I don’t know about you, but I think of 2022 and a quantity of milk comes to mind to decide who will be the GOTY It just makes me rub my hands more and more. At the beginning of the year there are going to be good pineapples and one of the great years of the industry is coming. We already know the main candidates for this contest, but among the most covered, there are potential jewels.
A server when he saw Forspoken for the first time could not clearly say if it is an excellent game, but what I was already clear from that moment is that it was fully booked in my agenda. Do youAn isekai with a giant open world and promising scrolling? I do not know if the basket is good, but of course the wickers point to be there.
Welcome to Athia
Luminous Productions wants to put all the meat on the grill with its first work, in collaboration with Square Enix. Allison Rymer and Todd Stashwick, writers of the title, laid the foundations of what we have vaguely learned in the previews. We find ourselves controlling Frey Holland, a young woman living in New York who is transported to Athia, a fantasy world that he does not know and from which he cannot escape. An unusual bracelet appears on his wrist, responding to the name of Cepo, and he discovers that he is capable of casting spells almost without thinking.
A mysterious force that goes by the name of Break has invaded the world, as if it were a plague. The corruption it provokes wherever it passes creates chaos, transforming animals into abominable creatures, human beings into little more than beasts, and creating monsters of all kinds. The master play is that Frey is, for some reason, immune to the ills that Break causes, so he becomes the last hope for humanity in Athia.
Luminous Engine is the graphics engine that gives life to Forspoken and this is not a minor issue. During the presentation in which I was present, several members of the development team had an impact on the importance of facial animations and especially in gestures. In fact, it was emphasized that it was relevant to print ways of walking to Frey, which would give us to understand what kind of person we have in front of us.
A girl who has found herself alone on many occasions, aimlessly and without a goal to address. That is why the work touches on themes as universal as the search for a family and the need to find one’s own identity. This is the leitmotif of what we can see during the game.
An open world to run
Not only does the Luminous Engine live off motion captures, because on a graphical level Forspoken is very solid. The landscapes are huge, with a distant drawing distance and it behaves very well with the characters. Frey is capable of running at breakneck speeds as we have already seen in several previews and its layer moves with its own physics. The party begins when he decides to use all his magic and spells to annihilate what is in front of him.
Before that happens, I could see Frey in the middle of a large human settlement. It is one of the few places in which humanity manages to resist, for a simple fact as that they are at a great height. Therefore, when he decides to cross the gates of the wall that covers the city, a tide of clouds is at the feet of the protagonist. And this is the moment when Forspoken brings out one of its key elements: scrolling.
Not only is he capable of running, as I said earlier, but Frey’s displacement powers encompass great jumps or the ability to cling to fixed points throughout the world. Most of the time I have seen Forspoken it has been with the protagonist walking and it seemed entertaining enough already, certainly not on the level of a Marvel’s Spider-Man, but yes enough to not mind spending hours for Athia ahead.
As long as the damn infernal creatures leave me alone. I was able to see several combats in which Frey displayed his abilities, which are based on elemental magic. The classic infamous grid appears so that let us machine-gun our enemies mercilessly, which begin to gather, not in quantity, but with that lively hunger of the hordes of Days Gone. It does not have to happen this way, since there are other more brutal and powerful beings, which, for example, Frey decided to avoid by becoming invisible, without an invisibility cloak or anything.
Be careful, because the magic festival is overwhelming. Rays that seem to be launched by Zeus himself, swords created with elemental magic or a impressive bubble filled with water that drowns the enemies. In the face of such a torrent of violence, no one can resist, so Frey can easily get hold of the loot in that juicy chest. And this is another important detail from Forspoken.
During the delivery of slaps, messages such as invulnerable or numbers that highlight the damage appeared next to the enemies. This is because we can customize and enhance different aspects of Frey, with a visual impact, which is what is most cool. Its pendant powers parameters of its green, blue, red or purple magic and the cape can also change color at the same time Increase Stats To Crush When Corrupted that is in front.
However, the flash of originality comes from Frey’s hands, specifically from her nails. Indeed, depending on the design that we have painted, we will benefit in different ways. The truth is that the protagonist cannot stand out more in that world, because wearing Converse with jeans does not seem quite common among humans who seem taken from medieval times.
So that we do not want to leave Athia at any time, many collectibles have been placed to discover. Scattered in the chests, trees … there are many nooks and crannies to explore, giving that extra point to take advantage of Forspoken’s movement. To liven up the march, the bracelet holds conversations with Frey, which indicates that there will be a lot of play between both parties.
Honey on the lips
The final shot of the show was the moment in which Frey ends caught in the middle of a huge sandstorm. The difficulty level increases exponentially, as several tall rivals begin to walk towards her slowly, but with malicious intentions. The only way to escape from there will be to end up with a huge monster, a creature that moves on all fours, does not have a defined head and all it knows how to do is launch rays that destroy everything.
Here the visual display was one of the good ones, with all the sand raised, practically creating a vault from which you cannot get out. A life bar at the top of the screen indicates how much more we have to fight with this boss to escape and I hope moments like these are frequent in Forspoken.
I still have a debt to history, to a plot of which I only know its first steps and I am not sure how far it wants to go. In Luminous Productions have gone to the ABC of video games, by what has been shown to me. I can not assure to what extent it has risked, especially at the plot level, but in the mechanical part it has been a family reunion. Skill tree, open world map, lots of exploration … it’s the classic formula for success, a hallmark common to many works that simply works very well.
There are several video games that I have referenced throughout the text. A little from there, a little from there and the result will be known to us on next May 24, 2022. Forspoken will arrive exclusively on PS5 on consoles and can also be played on PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store.