Sons of the Forest is a great game there is no doubt about that, and if you feel like you want to play the game then by all means go ahead, I did and I enjoyed it, but if ever there was a time to wait for a game to come out of Early Access it would be now. As someone who enjoyed The Forest far more than I could have expected I had very high expectation for Sons of the Forest, but sadly I think SOTF is just not there yet, and here’s why…

1 – The Island
From what I’ve been able to gather is seems that the general consensus is that SOTF’s map is roughly 5 times bigger than that of The Forest, but bigger isn’t always better. I don’t recall a single time in The Forest when I felt like I was losing out on anything because I had to travel across the map. Though the map was much smaller, it was balanced for the amount of content the game offered and nothing was ever really “too far” away. At this point in time there just isn’t enough content in SOTF to justify such a large map. Surprisingly there are about half as many caves as there were in The Forest, at least for the time being, of course they’ve added bunkers but even then we only get a handful. Don’t get me wrong, the game looks AMAZING, but when everything is so far away that it takes you half an hour to run across the map it will eventually start to wear on you.

2 – The Caves
One of the most iconic aspects of The Forest was its intricate intertwining cave system that could be easily accessed from almost any part of the map thanks to its many cave entrances. You could venture into the darkness and emerge almost anywhere on the map depending on how far you went, this made everything feel connected and really helped tie the islands overworld together with its cave system. Not only that but finding certain equipment could help you dive even further into the depths of darkness which in turn upped the danger levels as you delved further and further… well, this is gone now. In SOTF each cave is its own standalone cave, many times with the exit being only a few meters away from its entrance. Not only that but most of the times the caves don’t really pose any type of threat, either they’re completely empty and you can just run through them, or they’re filled to the brim with mutants and you can still just run right through them because there’s nothing limiting your progress through the caves. Worst of all is that most of the caves in SOTF just aren’t memorable, I feel the reason for this is mostly because after looting a cave there’s really no reason to come back, you get the main loot from the cave and that’s it, that cave is done and you never have to visit it again which sucks.

3 – The Survival
While this might be a bug and unintentional, as the game stands now it allows you to re-loot absolutely everything in the game, suitcases included, making it so you never have to worry about running out of supplies. Now I know that this was also a thing in The Forest, but it only applied to items in caves and some very basic overworld items (yet another reason you don’t need to return to the caves). That and the many duplication glitches that currently plague the game make it so you never really have to worry about survival. Wanna build a house? You can build a mansion by just chopping down one tree and using a stick. Ran out of ammo/grenades/crafting materials? Just save and reload next to a camp as many times as you need till you top off everything. Also, did I mention that the end-game armor is infinite? That’s right, you will never run out of armor, and even the best armor can be fully crafted early to mid-game after restarting a few times in the correct bunker. Not to mention that our friend Kelvin offers a never-ending supply of fish so you’ll never go hungry again. Basically, you never have to worry about surviving in this game, hell you don’t even need a base, everything you need will fit in your backpack, and even if you do go hungry or get thirsty you don’t really get punished for doing so.

4 – The Story
This is probably what hurt the most for me, while The Forest didn’t have much of a story per se, once you reached the end you got enough of an explanation for everything to make sense. In SOTF however, the ending is so bizarre and non-sensical that it just leaves you confused as to who everyone is and where they came from. It wasn’t until I went onto Youtube and found someone who put in the time to do the detective work and piece everything together that I was finally able to understand a bit, and even then, it was just an interpretation of the events that happened, you really have to stretch your imagination for everything to make sense.

Now don’t get me wrong, in spite of all of these issues I’m fully aware that the game is in early access and thus not complete, and while I did enjoy the experience during my first playthrough I can’t help but think of all the possibilities of how much more the game can improve during this early access phase and how I could have had a much more enjoyable experience in a complete game, because you only get one chance at a first playthrough. Sons of the Forest has all the potential to surpass The Forest, but as the game stands it just isn’t there yet.

EDIT: First major patch just dropped yesterday and wow, I'm pretty sure that it was much better than what anyone could have expected. This just further reinforces my point... SOFT is a great game, but it can and WILL get much better once it is complete. If you haven't had a chance to give it a try yet, don't worry, the best is yet to come.