The Forest
The Forest screenshot 1The Forest screenshot 2
ActionAdventureIndieSimulationOpen World Survival CraftSurvivalHorrorOpen WorldCrafting

4,362 playing

Peak in the last 24 hours: 13,543

Peak in the last 7 days: 15,974

The Forest Steam store

Game description

As the lone survivor of a passenger jet crash, you find yourself in a mysterious forest battling to stay alive against a society of cannibalistic mutants. Build, explore, survive in this terrifying first person survival horror simulator.

Basic info

DeveloperEndnight Games Ltd
PublisherEndnight Games Ltd
PlatformsWindows
Steam DeckPlayable
Release dateApr 30, 2018
Price

Prices by IsThereAnyDeal

Minimum specs

OSWindows 7
ProcessorIntel Dual-Core 2.4 GHz
Memory4 GB
GraphicsNVIDIA GeForce 8800GT
Storage5 GB
steamyze

Review Analysis Score

Based on 392 reviews from the past 1 year

87.4/ 100
Top 30%

Steam rating: Overwhelmingly Positive (96%)

Metacritic: 83 /100

Review analysis summary (Reviewed Oct 12, 2026)

Surviving terrifying caves with friends is what players remember about The Forest, which scores 87.4, top 30% of the games we analyzed.

👍 Strengths

Multiplayer ranks 43rd of 642 and comes up in 52% of analyzed reviews. 102 reviews praise playing with friends, some describing caves and bosses tackled together, and 101 say they enjoy it, with the most upvoted joking that it taught them to run faster whenever something screams. 71 praise the atmosphere, which the most upvoted calls genuinely terrifying. Gameplay ranks 305th of 1396 and Content Volume 310th of 1351, and players enjoy the freedom to build and explore, plus a story with an emotional ending.

👎 Where it falls short

29 reviews find it hard, saying it demands real mental effort. 29 report bugs, some saying the physics stop making sense, and 25 say there is no tutorial, so mechanics are learned by trial and error. Visuals & Sound ranks 686th of 1249. A few find stamina too low and upgrades useless, or say rebuilding houses becomes a tedious loop.

Representative reviews Original reviews ↗

“playing with best friend in caves, killing enemies and bosses together” · 102 reviews
“taught me two things and run faster when something screams” · 101 reviews
“genuinely terrifying atmosphere that keeps you playing despite horror” · 71 reviews

How it holds up

−50+5

Controls, difficulty, progression and depth
Mentioned in 59% of reviews · Top 30% of the games we've analyzed

Freedom +3.33 · Room to explore, build, and play your own way
Positive “freedom to build and explore, forgetting main quest” · 26 reviews
Negative “game promotes deforestation and killing animals” · 5 reviews

Progression 13% · Difficulty 30% · Onboarding 13% · Strategy 9% · Controls & feel 8%

Plot, characters and the world
Mentioned in 57% of reviews · Top 40% of the games we've analyzed

World +3.68 · Lore, atmosphere, and how immersive the setting is
Positive “genuinely terrifying atmosphere that keeps you playing despite horror” · 71 reviews
Negative “game is scary when played solo” · 4 reviews

Story 33% · Characters 3%

How much there is to do, variety and replay value
Mentioned in 24% of reviews · Top 30% of the games we've analyzed

Volume +3.19 · How much there is to play, including endgame, for the price
Positive “30 hours of engaging survival horror with open world and story” · 10 reviews
Negative “not enough content, can finish everything without many hours invested” · 3 reviews

Variety 11% · Replayability 3%

Graphics, art style, music and sound
Mentioned in 19% of reviews · Bottom 50% of the games we've analyzed

Visuals +2.48 · Graphics, art style, and animation
Positive “very good graphics on ultra settings” · 17 reviews
Negative “the game feels old despite being from 2018” · 2 reviews

Audio 9%

Playing with others, the community and servers
Mentioned in 52% of reviews · Top 10% of the games we've analyzed

Playing together +3.68 · Fun of playing with friends, teammates, or rivals
Positive “playing with best friend in caves, killing enemies and bosses together” · 102 reviews
Negative “other players destroyed my house” · 7 reviews

Community 3% · Servers & Connection 1%

Pricing, cheaters, balance and matchmaking
Mentioned in 7% of reviews · Top 30% of the games we've analyzed

Pricing +0.08 · Whether the price, DLC and microtransactions are reasonable, and how much paying gives you an edge
Negative “only worth buying on sale” · 2 reviews

Anti-cheat 1% · Balance 2% · Matchmaking 0%

Bugs, performance and developer support
Mentioned in 18% of reviews · Bottom 50% of the games we've analyzed

Stability -0.24 · Crashes, freezes, save loss, and game-breaking bugs
Negative “bugs sometimes make physics stop making sense completely” · 29 reviews

Performance 6% · Developer support 2%

Grey means too few reviews mention it to trust. — means almost no reviews mention it.

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🎲 Fans of this game often get the title Curious Explorer. Which one is yours?