Initial reviews for Forspoken are out and it’s not looking good

The embargo for Square Enix and Luminous Productions’ open world action game Forspoken is lifted and it opens up to mixed reviews from various outlets. 

Last year, this was considered a game that can’t seem to catch a break as previous marketing materials made the game trending for the wrong reasons. But soon after, it started to become a bit concerning as more of the game was shown, which received two delays that led to it releasing this week, on January 25. A demo was released last December to convince players that it might be worth the investment at the start of the year but that also wasn’t well-received.

Now, we have the first wave of reviews from critics and it’s not painting a good picture of what could have been a strong new IP for publisher Square Enix. 

As of this writing, Forspoken currently stands with a Metacritic score of less than 70 with over 58 critic reviews submitted. In OpenCritic, Forspoken is al with less than 29% of critics recommending the game.

Here’s what some major outlets are saying about Forspoken:

Polygon (unscored) - “Forspoken’s opening hours are by far its worst. It took me 16 hours to complete the game, taking in a fair bit of the side offerings in this open-world action RPG, being careful not to sprint too quickly toward the game’s conclusion, though the temptation was there.”

Gameinformer (7/10) - “Forspoken's story and combat fail to reach the heights of its movement and exploration, but thankfully those two latter elements make up most of the experience.”

VG 24/7 (3/5) - “In the cut-throat race for your attention, Forspoken feels like a new IP that’s trying to run full pelt alongside heavy-hitting franchises from other big publishers. But it ploughs, shin-first, through every hurdle along the way. Its stuttering start belies a combat system that’s worth investing the effort to learn, but takes so long to get up to full speed that it’s already on borrowed time.”

IGN (6/10) - “Forspoken is the sort of game you’ve probably seen before – from its stereotypical fish-out-of-water fantasy story to its giant open-world map full of repetitive optional tasks”.

Gamespot (5/10) - “Forspoken is visually stimulating and a musical delight, but boring combat, poor characterization, and loose movement mechanics make for a mediocre experience.”

Another concern is how there is no outlet yet that has seen or tested the PC version of Forspoken, a game that will be available tomorrow. While there isn’t a big issue with the PS5 version in a technical standpoint, the PC is worth questioning as the game’s PC specifications are demanding, even to run it on minimum settings.

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