Gameplay 6/10

Running, jumping, and zipping through the world is the highlight—it’s fast, smooth, and feels great. Combat looks flashy but becomes repetitive pretty quickly – it’s a more button-mashing than a test of skills or strategy.

Story 4/10

The setup is interesting, but the writing just doesn’t deliver. Frey’s journey could’ve been a lot more compelling if the dialogue and characters had more heart and polish.

Graphics 7/10

Athia is visually stunning, with huge vistas, magical effects, and impressive detail. Forspoken struggles to find a balance though, for every “wow,” there is an animation or character speaking that look out of place and dated.

Sound & Music 6/10

The music fits the vibe and helps set the tone, but nothing really sticks with you after playing. Voice acting is a mixed bag—some of it’s good, some of it is laughably poor. Those hiccups pull you out of the moment and the narrative it’s trying so hard to drive.

Controls 6/10

Movement feels great when you’re exploring, but combat and more precise actions can feel a bit clunky or unresponsive at times.

Open World Design 5/10

Athia is massive and looks cool, but a lot of it feels kind of lifeless. There’s not a ton of meaningful stuff to do. Side quests are limited and exploring often doesn’t result in much worthwhile. The result is a massive word that just isn’t interesting enough to explore.

Magic System & Customization 6/10

There are a bunch of flashy spells to mess around with, which is great fun at first. Unfortunately, like the rest of the game, the upgrade system is shallow- choices made don’t really make big impacts. As a result, it’s hard to get motivated to experiment with the options.

Final Verdict 5/10

Forspoken had big ideas and cool mechanics, but it never quite clicks the way it should. For a little while it’s fun to parkour through the world and fling spells around, but the story and overall depth just don’t live up to the game's potential. There are definitely a few pockets of fun, but don’t expect a game that sticks with you after the credits roll.t description.

Our Takes

Tommy's Take

There is a 0% chance I will be playing this based on Doc's review and the screenshots alone. I actually accused him of ripping 720p screenshots off the internet vs taking them himself because they are so bad. Hard pass.

More From Doc

I absolutely hated this game. Spoiler warning.

It starts with a llllllong cutscene with no player interaction, then you have to click three separate sheets of paper to cue more narration, then there's another cutscene to watch. Finally, you walk down the street with nothing to interact with and eventually get hassled by a gang which, yep, triggers another cutscene. As the tension escalates, "yes! finally some action!" instead of fight 'em as a player, you know, like in a VIDEO GAME, nope there's another cutscene to sit and watch. The first 45 minutes of this game was the least actually playing a game I've ever experienced.

Anyway, your apartment eventually catches on fire, there's a duffle bag of money at your feet, like ten's of thousands of dollars at least, but the game won't let you pick it up, forcing you instead to find your cat. That's not a joke. Sure enough, the bag of money our player wasn't competent enough to pick up AND look for a cat at the same time burns up in the fire so the plot can happen.

Suffice to say, I can't recommend this game to anyone.

Screenshots

Captured on PS5