Positives
+ The overall atmosphere in general and the music really conveys the desolation and hopelessness well. The music changes depending on the situation, as well. The art direction is on-point.
+ Game actually looks pretty decent even though I had to set almost everything to low to get it to an acceptable performance.
+ Devs actually have a good vision and they built something impressive. Games of this kind are really scarce. No wonder people pressured them into releasing it. It's not an inherently bad game.
+ Gun customization is actually pretty decent.

Neutral/Informative
+/- This game is a stealth shooter where looting active warzones is your way of life. You have to collect attachments, water, weapons and other precious stuff for money and gear. You then sell the vendor trash, use the attachments to make custom weapons and can use the consumables while on the field for healing or other effects.
+/- There is no setting you can change to play in first person mode. The game is always in third person unless you are aiming down sights.

Negatives
- The water mechanic is a worthless FOMO mechanic that was basically lifted from some MMO or gacha game. It still drains even if you are offline, and running out will wipe your stash. A lot of people hated it and the devs were (somehow) pretty adamant on not changing it at the time of me writing this. They'll probably have to remove it, otherwise the player count will drain like the water does.
- The game’s performance is abysmal, even for an "Early Access" title. They should've waited instead of caving in and releasing it. Yes, I know it's pre-alpha, and they shouldn't have released it in EA.
- This is a P2P coop stealth "shooter" game and it has Epic Online Services. The game also won't launch if you are offline. Fortunately, EOS uninstalls themselves once you uninstall the game.
- Enemies can and will often spawn or despawn in plain sight. I saw a tank despawn right in front of my eyes once, and saw an infantry guy also despawn when I was waiting for him to move or get killed.
- The AI is janky across the board. Enemies will get stuck or have issues targeting each other. Similarly, the Scav Mules you can bring along for more inventory space will also get stuck in terrain or straight up wander off and disappear.

- There’s a bug where clicking on the empty Scav Mule inventory box can accidentally cause your weapon to discharge. Fortunately, I wasn't detected even though I shot the ground twice. With a shotgun, no less.
- Vaulting and climbing are both very clunky. Ledge detection is also questionable. Getting stuck on tiny objects on a relatively flat terrain is also common.
- Avoid timed extraction at all costs. The timer is a whole minute and enemies swarm you after the initial 20 seconds. I barely made it out thanks to the Scav Mules tanking all the damage. Fortunately, they were all empty.
- Scav Mules can get detected and be killed by enemies. While there's nothing inherently wrong with this, the AI will often make the mule walk past enemy line of sight and trigger them. I still wish it was "invisible" as long as you weren't being actively searched.
- Movement is so painful to interact with. Sprinting requires you to wind it up to get to top speed. You can't turn via movement keys when sprinting.

3060 Ti, Ryzen 7 5800X, 32 GB RAM

Game runs at 40-70 FPS depending on the situation, but the Innards (base area) always sits between 45-50 FPS, no matter what. I mean, they could have at least optimized that properly. Almost all options were at Low.

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It’s not easy to fully judge the game in just two hours, but it doesn’t take that long to see how poorly it runs or plays. I have seen enough questionable design choices in my life so far, so I can pick them up really easily now. I’ll have to refund the game and let it "cook" for a year or maybe longer. I only bought it to review, anyway. Oh, and I doubt the review score will improve any time soon. Heh.

Apparently, players pressured the devs into releasing it in a pre-Alpha state, and they fell for it, completely botching the launch. You only get one release, and if you mess that up, good luck recovering.

I didn't have to deal with Hunter Killers personally. I don't know if that was fortunate or not. I also didn't meet the "keypad stuck" bug.

[h3]The Forever Winter, despite the gripping dark atmosphere, has too many major issues even for an Early Access title. The performance issues along the plethora of questionable design choices really drag what could have been a great game down drastically. Overall Score: 2.5/10. Check back in a year or two when all the kinks are ironed out. Not recommended until a lot of major changes are made. At the moment, it's barely playable mainly due to lack of optimization.[/h3] [u][b]Positives[/b][/u] + The overall atmosphere in general and the music really conveys the desolation and hopelessness well. The music changes depending on the situation, as well. The art direction is on-point. + Game actually looks pretty decent even though I had to set almost everything to low to get it to an acceptable performance. + Devs actually have a good vision and they built something impressive. Games of this kind are really scarce. No wonder people pressured them into releasing it. It's not an inherently bad game. + Gun customization is actually pretty decent. [u][b]Neutral/Informative[/b][/u] +/- This game is a stealth shooter where looting active warzones is your way of life. You have to collect attachments, water, weapons and other precious stuff for money and gear. You then sell the vendor trash, use the attachments to make custom weapons and can use the consumables while on the field for healing or other effects. +/- There is no setting you can change to play in first person mode. The game is always in third person unless you are aiming down sights. [u][b]Negatives[/b][/u] - The water mechanic is a worthless FOMO mechanic that was basically lifted from some MMO or gacha game. It still drains even if you are offline, and running out will wipe your stash. A lot of people hated it and the devs were (somehow) pretty adamant on not changing it at the time of me writing this. They'll probably have to remove it, otherwise the player count will drain like the water does. - The game’s performance is abysmal, even for an "Early Access" title. They should've waited instead of caving in and releasing it. Yes, I know it's pre-alpha, and they shouldn't have released it in EA. - This is a P2P coop stealth "shooter" game and it has Epic Online Services. The game also won't launch if you are offline. Fortunately, EOS uninstalls themselves once you uninstall the game. - Enemies can and will often spawn or despawn in plain sight. I saw a tank despawn right in front of my eyes once, and saw an infantry guy also despawn when I was waiting for him to move or get killed. - The AI is janky across the board. Enemies will get stuck or have issues targeting each other. Similarly, the Scav Mules you can bring along for more inventory space will also get stuck in terrain or straight up wander off and disappear. - There’s a bug where clicking on the empty Scav Mule inventory box can accidentally cause your weapon to discharge. Fortunately, I wasn't detected even though I shot the ground twice. With a shotgun, no less. - Vaulting and climbing are both very clunky. Ledge detection is also questionable. Getting stuck on tiny objects on a relatively flat terrain is also common. - Avoid timed extraction at all costs. The timer is a whole minute and enemies swarm you after the initial 20 seconds. I barely made it out thanks to the Scav Mules tanking all the damage. Fortunately, they were all empty. - Scav Mules can get detected and be killed by enemies. While there's nothing inherently wrong with this, the AI will often make the mule walk past enemy line of sight and trigger them. I still wish it was "invisible" as long as you weren't being actively searched. - Movement is so painful to interact with. Sprinting requires you to wind it up to get to top speed. You can't turn via movement keys when sprinting. [h2]Other Notes:[/h2] [h3]Specs for reference:[/h3] 3060 Ti, Ryzen 7 5800X, 32 GB RAM Game runs at 40-70 FPS depending on the situation, but the Innards (base area) always sits between 45-50 FPS, no matter what. I mean, they could have at least optimized that properly. Almost all options were at Low. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It’s not easy to fully judge the game in just two hours, but it doesn’t take that long to see how poorly it runs or plays. I have seen enough questionable design choices in my life so far, so I can pick them up really easily now. I’ll have to refund the game and let it "cook" for a year or maybe longer. I only bought it to review, anyway. Oh, and I doubt the review score will improve any time soon. Heh. Apparently, players pressured the devs into releasing it in a pre-Alpha state, and they fell for it, completely botching the launch. You only get one release, and if you mess that up, good luck recovering. I didn't have to deal with Hunter Killers personally. I don't know if that was fortunate or not. I also didn't meet the "keypad stuck" bug.