Video Game / Sons of the Forest

The sins of the father are paid by his son.

While on a private rescue mission to find a missing billionaire and his family on a hidden island, your helicopter crashes and leaves you stranded. Still dedicated to your goal, you and the only other survivor, Kelvin, continue your search for the Puffton family. But the local cannibal tribe aren't too pleased you're there.

A sequel to The Forest by Endnight Games, was first announced back at the 2019 Game Awards. The game entered early access on February 23, 2023. By that time, Sons of the Forest became the most wishlisted game on Steam and sold over 2 million copies within 24 hours of its release. Originally scheduled for full release at midnight on February 23, 2024, after exactly one year of early access, the full 1.0 game was released a day early on February 22, 2024.

The reveal trailer can be found here. Two additional trailers, released in December 2020 and December 2021 respectively, can be found here and here.

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Trope examples you'll encounter in Sons of the Forest:

• The '80s: Despite taking place in Next Sunday A.D., the game has a noticeable 80's aesthetic, with a synthwave soundtrack and VHS/CRT artifacting on the HUD text.
• Abandoned Camp Ruins: Various camp ruins from seemingly local campers and hunters, to previous camps by the cannibals, to ancient ruined settlements from the 1970's, can be found scattered around the island.
• Actionized Sequel: While still very much a Survival Horror game, Sons of the Forest has a greater emphasis on combat than its predecessor — enemies are more common and more aggressive, and the player character is an experienced mercenary rather than a Papa Wolf Action Survivor, with access to more powerful tools and weapons, including firearms and compact vehicles.
• Action Survivor: Downplayed in comparison to the first game. Eric Leblanc was a Papa Wolf and veteran outdoorsman, but otherwise a completely normal citizen thrust into a nightmarish survival situation. In contrast, the main character of Sons is an experienced and highly trained mercenary belonging to an outfit of Private Military Contractors, who can find and readily use firearms and put up a much better fight against the horrors of the island. The full 1.0 release reveals that your character, Jack Holt, is not actually a professional merc but rather an embedded journalist who went on the mission due to being one of a limited number of people that Edward Puffton trusted.
• Almost Dead Guy: The full 1.0 release adds almost dead Puffcorp mercs signaling for help with flares in some areas which previous had only dead Puffcorp mercs. They die from their injuries as soon as you approach them, and mostly serve to mark points of interest (such as the merc camps where you can obtain the machete or modern axe) from a distance.
• Alternate Universe: Discussed in various documents throughout the bunkers and indicated to be connected to the various Ancient Artifacts throughout this game and the previous one. Inside the cube at the end, you get a brief glimpse of one when a wall briefly opens to reveal a futuristic city on a world with two moons.
• And Then John Was a Zombie: The fate of Edward Puffton and his wife, who are special mutants who serve as a mid-game mini-boss, and his guests who all spontaneously turning into creepy mutants during the dining room incident. Virginia is also mutated but retains most of her humanity.
  • Also happens to Zhang at the end of the game. He is locked out of the golden cube when you, Timmy, Kelvin, and optionally Virginia hide inside. When the door opens again, he appears to have turned into a giant blob of flesh with his human head hanging upside down from the ceiling.
• An Arm and a Leg: Bladed weapons such as the axe can sever enemies' limbs, which can then be collected and eaten if you so choose.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • While there aren't as many climbing ropes in this game compared to the first one, running out of stamina while using a rope doesn't drop the player.
  • The Rope Gun and zipline system grants several: For starters, the motor in the gun allows the player to go up ziplines. Additionally, players can send logs along the zipline, and if the end of the zipline is over a Log Holder, it will automatically drop into the holder and be stored.
  • As of the patch introducing them, hitting an object while riding the Knight V motorized unicycle does not harm the player, merely knocks them down. Enemies nearby may take advantage, however...
  • Instead of having abandoned tents in the caves, players can collect tarps and make their own tents anywhere in a cave to function as a save point.
  • Kelvin can't be set on fire by campfires, which is good since his A.I. often flakes and causes him to stand in the middle of one. However, this also applies to enemies, so you can't use campfires as traps against the cannibals like in the first game. However, in the full 1.0 release he now takes damage from standing in fire.
  • On Normal difficulty, the first hit an enemy lands on you will do minimal damage, even if they're a tougher, high-damage enemy like the blue Puffies. This insures you won't lose most of your health or armor from a single surprise attack, which happen quite often.
• Artificial Brilliance: The cannibals are surprisingly cunning in combat, using feints, combat rolls, and even faking exhaustion to trick the player into getting too close.
• Artificial Stupidity:
  • If you want Kelvin to "gather logs", make sure he's far enough away from your structures that he won't accidentally drop a tree on them.
  • The pathfinding for Kelvin and Virginia struggles a bit around player-built structures, especially when locked doors come into play. Kelvin also refuses to cross any water deeper than his ankles, instead taking the long way around instead. The full 1.0 release does somewhat improve their pathfinding, so that they can now reliably move around player-built walls instead of trying to walk through them infinitely.
• Bald of Evil: Most of the cannibals don't have hair.
• Beauty Equals Goodness: Of all the horrific inhabitants of the island, the only one who the player can befriend is the young woman whose mutations don't interfere with her attractiveness.
• Black Helicopter: In the full 1.0 release, the enemy agent Jianyu Zhang has access to a helicopter and a few operational field bases scattered around the island, and can be seen searching the island with the helicopter throughout the game, sometimes even hovering over your camp and observing you.
• Commonplace Rare: The shovel, which is required at multiple points in the story. It's only found in one cave, which requires a rebreather and a grappling hook gun, both found in separate caves.
• Combat Resuscitation: If one of your companions takes too much damage from the mutants or other hazards, they'll be knocked down to the ground and start bleeding out, during which you need to pick them back up again to save them.
• Construction Is Awesome: Invoked by the game's new building mechanic, which (outside of a handful of premade structures) involves constructing buildings and fortifications log-by-log, stone-by-stone. It's slower and more tedious than in the first game, but structures can be a lot more complex, and the end result is arguably much more satisfying.
• Continuity Nod: Once you complete the main story and if you choose stay on the island, Armsies and Creepy Virginias from the first game begin to spawn on the island.
  • You can find and pick up a book written by Tim Leblanc by the first 3D printer.
• Convection, Schmonvection: The endgame cave is filled with rivers of lava. As long as you don't physically touch it, you'll be completely fine.
• Cool Old Guy: Eric Leblanc appears very briefly in the game, now in his 60's at minimum. He shows up with a shotgun to save you and Timmy from a giant mutant, though he takes a bullet in the shoulder from Zhang and his mercs, and is out of action for the rest of the game, only showing up at the end with a helicopter to evacuate your surviving party.
• Corporate Warfare: The team of mercenaries that shoots down the Puffcorp helicopters at the beginning of the game are revealed to be operatives of Sahara Therapeutics, who are after the island's alien artifact.
• Dual Boss: Upon entering the dining hall, a now mutated Edward and Barbara Puffton will attack the player.
• Four-Seasons Level: The seasons on the island change every ten days or so, the reason for which goes unexplained.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Timmy's scar has actually healed over the years, enough that it's now a healed crease above his eye rather than the large gash across his entire face that it was several years ago when we last saw him. As the game has minimal dialogue, the scar is the only way to identify Timmy and realize he's the kid from the previous game.
• Guest-Star Party Member: In the full 1.0 release, Timmy helps you fight through the Very Definitely Final Dungeon. He's got a powerful revolver and makes the gauntlet of Demons you need to fight past to reach the ending much more manageable.
• Hellish Copter:
  • Kelvin and the player arrive on the island via a helicopter crash.
  • At the end of the game the first helicopter sent to rescue you gets taken down by Zhang's mutated form, and he uses the wreckage as a club when fighting you.
  • In the full 1.0 release, the ending is slightly changedso that the police send two helicopters to rescue you and your pals after you kill the final boss. However, the second helicopter gets destroyed by a swarm of mutants that attacks you during your escape.
• Improbable Weapon User:
  • Some cannibals will use small boat motors as chainsaw-style weapons against you.
  • The Final Boss, Zhang's mutated form, uses a helicopter as a club.
• King Mook:
  • Edward and Barbara Puffton appear in a mid-game Dual Boss fight as a pair of special blind mutants. They're considerably tougher than normal blind mutants, who are already noticeably tougher than the cannibals. Their stats seem to be on pair with the tougher, glowing blue blind mutants.
  • A much larger and more durable Demon, accompanied by a couple of regular Demons, serves as a Final Boss of sorts, appearing in the large arena-like cave just before the passageway leading to the Cube and the end of the game. Whether this is the intended Final Boss of the game or just a Early Access placeholder until a more unique and/or plot relevant boss enemy can be implemented remains to be seen. It's also a Skippable Boss in that you can just run past it and head straight for the Cube, which is what Timmy seems to have done since he's already there ahead of you. A later update has Timmy fight the boss and get wedged into the exit at the start of the fight, forcing you to kill the boss to proceed. Update 7 has Jianyu Zhang's mutated form show up and stop your helicopter escape, serving as the game's actual Final Boss.
• Manual Leader, A.I. Party: You start out accompanied by Kelvin, the only other survivor from your mercenary team, and can later be joined by Virginia if you befriend her. Kelvin can be ordered to perform various tasks such as gathering building materials or constructing simple structures, but can't participate in combat due to his head trauma. Virginia can defend herself skillfully with a pistol or shotgun if given one, but you have much less control over her than Kelvin.
• Menu Time Lockout: Like the original game, most but not all actions are paused while you access your inventory. I.E. enemies will freeze, but some events like time progression will continue to progress.
• Multiple Endings: There's two endings, based on one decision you make at the end of the game. Here named after the achievements you get when you make the decision.
  • "Fought Demons" Ending: Get through the final bunker and the lava caves at the end, and get on the helicopter with Timmy and Eric.
  • "Fight Demons" Ending: Same as "Fought Demons", but instead of getting on the helicopter, you go back towards your backpack, letting Timmy and Eric leave, while you stay on the island.
  • You also get an achievement called "Keep Your Friends Close" if you've befriended Virginia and kept her and Kelvin alive. If you get on the helicopter, they will join you as you escape the island.
  • The full 1.0 release changes the "Fight Demons" ending slightly to requireall the Artifact pieces to stay on the island, as a horde of mutants will swarm the rescue helicopters and you need the Artifact to wipe them out long enough to stay behind.
  • The full 1.0 release also adds a Where Are They Now ending segment for each surviving character; Timmy's mutation gets even worse after exposure to the Cube, and his only hope is that the Solafite he found on the island can somehow help cure him (he gets better in the credits due to actually finding a cure using the Solafite). Kelvin ends up in a brain injury recovery ward due to his serious brain damage, having regressed to a child-like state, where he is visited by the player. The player also accompanies a worried Virginia into a surgery ward where her extra limbs are to be removed. If both Virginia and Kelvin survived, a extra epilogue taking place 5 months later shows the two of them accompanying the player for a drive along a coastal highway, with Virginia being pregnant.
• Nerf: A few in the full 1.0 release;
  • The shotgun's buckshot shells have had their pellet count reduced by half, reducing its damage per shot. The spread has been made slightly tighter to partially compensate. The changes to containers (see below) also means you'll find a lot less buckshot ammo in general, potentially rendering the shotgun Too Awesome to Use. Fortunately, ammo for the pistol is still common enough that you can use it reasonably regularly if you know where to find 9mm ammo.
  • Containers no longer respawn their contents after loading a saved game, similar to the first game.
  • The amount of Rope Gun grappling hooks you can carry has been significantly reduced, to reduce the player's ability to use it to get out-of-bounds.
  • In the 1.0 release you can only carry half as many frag grenades as you originally could. Also, the change to containers makes crafted explosives harder to make, since a few of their ingredients (batteries and especially circuit boards) generally only appear in containers.
  • One helpful Nerf is the fact mutant babies can now be killed with 1 hit from any weapon, whereas they previously required 2 stone arrow hits to kill.
• Next Sunday A.D.: Although the exact year is obscured in-game, Sons of the Forest takes place about 2-3 decades after the first game, which seems to have been set in the present day (or at least, what was the present in 2013). The game has no sci-fi future technology (at least, not originating from human civilization), and the few "futuristic" technologies seen (your lighter is an electric plasma lighter and 3D printers can be found in some bunkers) are all things that exist in the present day, albeit not yet widely adopted.
• One-Handed Shotgun Pump: Equipping a tool in your left hand will force your character to operate and pump the shotgun with his right hand.
• Redshirt Army: By the time you and Kelvin come about, your Hired Guns comrades have all been wiped out and can be found scattered around the map having been killed in a variety of horrific ways. The 3-man team who were in the other helicopter are marked by GPS locators on your GPS map. There are also a few dozen additional dead Puffcorp mercs found across the island who were apparently part of another expedition which was sent in a month prior to your team. A number of dead Sahara mercs are also found in camps across the island, having recently died fighting the mutants while searching it.
• Repurposed Pop Song: The Crunchie Wunchies cereal radio commercial uses the hit song of the in-game music group Bad Pivot, "Hey, You!", complete with a disclaimer read so fast at the end:
  Rodney's is not responsible for adverse side effects. Enjoy Crunchie Wunchies at your own risk.
• Revolvers Are Just Better: A Chiappa Rhino revolver can be found in an out-of-the-way bunker. It's more powerful than the standard pistol, dealing about 50% more damage while using the same 9mm ammo, but only holds 6 rounds and can't accept attachments like the flashlight, laser sight, or silencer. The revolver is used by most plot NPCs and features prominently in a few cutscenes.
• Self-Made Man:
  • Edward Puffton's biography indicates he started with $2,000 and grew it into the world's largest billion dollar mining and pharmaceutical empire.
  • Newspaper articles that appear during the end credits indicate that Timmy was ultimately able to cure his condition and become a billionaire pharmaceuticals CEO using the Solafite from the island.
• Sequel Escalation: The island is much larger than the pennisula from the first game, and the game itself is an Actionized Sequel with firearms, NPC companions, and a greater amount and variety of mutants and cannibals.
• Sequel Hook: During the end credits, newspaper articles indicate thatTimmy was able to cure his condition using the Solafite he found on the island, and used this "miracle cure" to build his own pharmaceuticals empire. He ends up purchasing a newly discovered island with the largest deposits of solafite known. After starting development on the island, Timmy goes missing when all contact with the island is lost, starting the cycle all over again.
• Set a Mook to Kill a Mook: Several enemies do not get along. Tribes will compete and attack each other, and none of the cannibals like the mutants when they appear. Beyond being able to lure one group to another, some cannibal camps have a mutant tied to a stake nearby. Cutting them loose can (and does) cause quite a bit of havoc.
• Shotguns Are Just Better: A pump-action shotgun can be acquired from the grave of one of the dead members of the other helicopter team. It's very powerful, able to kill most enemies in one close-range shot and even able to kill most of the tougher mutants with 2-3 shots.
• Sleep Cute: if you've befriended Virginia, when you get on the helicopter at the end, she'll rest her head on your shoulder as you leave.
• Suspicious Videogame Generosity: There's a veritable stockpile of ammo and explosives found on the bodies of several cultists just before you enter the Cube. This is because after the Cube comes the very tanky Final Boss fight.
• Take Your Time: You learn that some kind of emission occurs on the island every "8 cycles" which mutates everything on it (implied to be the result of some kind of multi-dimensional instability), and the only safe location on the island is an alien artifact "panic room" known as the Cube, which becomes your endgame goal. Conveniently, the emission doesn't occur until you actually enter the Cube, no matter how long it takes you to find it. As it happens, you land on the island exactly 7 months after the last emission, and 1 month of in-game time is roughly how long it will probably take to finish the game.
• Threatening Shark: Can be found in a few areas, most notably guarding the abandoned liferaft.
• The Unfought: A rival team of mercenaries led by a man in a silver jumpsuit (revealed in a Puffcorp computer file to be a Sahara Therapeutics double agent named Jianyu Zhang) is active on the island and hostile to your group, but you never encounter them in actual gameplay, as they only appear in cutscenes, and only briefly each time. After Update 7, Zhang's mutated form appears at the very end of the game during the helicopter escape as the Final Boss.
• Unusable Enemy Equipment: Cannibals often wield blunt or bladed weapons in combat, but you can't loot these from them after killing them.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential:
  • There's nothing stopping you from murdering Kelvin and Virginia if you'd rather have a completely solo experience.
  • When you kill a cannibal, another cannibal, usually a relative of the victim, will go up to the corpse and mourn it. Male cannibals kneel down and gently caress their dead kin, while female cannibals let out a heartrending anguished wail as they mourn their dead. Nothing stops you from killing these mourning cannibals and looting them for bones, however.
• Where the Hell Is Springfield?: The island's exact location isn't mentioned in the game, but the fact that the helicopters that show up to rescue you in the ending are marked "Policia" suggest that it's somewhere near the coast of South America.

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