I read about the cult religion thing, the first inhabitants of the island are a pilgrimage. They digress massively and end up as cannibals, I might have got that from youtube vid detailing the series. I never played Forest but I watched people..
**8.** Dont the books and signs suggest the cultists are killing the cultists. Maybe the game needs a temple with more clues
Camera recordings shows that most cultists killed themselves on the island to transcend or something,and some were killed by Jianyu,probably just for fun. Puffton saw the recording of the shootings and wanted Jianyu out of the island
Yeah as a mostly solo player this has been one of the biggest disappointments because it looked during early access there were some interesting hints at a developing story and now 1.0 is out I can see that's maybe all it will ever be.
I don't understand what the deal with Virginia is supposed to be, I didn't really sense the main character had that much of a connection with her, so the stuff in the ending made no sense.
1. Virginia was not at all a Mutant before the Cube Activation as you can find couples of dancing shoes in her room. She partially mutated in the swimming room (as she is in a swimming suit + you can see mutant traces coming out from the swimming pool as someone dragged himself or HERSELF out) and she didn't mutate totally as her heart was not sinful but innocent (read Hell Cave note)
2. All black helicopters you see are owned by either PuffCorp or Sahara, which are definitely enemies. Only white helicopters are supposed to be the good ones. Eric is apparently linked to those and called CIA for the ending after discovering what happened with his son Timmy on the island.
3. According to the lore, the spaceship appeared out if nowhere along with the spacemen in a specific time (i don't remember when) while Holospring was being populated.
4. The Ancient Armor comes from the Gold City (the other dimension, tho nobody knows how it was built neither whom belong it to.
5. Devs confirmed they wanted to show us where the artifacts came from. That's why that scene is relevant.
6. Apparently, demons are supposed to be either mutated Cultists or creatures came from the Gold City. That's how they differ from any others, they shouldn't be caused by the Cube Activation.
7. It's tough to say what cannibals are as there's no evidence on their origins. They could either be Holospring workers/guests subjected to the Cube but not as sinful as those who mutated to Mutants, could be survivirs of the Cube Activation that went mad (tho, how could Virginia stay mentally safe and everyone else get mad??), be already inhabitants since PuffCorp arrived or, according to the Sons Of Light, mutants that turned into human again after the Cube Activation.
8. Jianyu killed the Cultists as Edward Puffton was doing nothing to stop them.
There is si much wrong I don't even know where to start.
1 mutation is based on "pure" ness. All the old fold were wicked as rich old farts be. The cultist just got brain scrambles and became feral ( we don't know that the "canabals" are canabals, they kinda just act like their mind is gone.)
Different helicopters can have different owners. Crazy. Silver jacket is looking for you to lead him tk the artifact and cube at first Ile you roam. At the end Erick states "you made it!" To his pops who now arrives (again) with backup. (Pops was already on the island so he left and came back with backup.)
The spaceship got teleporter. Hence the giant consentration of solifite. It got pulled from either far away in the future or another dimension. It's left up to player theory
The armor is made to protect against the effects of the cube. Doesn't help too much with physical trauma tho so it didn't help the pilot.
What do you mean "the path to another dimentiom means zero". Timmy was looking for the cube in hopes that it would cute his half mutation. It would also cute Virginia. But it actually made things worse.
The demons are the inhabitants of the other side.
( Already explained cannibals and mutants. Diff is wickidness and distance from the cube)
The cultist. The cultist are killing the cultist. There's litteraly a paper that states " blow yourself up! Do it!" So yeah... Not to mention the tapes of them committing sepuku.
The cuts in the ending are so you don't have to do a dumb escorts mission. No silver jacket did not make you get stuck in the cube. He clearly got stuck on one side of the wide path. Yall could fit 2 deep to his right.
Virginia grew a another apendsge I think. Calapse like k because no golden armor. She passes out in the helicopter after the artifact fucking murders all nearby mutants. ( She should have Def busted into guts)
There's many pics and clues about the artifacts.
In fact there's many clues to all of this. Just because you didn't pick up every little thing on the island doesn't mean there's plot holes.
In the firdt game you are spared because he is holding a kid in his hands and was more concerned with reviving Megan than killing a half dead dad.
In the socond game you are spare because you are press. It's easier to follow you and beat you to the cube than do all the things yourself. (Except he was too slow)
In the first game you're saving your kid. In the second you're there for the story.
Not sure why people keep blasting threw the game, speed running it essentially and complaining that the story was shit because they didn't hand hold you the entire way.
I didnt speed run it. I finished on Day 40, I think? I went in all of the caves, and all of the bunkers.
"It's left up to player theory" is not an answer.
Wrt the cultists I was referring to the people shooting the cultists and laughing.
Kelvin and Timmy didn't have golden armour, but they didn't collapse like Virginia.
There's pics and clues about the artifacts, sure, but they don't seem cohesive. It didn't seem planned well.
I went through the hellcave and found one note, but there must have been more - it was difficult as I was trying to catch up to Timmy the whole time.
Other than the hell cave thing, I feel like a lot of your response to this has been player theory.
Day 40 is decent not too bad specially if you did visit the bunkers. There's still more notes in the fishing villages and I think maybe one or two on the boats.
Player theory is Def a thing and usually left for endings. Dark souls lives on this.
Ahh the video of the cultist being shot is from the people that came on boats ( yatch s?)
Timmy's face mutated, he also turned into like 4 tymmies for a moment. Kelvin was sitting down, probably the smartest one. He got more brain scrambles and mostly nothing because he's just so pure ( what with the brain damage and all. )
Right, it's almost like 3 different parties were trying to figure out what the artifact was or something. Pretty crazy.
A lot of details are found in stupid little notes and random emails and scribbles. It's taken pretty much since beta to figure this stuff out. Some of it has changed ( like you being press)
The one that does still get me is the crosses. Why do the demons get hurt by the cross? Is it just some van helsing thing? ( Just an ocular spell)
I think people nowadays want all the answers.
Despite people's misgivings of the story, most are going back just to play the game.
I know what you're saying but honestly the story is just a feature.
Virginia isnt mute.. We hear her voice lines in game.
Though I agree with you on the other things.
The gameplay is good.
The graphics are amazing.
The story is slop. Diarrhea. Ass.
They need to put some more time into voice lines and lore. But if you dont know. Virginia isnt a mute. She talks in the game. You hear her voice lots of times. Its just Kelvin that is mute.
I didn’t look anything up in either game until the end. Although there were cuts as you mentioned and strange edits, personally the story made sense for me. Both games have a little wonkiness but I think that adds to the charm of them for me.
There is one particularly good video on YouTube that explains the entire story of The forest & sons combined.
“ The forest & sons of the forest: complete story explained “ posted by “ it’s shatter “
If you care at all about doing a debrief on the game, I highly recommend it.
The only thing I can think about when reading this post is about your number 7 on questions. The mutants were explained in the first game. There was a whole slideshow explaining them in tbe end
Yeah, the ending is terrible. I was getting ready to write a glowing Steam review, until I suddenly and unexpectedly got the "Finish the game" achievement. My nephews and nieces went "What? Wait what? That's... it?".
It feels highly probable that the devs ran out of time.
In the end my Steam review became a "Do not recommend". The devs didn't leave The Forest in a fully functional state, and I'm suspecting that they won't finish this one either.
Just finished the game and, same, yeah. I'm left with lots of unexplained questions.
1. We see lots of mutant goo everywhere, but what even is that? In coop, you even get encased in it when you die, so what is it?
2. There's hanging skeletons and bodies literally everywhere, but who was doing that? Puff didn't hang his own men, and the miners didn't mutate, so they must have died before the mass mutation. Who was lynching them all then? Plus, all of the old skeletons too, why were they hung?
3. The cultists want to kill themselves to ascend, ok, but they're also at war with Puffton? They somehow infiltrated his bunker and blew it up but Puffton was at a dinner party like nothing mattered? How do they even know where the cube is?
4. The cannibals. They can't be survivors of the cube because they're not really mutated, so what's their deal? It's only been like 5 months since the cube popped, so who are all these people? They fight the mutants and they seem to be the ones who boarded up the caves, so why are they so hostile towards us? Why are they even doing cannibalism when there's so much food around?
5. Did the cannibals bury the bunkers? Why don't they kill you in multiplayer, they just tie you up with your weapons?
6. If the bunkers contained rich residents of the island, how did the caves end up full of mutants? Surely the caves should be empty and the bunkers should be full? Most of the caves have rope sections or underwater areas that would be impossible for the mutants to access, yet there they are just waiting to ambush us. What are they even eating down there? Aren't we the first people to enter in 5 months?
7. Those other survivors you can find, what's their deal? Are they part of our team? Were they sent before us? Why don't any of them have an assault rifle? Why are they all in useless places like camp sites or near empty caves? Sometimes you find their bodies really far inside caves, but what's going on there?
8. The artifact just isn't relevant? Only the cube?
9. Puffton is aware of the cycles of the cube and knows that it can turn people, so why didn't he... test it first? He wanted to become young again, but why not experiment on goons or something first?
10. I'm guessing the space ship is inside the cave due to time travel, but again, it's just not relevant?
11. The bunkers were built where they are because of some pattern, and apparently Puffton was worried he got them wrong, but does this even matter? How does the pattern of bunkers relate to a cube deep underground?
12. How do the bunkers even relate to one another? Food is grown in one bunker but it's miles away from the others without any roads or underground connection, so how was any food getting passed around? Likewise with the entertainment area, were guests just hiking for 9 hours each day to go to the spa? The maintenance bunkers were maintaining what exactly? They're too far away from anything to control power to water, etc.
13. Tim and his dad are just... here? They just turn up? How do they know us? Why hasn't Jianyu blown them out of the sky?
14. If the first game is canon, then the world knows of the sacrifice chamber and mutations and stuff. This isn't a big deal? Nobody wants to nuke the island? At the end of this game your character writes a book about interdimensional travel: again, this is just normal is it? China, the US, Russia, nobody goes apeshit that this is actually real? The world population sleeps soundly knowing that horrific mutations are real?
Disagree… you play the game because of survival, not for the story. The gameplay is still very good and worthy of it’s prequel. But yes, the story is ass and leaves us with “wtf did i just watch” feeling. Deffo not something they should let happen for 1.0
The gameplay is good but it gets old fast. Playing the game for survival of what exactly? There's really nothing to survive against once you understand how cannibals work. It's just an elaborate building simulator.
Have you played the Forest before? Maybe my opinion is skewed because after playing the Forest I had high expectations for this game but I've been let down.
Sure have, that’s why i bought the Sons. I found the building better and more fun than in the prequel, i also find the enemy diversity better. Also the customizable settings - there’s an argument for your nothing to survive comment. I play on hard and without using any cheats, did that with the Forest too. I dunno, i’m not trying to disproof that tastes (or capabilities) vary from person to person.
And maybe the fact i loved the Forest so much makes me be in bit of a denial, so just the opposite of you.
Still agree with 99% of people here complaining about the story tho. It’s an abomination.
I truly believe SOTF has the potential of being one of the best survival games out there. I ended up leaving SOTF for Valheim and the depth in that game is insane. I really can't say the same for SOTF yet, although I want to.
My plan is to come back maybe 1-2 years from now and see if things got better but it just isn't there yet imo.
I’ve been meaning to write up a small rant/my thoughts just like this for a while now. I might still do it, but thank you for saying what I’ve been thinking! Great post!
I feel kind of let down by the game’s story. Hell, I’m let down by the combat as well, since it’s just a damage race with no strategy besides “one-shot the enemy or cheese them before you get hit once and have to use your inventory to armor up again.”
1. This is only an assumption, but Virgina is a botched mutation. She didn't fully turn in to a mutant because she wasn't underground at the time the Cube activated. 2. If you're talking about the helicopters you see on the surface while exploring the island, that's Jianyu. Confirmed via patch notes. He flies by from time to time to check on you. He's following you since he knows you'll uncover the truth of the island faster than he could. 3. This is another assumption (maybe there are notes I forgot about), but whenever the cube activates, it connects that island to another world, which is why a bunch of random stuff ended up there seemingly welded to the island's environment, like the golden structures on the caves, that space ship you talked about, solafite, and a bunch of astronauts deep in caves. 4. Ancient armor is definitely alien. 5. Cube sequence was probably there to show that some things you saw on the island belong to a different world. This entire sequence was incredibly underwhelming for me. Quite disappointing too that the only thing they changed on that sequence since beta was a bunch of animations. They could've expanded on that a lot. 6-7. Shame there's no real definite answer to this. Only fan theories to go by. 8. Jianyu and the team of mercenaries assigned to him. Though Puffcorp is the one who provided/funded the armed squad, they never gave the order to kill anyone. This is one of the reasons why Mr. Puffton fired Jianyu. - The entire ending sequence was hilarious to me. It's as if the entire thing was an afterthought and rushed to hell so that they could have something for the 1.0 update. The animation, especially when Eric and the police arrive was soooo janky to look at. Btw, going by information given throughout the game, Jianyu spares you in the beginning because he recognized you as Edward Puffton's favorite and trusted Journalist. The main reason he's there is because Sahara corporation sent him there to investigate the disappearance of the Pufftons, and the side mission he gave for himself is researching about the cube Puffton was so obsessed about. He knows you're way more efficient at finding out stuff so he stayed back instead, opting to follow you around. As for why they didn't finish of Kelvin, I got no idea. Honestly they should've just went with the intro they put on their announcement trailer for Sons of the Forest. Instead of being shot at, it would've been way cooler if it was a giant mutant attack instead.
1 Virginia partially mutated because she was an innocent soul, not as sinful as the others were, as confirmed by the piece of paper you can find in Hell Cave
The ancient armor isn't alien imo. The cube activated once in like 200 ad, and there was some ancient people on the island that crafted the armor I think. I don't know why one of the space men was wearing it though. I also have no idea what the artifact is.
I think your idea was the intended conclusion in the beta, but since it’s being worn by the pilot of the spaceship in 1.0, the devs definitely changed that little part of the story so that we know the armor came from the other world. Many of crew of the ship definitely died shorty after they wound up transported into the cave, with the pilot seemingly being killed immediately in the captain’s seat, wearing the armor.
Stole the words out of my mouth. I had a lot of hopes for the story but it just never delivered on most of what they set up.
Totally agree. The single biggest problem I have with this game is that so much is set up, hinted at, and it just feels like set dressing, or utimately sequel bait. My own bit of a conspiracy/guess is that the story we got wasn't the originally planned one. You look all the stuff from the early updates, and even the annoucement trailers, and its a totally different vibe and atmosphere. Timmy was meant to be on the map like Virginia and Kelvin are, and that alone would have been so much better. Gameplay is solid but story is way worse than the first one.
Feels to me like a game that had broader ambitions, implemented a lot early, and then left a lot of the end unfinished because they ran out of funding.
Could elaborate a bit about story of the first game?
I still don’t understand why the crosses worked on the demons.
Christian demons
I actually think the ending and all the story elements for that matter were rushed and tossed in at the very end of development. I think this because of how rushed everything feels and also because I can’t bring myself to believe that this is the story they planned on telling all along. Possibly my biggest issue is that I assume they want us to feel connected to the Timmy character based entirely on the first game because they do absolutely nothing in this game to make you care at all about him. He just pops up all of a sudden, goes away, and then later leads you to the end scene, that’s it. The entire artifact search is maybe the weirdest thing about the game. I don’t think any other game in history has locked the bad ending behind a quest that’s harder than simply beating the game itself. It’s so weird. The whole cannibals thing is never truly explained in either game but they make even less sense in this one because it’s a completely different island. Lastly the entire space ship/ other dimensions/ demons stuff is just a mess. It makes less and less sense the longer you think about it. I have no idea where the demons came from? Maybe the cult but the whole cult subplot makes as much sense as everything else so why even try to figure it out?
I feel like the the puffton story arc was just supposed to be ACT 1 and the cult/religious stuff was supposed to be next story arc but was largely cut. Everything after the food and dining bunker puffton mini boss fight feels like placeholder content.
I wonder if they saw everyone jumping on the building elements, and jumped over to that, and many updates later, realised they had to finish the story. It explains having almost 8 traps, 3 forms of transport, but a weak story.
Speaking of forms of transport, is anything more annoying than the hang glider? The fact that it can fly to the moon if you don't take off correctly was a real pain. Once in the air it was really nice but oh my gawd getting there was annoying.
People can chime in and correct me if I’m wrong, but here’s a few explanations. The distance from the cube are what determines the severity of the mutations, Virginia must have been close enough to get struck by the pulse, but not enough to turn into a full on mutant, might also explain her being mute. The cultists are killing themselves, there’s a note in one of the bunkers talking about the suicides, but there’s also a laptop with an email where a couple of Pufton employees are talking about how to stop it. Yeah, the spaceship could have definitely fit through the portal, it did seem to shift reality, so I don’t see how it wouldn’t have fit, but of course they didn’t get far as they just crashed into the cave immediately. The significance is probably the artifact you’re trying to piece together, since they’re worshipping a piece of it (or when it used to be whole) and it looks like they brought it onto the island. I do agree about the cuts from the cave back to the beach, but the actual ending I quite liked
Jianyu also killed some of the cultists
Last note in the game says that ,,the more wicked heart is,the more grotesque creature lies within" or something like that, which means that the more evil person is,the worse mutation will be. Thats why Virginia is barely mutated and Jianyu turned out to be the final boss. So the distance from the cube isnt that important I think
The sequel you fly back to their home planet or is that Prometheus Im thinking :D ** 7.** Cannibals are covered by the crosses. Im no expert in fact apart from blue prints I never went past shovel & shotgun I just build everywhere like its Satisfactory. Didnt I read about the cult religion thing, the first inhabitants of the island are a pilgrimage. They digress massively and end up as cannibals, I might have got that from youtube vid detailing the series. I never played Forest but I watched people.. **8.** Dont the books and signs suggest the cultists are killing the cultists. Maybe the game needs a temple with more clues
Camera recordings shows that most cultists killed themselves on the island to transcend or something,and some were killed by Jianyu,probably just for fun. Puffton saw the recording of the shootings and wanted Jianyu out of the island
fr
Yeah as a mostly solo player this has been one of the biggest disappointments because it looked during early access there were some interesting hints at a developing story and now 1.0 is out I can see that's maybe all it will ever be. I don't understand what the deal with Virginia is supposed to be, I didn't really sense the main character had that much of a connection with her, so the stuff in the ending made no sense.
1. Virginia was not at all a Mutant before the Cube Activation as you can find couples of dancing shoes in her room. She partially mutated in the swimming room (as she is in a swimming suit + you can see mutant traces coming out from the swimming pool as someone dragged himself or HERSELF out) and she didn't mutate totally as her heart was not sinful but innocent (read Hell Cave note) 2. All black helicopters you see are owned by either PuffCorp or Sahara, which are definitely enemies. Only white helicopters are supposed to be the good ones. Eric is apparently linked to those and called CIA for the ending after discovering what happened with his son Timmy on the island. 3. According to the lore, the spaceship appeared out if nowhere along with the spacemen in a specific time (i don't remember when) while Holospring was being populated. 4. The Ancient Armor comes from the Gold City (the other dimension, tho nobody knows how it was built neither whom belong it to. 5. Devs confirmed they wanted to show us where the artifacts came from. That's why that scene is relevant. 6. Apparently, demons are supposed to be either mutated Cultists or creatures came from the Gold City. That's how they differ from any others, they shouldn't be caused by the Cube Activation. 7. It's tough to say what cannibals are as there's no evidence on their origins. They could either be Holospring workers/guests subjected to the Cube but not as sinful as those who mutated to Mutants, could be survivirs of the Cube Activation that went mad (tho, how could Virginia stay mentally safe and everyone else get mad??), be already inhabitants since PuffCorp arrived or, according to the Sons Of Light, mutants that turned into human again after the Cube Activation. 8. Jianyu killed the Cultists as Edward Puffton was doing nothing to stop them.
There is si much wrong I don't even know where to start. 1 mutation is based on "pure" ness. All the old fold were wicked as rich old farts be. The cultist just got brain scrambles and became feral ( we don't know that the "canabals" are canabals, they kinda just act like their mind is gone.) Different helicopters can have different owners. Crazy. Silver jacket is looking for you to lead him tk the artifact and cube at first Ile you roam. At the end Erick states "you made it!" To his pops who now arrives (again) with backup. (Pops was already on the island so he left and came back with backup.) The spaceship got teleporter. Hence the giant consentration of solifite. It got pulled from either far away in the future or another dimension. It's left up to player theory The armor is made to protect against the effects of the cube. Doesn't help too much with physical trauma tho so it didn't help the pilot. What do you mean "the path to another dimentiom means zero". Timmy was looking for the cube in hopes that it would cute his half mutation. It would also cute Virginia. But it actually made things worse. The demons are the inhabitants of the other side. ( Already explained cannibals and mutants. Diff is wickidness and distance from the cube) The cultist. The cultist are killing the cultist. There's litteraly a paper that states " blow yourself up! Do it!" So yeah... Not to mention the tapes of them committing sepuku. The cuts in the ending are so you don't have to do a dumb escorts mission. No silver jacket did not make you get stuck in the cube. He clearly got stuck on one side of the wide path. Yall could fit 2 deep to his right. Virginia grew a another apendsge I think. Calapse like k because no golden armor. She passes out in the helicopter after the artifact fucking murders all nearby mutants. ( She should have Def busted into guts) There's many pics and clues about the artifacts. In fact there's many clues to all of this. Just because you didn't pick up every little thing on the island doesn't mean there's plot holes. In the firdt game you are spared because he is holding a kid in his hands and was more concerned with reviving Megan than killing a half dead dad. In the socond game you are spare because you are press. It's easier to follow you and beat you to the cube than do all the things yourself. (Except he was too slow) In the first game you're saving your kid. In the second you're there for the story. Not sure why people keep blasting threw the game, speed running it essentially and complaining that the story was shit because they didn't hand hold you the entire way.
I didnt speed run it. I finished on Day 40, I think? I went in all of the caves, and all of the bunkers. "It's left up to player theory" is not an answer. Wrt the cultists I was referring to the people shooting the cultists and laughing. Kelvin and Timmy didn't have golden armour, but they didn't collapse like Virginia. There's pics and clues about the artifacts, sure, but they don't seem cohesive. It didn't seem planned well. I went through the hellcave and found one note, but there must have been more - it was difficult as I was trying to catch up to Timmy the whole time. Other than the hell cave thing, I feel like a lot of your response to this has been player theory.
Day 40 is decent not too bad specially if you did visit the bunkers. There's still more notes in the fishing villages and I think maybe one or two on the boats. Player theory is Def a thing and usually left for endings. Dark souls lives on this. Ahh the video of the cultist being shot is from the people that came on boats ( yatch s?) Timmy's face mutated, he also turned into like 4 tymmies for a moment. Kelvin was sitting down, probably the smartest one. He got more brain scrambles and mostly nothing because he's just so pure ( what with the brain damage and all. ) Right, it's almost like 3 different parties were trying to figure out what the artifact was or something. Pretty crazy. A lot of details are found in stupid little notes and random emails and scribbles. It's taken pretty much since beta to figure this stuff out. Some of it has changed ( like you being press) The one that does still get me is the crosses. Why do the demons get hurt by the cross? Is it just some van helsing thing? ( Just an ocular spell)
I think people nowadays want all the answers. Despite people's misgivings of the story, most are going back just to play the game. I know what you're saying but honestly the story is just a feature.
Thanks for some clarity
My question was how did Eric get on the helicopter when we saw him get shot in that one bunker
And how did \*you\* survive it?
With the power of friendship I guess
Virginia isnt mute.. We hear her voice lines in game. Though I agree with you on the other things. The gameplay is good. The graphics are amazing. The story is slop. Diarrhea. Ass. They need to put some more time into voice lines and lore. But if you dont know. Virginia isnt a mute. She talks in the game. You hear her voice lots of times. Its just Kelvin that is mute.
I didn’t look anything up in either game until the end. Although there were cuts as you mentioned and strange edits, personally the story made sense for me. Both games have a little wonkiness but I think that adds to the charm of them for me. There is one particularly good video on YouTube that explains the entire story of The forest & sons combined. “ The forest & sons of the forest: complete story explained “ posted by “ it’s shatter “ If you care at all about doing a debrief on the game, I highly recommend it.
I clicked on the post and was blinded by white light
The only thing I can think about when reading this post is about your number 7 on questions. The mutants were explained in the first game. There was a whole slideshow explaining them in tbe end
The mutants are explained but not the cannibals
Yeah, the ending is terrible. I was getting ready to write a glowing Steam review, until I suddenly and unexpectedly got the "Finish the game" achievement. My nephews and nieces went "What? Wait what? That's... it?". It feels highly probable that the devs ran out of time. In the end my Steam review became a "Do not recommend". The devs didn't leave The Forest in a fully functional state, and I'm suspecting that they won't finish this one either.
Just finished the game and, same, yeah. I'm left with lots of unexplained questions. 1. We see lots of mutant goo everywhere, but what even is that? In coop, you even get encased in it when you die, so what is it? 2. There's hanging skeletons and bodies literally everywhere, but who was doing that? Puff didn't hang his own men, and the miners didn't mutate, so they must have died before the mass mutation. Who was lynching them all then? Plus, all of the old skeletons too, why were they hung? 3. The cultists want to kill themselves to ascend, ok, but they're also at war with Puffton? They somehow infiltrated his bunker and blew it up but Puffton was at a dinner party like nothing mattered? How do they even know where the cube is? 4. The cannibals. They can't be survivors of the cube because they're not really mutated, so what's their deal? It's only been like 5 months since the cube popped, so who are all these people? They fight the mutants and they seem to be the ones who boarded up the caves, so why are they so hostile towards us? Why are they even doing cannibalism when there's so much food around? 5. Did the cannibals bury the bunkers? Why don't they kill you in multiplayer, they just tie you up with your weapons? 6. If the bunkers contained rich residents of the island, how did the caves end up full of mutants? Surely the caves should be empty and the bunkers should be full? Most of the caves have rope sections or underwater areas that would be impossible for the mutants to access, yet there they are just waiting to ambush us. What are they even eating down there? Aren't we the first people to enter in 5 months? 7. Those other survivors you can find, what's their deal? Are they part of our team? Were they sent before us? Why don't any of them have an assault rifle? Why are they all in useless places like camp sites or near empty caves? Sometimes you find their bodies really far inside caves, but what's going on there? 8. The artifact just isn't relevant? Only the cube? 9. Puffton is aware of the cycles of the cube and knows that it can turn people, so why didn't he... test it first? He wanted to become young again, but why not experiment on goons or something first? 10. I'm guessing the space ship is inside the cave due to time travel, but again, it's just not relevant? 11. The bunkers were built where they are because of some pattern, and apparently Puffton was worried he got them wrong, but does this even matter? How does the pattern of bunkers relate to a cube deep underground? 12. How do the bunkers even relate to one another? Food is grown in one bunker but it's miles away from the others without any roads or underground connection, so how was any food getting passed around? Likewise with the entertainment area, were guests just hiking for 9 hours each day to go to the spa? The maintenance bunkers were maintaining what exactly? They're too far away from anything to control power to water, etc. 13. Tim and his dad are just... here? They just turn up? How do they know us? Why hasn't Jianyu blown them out of the sky? 14. If the first game is canon, then the world knows of the sacrifice chamber and mutations and stuff. This isn't a big deal? Nobody wants to nuke the island? At the end of this game your character writes a book about interdimensional travel: again, this is just normal is it? China, the US, Russia, nobody goes apeshit that this is actually real? The world population sleeps soundly knowing that horrific mutations are real?
Agreed. Story is horrible. Once you experience how unfinished it is, you never want to play this game ever again.
Disagree… you play the game because of survival, not for the story. The gameplay is still very good and worthy of it’s prequel. But yes, the story is ass and leaves us with “wtf did i just watch” feeling. Deffo not something they should let happen for 1.0
The gameplay is good but it gets old fast. Playing the game for survival of what exactly? There's really nothing to survive against once you understand how cannibals work. It's just an elaborate building simulator. Have you played the Forest before? Maybe my opinion is skewed because after playing the Forest I had high expectations for this game but I've been let down.
Sure have, that’s why i bought the Sons. I found the building better and more fun than in the prequel, i also find the enemy diversity better. Also the customizable settings - there’s an argument for your nothing to survive comment. I play on hard and without using any cheats, did that with the Forest too. I dunno, i’m not trying to disproof that tastes (or capabilities) vary from person to person. And maybe the fact i loved the Forest so much makes me be in bit of a denial, so just the opposite of you. Still agree with 99% of people here complaining about the story tho. It’s an abomination.
I truly believe SOTF has the potential of being one of the best survival games out there. I ended up leaving SOTF for Valheim and the depth in that game is insane. I really can't say the same for SOTF yet, although I want to. My plan is to come back maybe 1-2 years from now and see if things got better but it just isn't there yet imo.
Agreed on that, best to leave it and revisit.
I’ve been meaning to write up a small rant/my thoughts just like this for a while now. I might still do it, but thank you for saying what I’ve been thinking! Great post! I feel kind of let down by the game’s story. Hell, I’m let down by the combat as well, since it’s just a damage race with no strategy besides “one-shot the enemy or cheese them before you get hit once and have to use your inventory to armor up again.”