Forest Reigns is a STALKER-style first-person shooter where Paris has been conquered by sentient trees

My feelings about The forest reigns supreme it’s enthusiasm and disappointment, inflation and deflation, right off the back of the announcement trailer. On the one hand, as fan of strange forestsi.e. all the forests, I’m looking forward to the prospect of an FPS set in a post-apocalyptic Paris overrun by sentient, angry trees. It also comes from a team led by a former STALKER developer, and STALKER alums certainly know how to post a good apocalypse. On the other hand, the preview video suggests a game in which you’ll treat the crazy flora mainly as a source of “emergent” cover and terrain traps. Have a look.

The game’s forest is not “just part of the environment,” he intones Steam pagebut “a conscious being with desires and intentions of its own.” You’ll “interact with it to discover its secrets, use it to defeat enemies, or face its wrath as it reacts to your choices.” So far it seems your choices are mostly shoot/don’t shoot. Trees don’t like being shot at, which seems a bit elementary in the context of “desires and intentions.” I don’t want to talk to them, necessarily, but their opposition to pumping AK47 ammunition doesn’t seem very mysterious to me.

This is what some people suggest Gaia theory is happening here, but blowing up volatile glowing bits or luring plants into choking enemies just looks like variations on a theme Far Cryexploding oil barrels and bait predators. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, however, and it’s possible that you’ll develop a deeper connection with the trees than can really be shown in an edited gameplay overview. Fingers crossed.

I don’t think it’s open world, but it is advertised as non-linear and mission-based, with factions you can cooperate or compete with to unlock different story outcomes. There is also a crafting system and a variety of weapons that can be modified and cooed. Ha, I bet some of these guns are made of wood, i.e. trees. I bet the trees don’t like it either. So unwise.

Forest It reigns there is no release date. While you wait for it, let me try to lead you into the bush by telling you about other tree-themed games. This is obvious and most terrifying Dark wood. This makes the trees in Forest Reigns that I’ve seen look like the cute, geometric palm trees from Sonic The Hedgehog. There is also Strandings of Witchesan interesting tribute to Kojima from Strange Scaffold and an upcoming game Roots Devourin which you are a tree drinking blood.