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The Forest is an open-world survival game that puts players on an abandoned island with very little direction. The game begins with players viewing the scenery from an airplane when suddenly they hit some strong turbulence. The player’s character turns to see that one of the motors is on fire, and the next thing they see is their plane crashing down.
They wake up only to find a mysterious redman dragging your son away from the remains of the airplane and into The Forest. Thus your adventure to find your son and go back home begins.
In this first-person survival-horror game, you will need to bring about your wits to survive. The game doesn’t give you missions or anything of the sort. All you have at your disposal is a notebook.
In this notebook, players can access different crafting recipes, notes about the island, and hints at what they should do next. It’s like following a to-do list where the number one item is to find Timmy, your son.
Did I mention that you’ll also need to be wary of the natives of the island? Well, you do because this cannibalistic group of people doesn’t care if you find your son. You’ll need to build a solid camp if you hope to survive the nights in The Forest.
If you don’t, you’ll leave yourself open to the cannibals that want nothing more than to have you for dinner. It’s a little terrifying the first couple of nights when you don’t know if your stack of twigs will be able to hold them off.
More advanced players can fight off the cannibals or even build an Effigy to scare them away.
This is what makes The Forest such a captivating experience. It’s a game where you need to build, survive, and explore. Explore The Forest and find out what is hidden in the caves. Gather resources and build a camp worthy of royalty. Survive and learn how to fight and craft advanced weapons.
A lot of your time in The Forest will be spent collecting resources. Cutting down trees is essential for players barely beginning their game. This is how you will make the most stable shelter for yourself.
It’s why The Forest has managed to sell over 5 million copies on Windows alone. This success has allowed Endnight Games to produce a sequel that is scheduled to be released on May 20, 2022.
If you find survival-horror games to be a little too intense, well you’re in luck. The Forest lets you bring up to three friends with you to brave the night.
Bottomline Upfront: Is The Forest Cross Platform?
The Forest does not have crossplay, but I do recommend some other games that do down in the article’s content.
Online Gameplay Overview
Multiplayer in The Forest is pretty straightforward. One player will need to host a server, and then they will be able to invite up to three other friends to join them. Every player in this server will be able to see the story play out, and they’ll each get their spawns when it comes to weapons and items. So there is no need to fight over resources.
Multiplayer also comes with a few unique changes that you will not see in single-player. For starters when players go down in multiplayer they will enter an injured state which means they can still get revived by other players if they are reached in time.
In this injured state, players will fall to their hands and knees and be unable to move. They can’t use any items and must wait to either be revived or until their timer runs out and they die.
Players also have some multiplayer-only items that they can use to interact with other players. These include a metal tray that players can use to give items to other places. To use the metal tray players need to go to their inventory and put the metal tray and the item they wish to give in their crafting area.
Players can also use a walky-talky in-game to communicate with other players. Using the walky-Talky is as easy as equipping it to your left arm and using it like you would a flashlight.
Players can change things up by changing the difficulty settings. Most of them will just make the game more difficult for players. Forcing them to focus on surviving and saving their resources. But if the players manage to beat the game, they will unlock one more difficulty setting, creative mode.
Here’s a complete breakdown of the different difficulties and what will change for the players.
Peaceful Mode
Peaceful mode is ideal for players that want to experience the story and survival without any enemies to bother them. No cannibals or mutants will show up in peaceful mode allowing players to focus on exploring the island and building their camp. Players can enable it by choosing “Peaceful” when starting a new game.
Normal Mode
Normal mode is the way the developers intended the game to be played. It features the standard build, explore, and survive gameplay that the developers intended for the game.
Hard Mode
Hard mode makes the enemies in The Forest stronger and is less forgiving to players. Players can no longer pause the game while checking their inventory, and most food items will spawn less frequently.
Hard Survival Mode
Hard survival mode will make it so that fewer animals spawn on the map. It also slows their respawn rate which means that players will need to be extra careful with their resources. Fire is more dangerous to players, which means that accidentally walking over a fire pit can result in death.
Creative Mode
Creative mode is where players can relax and build. It takes away all the enemies in the game and gives players unlimited resources. If you and your friends want to create a fort then the creative mode is where you need to be. It is worth noting that this mode is only unlocked after fully beating the main storyline in the game.
Does The Forest Have Crossplay?
Unfortunately, The Forest does not have any form of crossplay. This means that players looking to play with their friends on different platforms are out of luck. The Forest is currently only available for PS4/PS5 and PC. Xbox players and Nintendo players will not be able to play The Forest at all.
Crossplay Alternatives
Although The Forest does not have crossplay, there are plenty of other fantastic survival games that do offer cross-platform support. Here is a few of them that you can check out.
- Terraria
- State of Decay 2
- Hunt: Showdown
- Rust
- No Man’s Sky
- Risk of Rain 2
- Ark: Survival Evolved
FAQs
Question: How do I invite my friends to a multiplayer game?
Answer: Inviting friends to The Forest is simple if you know the right steps. Players will first need tp head to the main menu and choose multiplayer. From here they will be able to create a server. Once the server is created the player will be able to invite players to join them. From here the host can wait for the players to join and then launch the game. Players can also join while the game has already started.
Question: How many players can be on one server in The Forest?
Answer: Playing with players is great in The Forest and opens up a lot more room for error for players. But some may be wondering just how many players are allowed to play on one server. Well, the answer is four players. You and up to three other players will be able to hop into a server and explore the mysterious island of The Forest.
Question: Can you change your costume in The Forest?
Answer: In The Forest, players will each be able to wear different costumes and have different looks. The characters the players use may look different but technically everyone is the main character. There is no way to choose your initial character either, but you can change the costumes that you wear in the game. Players can do so by finding brown suitcases with small gold stars across that resemble designer bags. Hit these with a weapon and they will open, revealing a new wardrobe item. Interact with it and you will now be wearing whatever costume was laying there.
Conclusion
The Forest is an incredibly in-depth survival-horror game that will allow players to test their endurance and survival abilities. Even though it is not cross-play, The Forest offers some great multiplayer features for players who intend to play with friends on the same console. All they need to do to start is host a server.
There are a few different options for players to choose from when choosing what kind of server they want to host. They can choose to go with Peaceful Mode if all they want is to experience the adventure and explore the caves. Normal Mode is for players that want to play the game as the developers intended it to.
With cannibals and mutants roaming the island, and danger at every corner. Hard Mode is for players looking for more of a challenge and wanting more enemies to spawn into their map.
Hard Survival Mode is for players that want to feel like they’re literally in The Forest starving for resources and trying to do their best to make it through the night. Creative Mode allows players to just focus on the building aspect of The Forest. There are no resources to worry about and players can just craft to their heart’s content.