General Game and Story:
* The games initial price point is estimated at $15.00
* 'The Forest' is labeled as an "Open World Survival-Horror" game.
* The game's setting is stated as a “North American Forest”; with areas like swamps, lakes, caves, and mountains.
* There will be "Mutant, Cannibalistic, Tribesmen" that will hunt you at night.
* The game draws inspiration from: 70's and 80's exploitation films, Italian Cannibal Films, "The Hills Have Eyes", "I Spit On Your Grave", "I Am Legend", and many other films alike.
* There will be no written or verbal dialogue within the game to aid in story telling.
* There is a deep story line though that will slowly be uncovered by the player through visiting locations, finding items, and generally by the experiences within the game.
* The story line will be completely optional. You are free to explore The Forest and play it as you see fit.
* Ben wants this game to scare you more than any game before has. It will have its calm and serene moments inbetween though.
* "There is some question as to who is actually the enemy: them, or you. You're the one who is invading their forest." - Ben Falcone
Graphics:
* The game will utilize the Unity 4 Engine.
* It will support VR Oculus Rift (As of now only the Oculus Rift will be supported)
- Interest in the STEM VR System was expressed by Ben.
* The player’s character will have a full body model, which can interact with the environment in different ways.
* The game world will use an advanced light scattering system with volumetric fog
* The game will use physical shading that allows light to respond naturally for realistic shadow effects.
* Enemy skins will use “Screen-Space Sub Surface Scattering[dmg3d.blogspot.com.es]” for a more realistic feel.
* Certain objects and the rocks in the caves are 3-D scanned from the real world to add more realism.
* Enemies will have feature film quality animations.
(From the trailers it seems that your character will have their own range of high quality animations as well)
* Blood splatter will occur when fighting.
(During the trailer you can visually see blood flying during strikes, and covering the arms of the player)
* SLI and Crossfire setups will not be supported at Alpha release. The game will however work well with single card setups; SLI/Crossfire is expected to be implemented later into development.
The Game World:
* A "Huge" Open World.
* Day and Night Cycle; with appropriate tides appearing throughout the day along the coast.
* Weather systems with rain and lightning (only ones confirmed so far).
* Extensive and intricate cave systems with underground lakes.
* Every tree in the game world can be cut down, changing the world dramatically and deforestation can occur. (The ranging effects that this will have not been accurately stated)
* Food sources can also be depleted, and animals over-hunted.
* Plants re-grow overtime, and die as well.
* Several nearby islands can be visited by boat, or on a raft.
* A few of the structures you can craft or take shelter in are: Caves, Tents, Cabins, Sea Side Fortresses, and House Boats.
Gameplay Elements:
* Minimal UI will be utilized during crafting in order to maintain constant immersion in the game.
* Crafting will be done using tools and the surrounding environment. Such as crafting a spear on a rock; or creating a torch by bringing a stick to a fire. And for more advanced Crafting options the player will be able to combine small items together in their backpack.
* There is a stealth system that will be highly encouraged for players to use.
* The player can craft camouflage from foliage, to aid in hiding from the mutants. They can also cover themselves in mud for decreased visibility (Predator[vcrvcr.files.wordpress.com])
* The player can craft multiple weapons such as Spears, and Axes. For more advanced weapons, players will be able to combine items such as their lighter with a can of hairspray to create a crude flamethrower.
* The player can create a large amount of traps, and use camouflage to conceal them.
* The combat will be primarily melee based. There is an idea to add bows, later on.
* The player can block and dodge enemy attacks. And each attack appears to have an appropriate physical reaction when striking an enemy.
Survival in The Forest:
* Food and water are necessary for survival in The Forest.
* You will need to craft a shelter, or a fire to keep your character warm at night or during a storm. If not you can get cold, and sick.
(Negative stat effects will occur)
* You need to sleep.
(Safe to assume that not sleeping will also have negative effects)
* Stamina is a confirmed stat mechanic; carry too much and it will deplete faster than normal.
* You can trap or hunt animals for food.
* You can also plant and grow your own garden.
* You will probably want to boil the water you find. There is a risk that comes with drinking water straight from the source.
* Cooking meat will be required to avoid illness. And leaving dead animal carcasses out for too long will attract flies.
The Cannibalistic Mutants:
* The mutants live within the world’s cave systems.
* Mutants have "Families, Fears, Morals, and Beliefs". The mutants are part of a tribe that have their own customs. Don't think of them only as feral beings.
* They have their own routines, will sleep during the day, hunt and make weird cannibal art at night
* Mutants are more than just AI enemies that fight you. They will interact with one another dynamically, as well as to your actions.
* Several different situations have been described where the mutants will react to your actions:
- Mutants may run away in fear after you have killed one of their tribesmen.
- They will carry their injured friends back to the caves for safety.
- They will mourn[survivetheforest.com] the loss of their kin.
* If you kill the mutants in their caves, or generally do things to make them angry. They will attack you even during the day time.
* Enemy Mutants are finite, so they will not re-spawn indefinitely. Each mutant you kill makes a difference, in more ways than one too it seems.
* Mutants are not weak foot soldiers. Each poses a direct threat and challenge,
* Mutants will generally hunt you at night.
* Mutants can also hunt for you in packs.
* The mutants can climb the forest's trees. The trailer shows instances where they leap from the trees to cut off the player's escape, and to ambush you.
* Mutants will stalk you sometimes before directly attacking. It appears that they will use nearby trees and foliage to sneak up on you.
* From gameplay footage it seems that mutants can jump a good distance, and will use this to their advantage to close the distance on you and to strike.
* Mutants can use weapons to attack you.
(You can see the weapons in question in the 2nd trailer)
Other Features:
* Co-Op Mode: This feature has been confirmed for the game. There is a likely version that will be implemented during Alpha.
* Multiplayer mode may appear after Alpha release.
* Player Mods: They have expressed an interest to allow the community to mod the game; they are currently working on getting the correct tools to allow for this.
* Online Leaderboards: So far they have confirmed a "Longest Time Survived" leaderboard.
(I suspect several other categories will be added in as well later)
* Different game modes:
- There is a confirmed Peaceful[i.imgur.com] mode with no mutants.
- A hardcore mode where you will have only one life.
- A mode that will procedurally generate a new Forest each time.
* Finisher moves: This is based solely from the scene in the second trailer, where the player bashes the enemy mutant’s skull in with a rock. With the number of high quality animations already in-game, it can be expected that certain finishing moves will be implemented.
* Predatory animals will pose a threat to you within the forest.
(Sharks are the only confirmed predatory animal as of yet)
* Different variations of mutants will exist within The Forest.
- Ben mentioned there was a difference between mutants in the caves and that there will be “smarter hunting cannibals”.
- Certain mutants also have noticeable differences such as: Wearing C-D pendants, Masks on their faces, and body tattoos.
(None of this is confirms that they are indeed different, it is only speculation based on the fact that Mutant's have their own tribal culture. Different versions of outfits, or other distinct features may indicate different status positions)
* Trailer footage as well as interview discussions hint towards something far more deadly than just the mutants though.
* Gamepad (controller) support has been confirmed in The Forest. (Xbox 360 controllers have been definitively confirmed)
* Mid-range to High End PC’s should be able to run the game fairly well.
(This is based on a few replies to the public, in which multiple system specs were posted and they replied saying that they should run the game fairly well. Keep in mind there is still no official announcement from the developers yet on any minimum or recommended specs)
* Sony PlayStation 4 and Microsoft release have been mentioned [Eurocoso], but there is no real information on an expected release. Once the PC release has been completed (no longer Alpha or Beta) there is a good chance for multiple platform support.
