The Game Awards has unleashed a few demo's on us as well as discounts on games featured and a slew of pre-orders now available. But the one thing that grabbed me from that was the Forespoken Demo. A lot of people had reservations about this game due to the cringy trailer that drops a while back, and the game delayed from August 22 to Jan 23, things haven't been pointing to this being as grand as they want us to believe.
Well now you can play it, if you have a PS5, so I did.
Those of you who don't have a PS5 don't worry, you aren't missing anything. This game is rough, at least the demo is rough.
First problem is that the control scheme is rather clunky and a hassle. Namely you have several spells to choose from that come in two schools of spell. There are melee spells which basically give you a fire sword and ranged spells that allow you to cast earth spells which basically just shoot rocks at things. To swap spell "schools" you hold L1 and R1 and then use the right stick to highlight which school you want active. Then each school has 3 attacks and you switch by hold R1 and using the right stick to again pick the spell. Then attacking is simply spamming R2 for quick attacks or holding R2 for heavy attacks. R3 will lock-on to enemies but there is also a Arkham-style soft lock on that will jump you to enemies you are pointing at automatically and locking on only seems useful for bigger fights which require you to dodge in and out of attack range.
This combat is clunky, as R2 is not a great button to spam especially since the face buttons don't do much as circle dodges, x jumps, and triangle picks up items and interacts with things. I dont think square does anything so attack would have been better to be here.
The combat also has a problem in that the particle effects are nonsense and crazy, to the point where the game struggles to maintain 30FPS. Yeah this big PS5 demo runs at 30FPS not 60 and it looks crap because of it. The whole game feels juttery because of this, and combat is worse because of the spells being so particle heavy. Enemies also have tiny, thin little health bars which make it hard to see when you beat them. Overall combat feels floaty, sluggish, and poor.
Then you have everyone's favorite problem, the Ubisoft open world problem. Forspoken's map is littered with tons of markers and crap to do, from puzzle chests, to photo spots, to little camps and bases to attack, time challenges, fast travel towers (that you don't have to climb), and even just treasure chests marked on the map. Of course you can pick flowers and enemies drop materials used to craft upgrades to your cloak (aka your armor) and your necklace which powers up your spells and defenses. And there are even more things like fountains that unlock more spells for you to cast.
Finally the Cuff and Faye constantly talk to each other and talk shit in combat which wasn't annoying in the demo because the demo is short, but in a long game....it's gonna be bad.
So you know...uh....maybe if you are really needing an open world game it might be worth getting. But don't expect much out of this.
Well now you can play it, if you have a PS5, so I did.
Those of you who don't have a PS5 don't worry, you aren't missing anything. This game is rough, at least the demo is rough.
First problem is that the control scheme is rather clunky and a hassle. Namely you have several spells to choose from that come in two schools of spell. There are melee spells which basically give you a fire sword and ranged spells that allow you to cast earth spells which basically just shoot rocks at things. To swap spell "schools" you hold L1 and R1 and then use the right stick to highlight which school you want active. Then each school has 3 attacks and you switch by hold R1 and using the right stick to again pick the spell. Then attacking is simply spamming R2 for quick attacks or holding R2 for heavy attacks. R3 will lock-on to enemies but there is also a Arkham-style soft lock on that will jump you to enemies you are pointing at automatically and locking on only seems useful for bigger fights which require you to dodge in and out of attack range.
This combat is clunky, as R2 is not a great button to spam especially since the face buttons don't do much as circle dodges, x jumps, and triangle picks up items and interacts with things. I dont think square does anything so attack would have been better to be here.
The combat also has a problem in that the particle effects are nonsense and crazy, to the point where the game struggles to maintain 30FPS. Yeah this big PS5 demo runs at 30FPS not 60 and it looks crap because of it. The whole game feels juttery because of this, and combat is worse because of the spells being so particle heavy. Enemies also have tiny, thin little health bars which make it hard to see when you beat them. Overall combat feels floaty, sluggish, and poor.
Then you have everyone's favorite problem, the Ubisoft open world problem. Forspoken's map is littered with tons of markers and crap to do, from puzzle chests, to photo spots, to little camps and bases to attack, time challenges, fast travel towers (that you don't have to climb), and even just treasure chests marked on the map. Of course you can pick flowers and enemies drop materials used to craft upgrades to your cloak (aka your armor) and your necklace which powers up your spells and defenses. And there are even more things like fountains that unlock more spells for you to cast.
Finally the Cuff and Faye constantly talk to each other and talk shit in combat which wasn't annoying in the demo because the demo is short, but in a long game....it's gonna be bad.
So you know...uh....maybe if you are really needing an open world game it might be worth getting. But don't expect much out of this.
