"Cringey dialogue". "Unlikeable protagonist". "Woke trash". Jeez, the hatred spouting from keyboard warriors for this open-world adventure is, quite frankly, overblown to a ridiculous degree. To the point where it's now commonplace to follow the mass in their loathing without actually giving the game a chance. Could it be because the central protagonist is a strong and assertive female who speaks her mind? Knowing today's toxic environment, I wouldn't be surprised. Yes, Frey and Cuff talk to each other non-stop with limited variance in dialogue exchanges, but it's fairly easy to block out and is no where near as relentless as people would lead you to believe.
The game itself is actually very good, in my opinion. And the main reason for its greatness is Frey's fluid traversal. Gliding, sprinting, rushing and generally performing parkour to get from side of the map to the other. It's just damn fun and suits Luminous' engine (FFXV players will know...). Then an experimental element-based combat system (equipped with a temperamental lock-on system) adds more oomph to the...fray. The story itself is fairly grounded with a decent character arc for Frey, abandoned at birth with a huge resentment towards everyone (naturally...) and then magically transported to Athia where she learns to become altruistic for the fate of a civilisation. The lore is imaginative and welcomed compared to the usual open-world copy-and-pasted ventures...
...and speaking of 'Ubisoft' open-world design, that's Forspoken's weakest area. There's just no real incentive and want to explore every landmark and hidden treasures tucked away in Athia's expansive landscapes. You can literally complete the main campaign easily without having to visit a single side location, which defeats the point of the open-world. It's beautiful no doubt, it just needed to be implemented in a way that incentivises exploration. It's also "empty", but it doesn't present itself as an issue due to Frey's rapid-paced parkour. Fields populated with enemies can be blitzed through in seconds, in comparison to over favoured open-world bores like 'Assassin's Creed Valhalla'.
Basically, ignore the haters, give it a go with an open-mind and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.
The game itself is actually very good, in my opinion. And the main reason for its greatness is Frey's fluid traversal. Gliding, sprinting, rushing and generally performing parkour to get from side of the map to the other. It's just damn fun and suits Luminous' engine (FFXV players will know...). Then an experimental element-based combat system (equipped with a temperamental lock-on system) adds more oomph to the...fray. The story itself is fairly grounded with a decent character arc for Frey, abandoned at birth with a huge resentment towards everyone (naturally...) and then magically transported to Athia where she learns to become altruistic for the fate of a civilisation. The lore is imaginative and welcomed compared to the usual open-world copy-and-pasted ventures...
...and speaking of 'Ubisoft' open-world design, that's Forspoken's weakest area. There's just no real incentive and want to explore every landmark and hidden treasures tucked away in Athia's expansive landscapes. You can literally complete the main campaign easily without having to visit a single side location, which defeats the point of the open-world. It's beautiful no doubt, it just needed to be implemented in a way that incentivises exploration. It's also "empty", but it doesn't present itself as an issue due to Frey's rapid-paced parkour. Fields populated with enemies can be blitzed through in seconds, in comparison to over favoured open-world bores like 'Assassin's Creed Valhalla'.
Basically, ignore the haters, give it a go with an open-mind and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.