5 reasons Sons of the Forest is the next survival horror game you should try

With Sons of the Forest out on PC, the latest open-world survival game has seen resounding success. Developer Endnight Games is focusing more on the scare factor than ever before. This is partly thanks to realistic visuals, immersive AI behavior, and monster design. The survival horror genre is popular and is still booming on the Steam platform. So what sets this game out from the others?

As an evolution of the original Forest game, there are many highlights. Let's take a look at a few of them.

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Accessibility, AI, and other reasons Sons of the Forest is a step above the rest

1) Richly detailed open-world

Sons of the Forest takes place on an uncharted island as the protagonist crashlands alongside fellow survivor Kelvin. Built on the Unity engine, Endnight Games has stepped up, bringing a more life-like sandbox to players' PCs. From lush and dense foliage to impressive lighting, it is a greatly improved title over the original from 2014—The Forest. This factor will greatly immerse players in its world as they fight the monstrosities that lurk above and below ground.

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2) Realistic crafting system

This focus on realism also seeps into other aspects of gameplay in Sons of the Forest. The crafting and building mechanics are the most noticeable aspects. Like the previous game, players must acquire resources and materials to craft necessities, from shelter to weaponry. The game drops the "ghost blueprints" mechanic for crafting and replaces it with a more minimalistic yet hands-on setup where each step of the process boasts attention to detail. For example, there are animations for everything, from propping a tarp with a stick or splitting logs into more refined pieces of wood for carpentry.

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3) Reactive AI

As players explore the expansive open world, they will realize they are not alone. The island is home to various organisms, from turtles and birds to predators like sharks. Players will have to worry more about the latter as those also consist of groups of cannibals and deformed mutants. These were also present in the previous game but are now faster and more dangerous than ever before. New behaviors also flesh these monsters out, like maintaining distance from the player by climbing trees. They even show empathy, as they can be observed weeping over the bodies of their fallen tribe members.

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4) Co-op is an integral feature

One of the highlights of Sons of the Forest is that co-op allows players to indulge in the challenging gameplay experience. Up to eight players can survive together on the island, from crafting safe havens to fending off mutants. This makes the gameplay a lot more welcoming for players who find the premise and gameplay daunting or tedious. This makes it an outlier in the survival horror genre as they usually do not feature co-op elements.

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5) Accessibility

As Sons of the Forest is a survival game, some degree of challenge is to be expected. Players must manage their personal stats, like sleep and hunger, while also having to brave dangerous parts of the map for resources. So, the game has various difficulty modes, one of which removes move mutants entirely. If that is not enough, the game introduces Kelvin as an AI-controlled partner.

Players can assign basic commands to him, and he will follow up on them. However, like other companions in the game, he doesn't just have a unique personality but also his own needs. He rests when tired and can get upset if players work him too hard. This further makes Sons of the Forest a novel experience that will only get richer as time goes on.

Sons of the Forest was released on February 23 for PC via Steam Early Access.