Forspoken Reviews
Forspoken occasionally has small sparks of greatness, but then quickly douses itself in fear of ever being anything other than an upsettingly safe open-world RPG.
Forspoken’s flashy combat and parkour can be fun, but they aren’t enough to make its cliche story and barebones open world very interesting to explore.
Forspoken takes it time to get over a wobbly start, but there's something worthwhile here amongst the noise.
"Barring a few rare setpieces, Forspoken seems to prefer to tell rather than show"
Forspoken's story and combat fail to reach the heights of its movement and exploration, but thankfully those two latter elements make up most of the experience.
Forspoken’s opening hours are by far its worst. It took me 16 hours to complete the game, taking in a fair bit of the side offerings in this open-world action RPG, being careful not to sprint too quickly toward the game’s conclusion, though the temptation was there.
Forspoken is visually stimulating and a musical delight, but boring combat, poor characterization, and loose movement mechanics make for a mediocre experience.
Forspoken deserves better than what shipped on January 24. The strength of its story and protagonist do outpace its many problems, but much like Frey’s early struggles in seeing her own greatness, it’s clouded by unfortunate circumstances.
Solid and definitely have an audience. There could be some hard-to-ignore faults, but the experience is fun.
Forspoken it's not the next gen game that we're waiting for, but it's not as bad as some found in the demo. It has its share of elements to improve, starting with the script, but it makes combat and traverse very fresh and enjoyable, in a world full of things to do, that invites to keep playing even after watching the ending credits.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Forspoken was once one of the big reveals for the PS5 in 2020, but aside from using the SSD for open world magical parkour and the ultra quick fast travel, it is difficult to really see how it takes advantage of the latest console generation. The world of Athia looks good, and the combat full of flashy magic, but there's no major side quests to divert from repetitive activities and a predictable main story.
Forspoken's magical parkour system has a lot of potential and can be fun. It offers a novel means of traversal, if nothing else. However, the combat and the vast world aren't enough for me to overlook many of Forspoken's other issues, which mainly start with Frey Holland herself.
An adventure in which the need to conquer the lady and the altruistic obsession to save the world give way to more human interests, more visceral and easier to connect with.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Forspoken is neither black nor white, it's a mottled gray of spectacular combat and magical parkour to be experienced within a dated open world.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Its stuttering start belies a combat system that’s worth investing the effort to learn, but takes so long to get up to full speed that it’s already on borrowed time.
There's something here to get stuck into for fans of open world adventures, and Forspoken isn't without its charms, but like Frey herself, it's often its own worst enemy.
Forspoken fails to impress in several ways. Almost every good aspect of the game has a negative flip side. Though Forspoken isn't a bad game, the problems it does have hold it back from being great. All in all, Forspoken is just okay.
I’ll come back here and rate the game once I’ve finished the last chapter. However, I’m not convinced that it’s going to become any more magical and entertaining than it is now. It’s a shame, because the game starts from a good place: A new fantasy IP with a take-no-prisoners female protagonist. And I can tell that a lot of the people who worked on the game were sincerely trying. But I can also tell that several others very much were not.
In all the ways “open world” could be used as a pejorative, Forspoken excels.