Sons of the Forest is a great game there is no doubt about that, and if you feel like you want to play the game then by all means go ahead, I did and I enjoyed it, but if ever there was a time to wait for a game to come out of Early Access it would be now. As someone who enjoyed The Forest far more than I could have expected I had very high expectation for Sons of the Forest, but sadly I think SOTF is just not there yet, and here’s why…

1 – The Island
From what I’ve been able to gather is seems that the general consensus is that SOTF’s map is roughly 5 times bigger than that of The Forest, but bigger isn’t always better. I don’t recall a single time in The Forest when I felt like I was losing out on anything because I had to travel across the map. Though the map was much smaller, it was balanced for the amount of content the game offered and nothing was ever really “too far” away. At this point in time there just isn’t enough content in SOTF to justify such a large map. Surprisingly there are about half as many caves as there were in The Forest, at least for the time being, of course they’ve added bunkers but even then we only get a handful. Don’t get me wrong, the game looks AMAZING, but when everything is so far away that it takes you half an hour to run across the map it will eventually start to wear on you.

2 – The Caves
One of the most iconic aspects of The Forest was its intricate intertwining cave system that could be easily accessed from almost any part of the map thanks to its many cave entrances. You could venture into the darkness and emerge almost anywhere on the map depending on how far you went, this made everything feel connected and really helped tie the islands overworld together with its cave system. Not only that but finding certain equipment could help you dive even further into the depths of darkness which in turn upped the danger levels as you delved further and further… well, this is gone now. In SOTF each cave is its own standalone cave, many times with the exit being only a few meters away from its entrance. Not only that but most of the times the caves don’t really pose any type of threat, either they’re completely empty and you can just run through them, or they’re filled to the brim with mutants and you can still just run right through them because there’s nothing limiting your progress through the caves. Worst of all is that most of the caves in SOTF just aren’t memorable, I feel the reason for this is mostly because after looting a cave there’s really no reason to come back, you get the main loot from the cave and that’s it, that cave is done and you never have to visit it again which sucks.

3 – The Survival
While this might be a bug and unintentional, as the game stands now it allows you to re-loot absolutely everything in the game, suitcases included, making it so you never have to worry about running out of supplies. Now I know that this was also a thing in The Forest, but it only applied to items in caves and some very basic overworld items (yet another reason you don’t need to return to the caves). That and the many duplication glitches that currently plague the game make it so you never really have to worry about survival. Wanna build a house? You can build a mansion by just chopping down one tree and using a stick. Ran out of ammo/grenades/crafting materials? Just save and reload next to a camp as many times as you need till you top off everything. Also, did I mention that the end-game armor is infinite? That’s right, you will never run out of armor, and even the best armor can be fully crafted early to mid-game after restarting a few times in the correct bunker. Not to mention that our friend Kelvin offers a never-ending supply of fish so you’ll never go hungry again. Basically, you never have to worry about surviving in this game, hell you don’t even need a base, everything you need will fit in your backpack, and even if you do go hungry or get thirsty you don’t really get punished for doing so.

4 – The Story
This is probably what hurt the most for me, while The Forest didn’t have much of a story per se, once you reached the end you got enough of an explanation for everything to make sense. In SOTF however, the ending is so bizarre and non-sensical that it just leaves you confused as to who everyone is and where they came from. It wasn’t until I went onto Youtube and found someone who put in the time to do the detective work and piece everything together that I was finally able to understand a bit, and even then, it was just an interpretation of the events that happened, you really have to stretch your imagination for everything to make sense.

Now don’t get me wrong, in spite of all of these issues I’m fully aware that the game is in early access and thus not complete, and while I did enjoy the experience during my first playthrough I can’t help but think of all the possibilities of how much more the game can improve during this early access phase and how I could have had a much more enjoyable experience in a complete game, because you only get one chance at a first playthrough. Sons of the Forest has all the potential to surpass The Forest, but as the game stands it just isn’t there yet.

EDIT: First major patch just dropped yesterday and wow, I'm pretty sure that it was much better than what anyone could have expected. This just further reinforces my point... SOFT is a great game, but it can and WILL get much better once it is complete. If you haven't had a chance to give it a try yet, don't worry, the best is yet to come.

I've had my eye on No Man's Sky for the longest time but just couldn't get myself to buy it before because of all the bad press. I finally decided to jump in when the Origins update was launched and let me just say WOW!! While all the criticism when the game first launched back 2016 was probably well deserved, the state of the game as it is right now makes it seem like a completely different game.

Before you jump in as well though it's important to understand that the main focus of this game, at least in my opinion, is exploration. It's completely non-linear, you can play without ever touching the story quests and you'll get by just fine or you can decide to follow the story line to try to answer the questions regarding the creation of the universe.

Among the many, many things you can do, you could focus on creating the base of your dreams, colonizing a planet or if your ambitions are big enough you could also make en entire solar system your home. Maybe you're someone who likes to have nice things and you'll go hunting for the coolest ship, the strongest weapons, a kickass freighter or pimp out all of your vehicles You could have battles in space with your starship, become a space pirate and loot other freighters. You could dedicate yourself to farming resources for construction or trade, or maybe you're more into wildlife and wanna discover the most exotic, bizarre creature in the universe... the possibilities really are endless with this game and weather you go out and explore on your own or with friends, only you are in control of your fate in the universe.

One of the things that surprised me most about this game is the sheer size of it. You start out on a single planet that forms part of a single solar system with multiple planets/moons. That solar system is just one of possibly millions of like systems that form up a single galaxy... and as you may have imagined, that galaxy is just one of many galaxies, each with it's own cluster of millions of solar systems and practically infinite planets to explore. Of course due to limitation of technology after a while you'll start to notice some similarities between planets, but the developers work very hard to make sure that each system is different and unique in some way, shape or form.

Visually this game is beautiful and the soundtrack, while not overly noticeable, sets a good mood for the game. The next-gen patch that was recently announced will only build up on that and we can expect to see another huge improvement to the aesthetics within each world. Some other things to look out for in the future are reworks to the cave systems and sub-aquatic worlds. While present in the game currently, they do leave a lot to be desired and I'm sure that the developers will expand on this in the near future. Hello Games may have had a rough start, but they're dedicated to make this game better and better, and I have high hopes that they will continue to build on this already great game.

Long story short, I absolutely recommend this game. I understand that it may not be for everyone, but if any of the things I mentioned before seem to interest you then this game is definitely for you. No Man's Sky is at a really good place right now and it will only keep getting better, it really has been the comeback of the century and I for one will be sticking around for the long run to see how far we can go from here.