Full ReleasePC · PlayStation

Forspoken

Luminous Productions · RPG, ARPG, Action

Overview

Forspoken follows the journey of Frey, a young New Yorker transported to the beautiful and cruel land of Athia. In search of a way home, Frey must use her newfound magical abilities to traverse sprawling landscapes and battle monstrous creatures.

Mysteriously transported from New York City, Frey Holland finds herself trapped in the breathtaking land of Athia. A magical, sentient bracelet is inexplicably wrapped around her arm, and Frey discovers the ability to cast powerful spells and use magic to traverse the sprawling landscapes of Athia. Frey nicknames her new golden companion “Cuff” and sets off to find a way home.

Frey soon learns this beautiful land once flourished under the reign of benevolent matriarchs, called Tantas, until a devastating blight relentlessly corrupted everything it touched. The Break transformed animals into beasts, men into monsters, and rich landscapes into four dangerous realms. At the center of their shattered domains, the Tantas now rule as maddened and evil sorceresses.

Unaffected by the Break and desperate for answers, Frey reluctantly agrees to help the last remaining citizens of Athia who see her as their only hope. Frey’s journey through this strange and treacherous land will take her deep into the heart of corruption where she must battle monstrous creatures, confront the powerful Tantas, and uncover secrets that awaken something much more from within.

KEY FEATURES:

The Odyssey of a Reluctant Hero

Lead Frey on an unforgettable journey in her search for a way home after being mysteriously transported to a breathtaking, fantastical land. Unravel the mysteries of Athia as Frey travels through the calamitous Break and discovers how to wield an immense power.

A Beautiful and Cruel Open-World -

Explore the sprawling realms of Athia, a striking land of remarkable vistas and otherworldly creatures brought to life through stunning graphics and cutting-edge technology. Venture deep into corrupted territories where a mysterious darkness defiles everything it touches.

Customizable Arsenal of Spells -

Take on twisted monsters in magical combat with a wide range of powerful abilities catering to a variety of playstyles – from fast-paced and exhilarating to strategic and methodical.

Intuitive, Magic-Enhanced Parkour -

Scale walls, vault across canyons, leap from dizzying heights, and dash through vast landscapes. Frey's unique abilities allow her to fluidly traverse the open world with ease.

From the game's Steam store page.

THE GAMEQ VERDICT4,683 reviews analyzed

What players are actually saying

1. Summary

The magic combat and "magic parkour" traversal are where Forspoken's reviews agree most. 24% of all reviews praise the combat, describing a fast, flashy system of four elemental spell schools that rewards switching and combining spells mid-fight, and reviewers compare it to inFAMOUS, Prototype, Devil May Cry and Final Fantasy XV. Running across the landscape at speed is the other draw, and a few players say they forgot fast travel existed. Some fans advise pushing through the slow opening, saying the game "opens up" once you beat the first boss and unlock the second magic school.

Most of what surrounds that core divides or frustrates players. The PC version launched with heavy stutter, texture streaming problems, crashes and steep hardware demands, which fill the launch-week reviews. The opening hours bury the combat under cutscenes, tutorials and moments where the game freezes you in place to talk to your bracelet. Frey herself, and the swearing, quippy dialogue she trades with Cuff, split players between those who find her grating and those who find her a believable, even relatable, rough-edged orphan who grows over the story. The open world is huge but thinly populated, the side content repeats, and many call the story short, with some saying its final act is rushed. Price comes up in one in five reviews, and many reviews, positive ones included, call it fun but not worth full price and tell readers to "buy it on sale".

2. What keeps coming up

What players praise

Magic combat that grows into a deep, flashy systemHigh

Praise for the combat runs through the positive reviews. Players like the four magic schools (earth, fire, water and lightning), each with its own attacks, support spells and movement tricks, and the rhythm that comes from swapping between them mid-fight, dodging with parkour and landing charged attacks from the air. A few call it the best magic combat they have played, and several recommend Hard difficulty and spell challenges to get the most from it. The caveats: some say the first school (earth) feels limited for too long, the fire, water and lightning sets arrive late (the last one right before the finale), and some find fights turn into spamming one strong spell once you are overpowered. Screen-filling particle effects occasionally make it hard to see enemies.

Magic parkour and traversalHigh

The other big draw is moving through Athia. Players describe sprinting over hills, vaulting obstacles, running up cliffs and later grappling, gliding and surfing across water as joyful, with upgrades that restore stamina making travel almost frictionless. Some say it rivals Insomniac's Spider-Man or inFAMOUS for the fun of getting around. The criticism is narrower: early traversal is stamina-limited, the auto-parkour sometimes snags on small rocks, flips over things you meant to walk past, or refuses to climb walls that look climbable, and the main city of Cipal disables it entirely, which players find jarring after the open world.

Collecting cats and familiarsLow

A small, affectionate group of reviews singles out the cat side content: petting cats, befriending magical flying familiars and filling Frey's home with them. For some players it is a highlight; others see it as a sign of how thin the side content is.

Flexible difficulty and accessibility optionsLow

Players who are not action veterans praise how finely the game can be tuned: separate difficulty sliders, auto-dodge, auto-loot, automatic spell switching, and the option to turn down Cuff's chatter. Several say these settings are what made the combat click for them, and recommend visiting the accessibility menu before starting.

The In Tanta We Trust DLCLow

The few reviews that discuss the story expansion disagree about it. Some call it more focused than the base game and a better showcase for the characters, and several recommend buying it on sale. Others found it short, disliked having their powers stripped back, or ran into bugs and a lost base-game save.

Near-instant loadingLow

Players with the game on a fast SSD note that loading and fast travel take a second or two thanks to DirectStorage. Installing on a hard drive causes long loads and textures that never finish loading, which the game itself warns about.

Where players are split

Frey, Cuff and the dialogueHigh

Critics find Frey whiny, rude and constantly swearing, slow to care about Athia for most of the story, and paired with quippy banter that some compare to Marvel movies and many find cringe; some say the voice acting and flat facial animation make it worse, and a handful quit in the first hours over it. Defenders argue her abrasiveness fits an abandoned orphan who grew up alone in New York, that she softens and grows by the ending, and that the infamous trailer lines are a small, unrepresentative sample. A common middle position is that the writing is weak but not as bad as its reputation. Several players recommend switching the voice language to Japanese, which they say makes the delivery work better.

Story and loreHigh

Players split on whether the story is worth the time. Supporters enjoy the isekai premise, the Tantas and the late-game twist, and say the lore hidden in archive entries rewards reading. Critics call the plot predictable and generic, note that much of the backstory lives in text rather than scenes, and feel the characters' motivations shift abruptly. Some fans agree the telling is weaker than the underlying story.

An open world that is huge but thinHigh

Explorers and completionists enjoy clearing map markers, dungeons, monuments and mutants as a relaxing loop that feeds their stats, and some say it is less empty than people claim. Others find it barren and repetitive: one populated city, reused dungeon layouts, checklist activities, and chests full of crafting materials they never needed. The story's own explanation (a land ravaged by the Break) satisfies some and strikes others as an excuse. Repetition complaints rise with playtime, from 5% of reviews under two hours to around one in five from players past 50 hours.

Visuals: gorgeous vistas, dated detailsMedium

Spell effects, character models and some landscapes are praised as stunning, especially on high-end hardware and in HDR. Another group, more common among reviewers in their first two hours, says environments, textures and the opening New York section look a console generation old, with muddy textures, washed-out colors and stiff NPC animation, and that the visuals do not justify the hardware requirements.

SoundtrackLow

Some players love the score and main theme; others call the music forgettable and the combat track repetitive.

What frustrates players

PC performance, stutter and texture streamingHigh

Performance was the main complaint at launch, raised in 28% of all reviews and 41% of launch-week reviews. Players with RTX 3070 to 4090 class cards reported unstable frame rates, stutter in cutscenes and in the city, textures that failed to load on 8 to 10 GB graphics cards, high CPU use and slow map and menu loading, and often concluded that the game did not look good enough to justify it. Some reviewers with under two hours mention refunding over it. The problem eased over time: later reviewers report that patches and FSR 3 support made the game run well, and performance mentions fall to 15% of reviews written from March 2023 on. Complaints still come from mid-range PCs, Steam Deck and Linux players.

Crashes, launch bugs and input problemsMedium

Apart from frame rate, reviews describe crashes to desktop, "File was broken, please try re-install" errors, crashes on opening settings or during the final boss, and, for keyboard and mouse users, a camera that spins or points at the sky because the game detects phantom controllers or a second monitor. Several players also call the default keyboard layout awkward and say the game plays best with a controller. Steam Deck and Linux players report crashes and a restrictive setup, with some blaming the copy protection.

A slow opening that keeps taking control awayHigh

Players describe the first two hours as a string of cutscenes, slow forced walking, pop-up tutorials and fades to black, with little real play before Steam's two-hour refund window closes. Beyond the prologue, the game repeatedly freezes Frey in place while Cuff talks, pauses for several seconds after dialogue, and splits scenes into short clips separated by black screens. Fans who love the combat complain about this too, and some advise rushing the story to the first Tanta before exploring.

Price well above what players think it is worthHigh

One in five reviews brings up price. Many call the launch price of $70 (and €80, or around $90 CAD) unjustified for a short, uneven game, and "wait for a sale" is common advice, including from players who loved it. Many later reviewers bought it at 50 to 80% off and say it is a good deal at that price; several note that the full price never came down.

Repetitive Cuff and Frey chatterMedium

Apart from the tone of the dialogue, players complain that the same few voice lines repeat while exploring and fighting. Dozens of reviews point out that Cuff's chat frequency can be lowered or set to minimal in the settings, and that doing so helps a lot.

A short, rushed story and endingMedium

Players who finished the campaign, often in 12 to 25 hours, often say the main story is short for the price and that the final chapters rush: a long stretch of exposition delivered through statue-like figures, the last magic school handed over just before the finale, powers temporarily removed, and whole regions the story never visits. Some conclude that content was cut, and some wish for a proper New Game Plus.

Weak side content, loot and craftingLow

Detours (side quests) are often described as pointless errands, especially the slow ones inside Cipal, and loot is mostly crafting materials, with gear upgrades that barely change play and a small inventory cap. A few players also find enemies to be bullet sponges on Hard, with limited enemy variety.

3. The player conversation

Opinion has softened since launch. Launch week was the harshest point: nearly two thousand reviews at 58% positive, dominated by performance failures, refund-window frustration with the slow opening, and anger at the $70 price. Many of those reviewers had played under two hours, and some had received the game free with an AMD graphics card. From March 2023 on, as patches improved performance, reviews ran around 71% positive, and they stayed near 70% through 2025 and 2026. Later reviewers more often bought it on sale, say it is "not as bad as people say", and push back against what they see as a pile-on by people who never got past the prologue.

The argument itself has stayed the same across every period. Few reviews attack the combat or traversal; the disagreement is over whether they outweigh the writing, the pacing, the thin open world and the price. Many positive reviews carry caveats ("7/10", "buy on sale"), and some negative reviews praise the combat before listing everything else.

4. What the developers could do

Finish the PC optimization pass. Stutter, texture streaming failures on 8 to 10 GB cards, heavy CPU use and slow map loading come up in more negative reviews than price or the dialogue, and players on mid-range PCs and Steam Deck still report them.
Let players keep moving during dialogue and cut the fades to black. Being frozen in place while Cuff talks, waiting seconds after every conversation, and fading to black between short scene fragments frustrate fans and critics alike.
Get to the combat faster and unlock more magic earlier. Players say the fun starts after the first boss, and many wish the second school and melee arrived sooner and the final school well before the finale, so a shorter, more playable prologue would keep more of them past the refund window.
Bring the base price in line with what players will pay. The reviews treat the discounted price as the game's real value, and a permanently lower price would remove a reason many fans give for hedging their recommendation.
Fix keyboard and mouse input. Phantom controller detection that spins the camera, awkward default bindings and keybind conflicts made the game unplayable for some players on day one.
Add more variety to open-world chatter and rewards. Players ask for more voice lines so banter stops repeating, for the chatter setting to be surfaced early, and for exploration rewards that matter more than crafting materials.
Give the open world meaningful side quests. Players with long playtimes say the map is large but lacks real quests outside Cipal, and that reclaiming areas or finding stories in the wild would give the traversal a purpose.
Improve Steam Deck and Linux stability. Handheld and Proton players report crashes, locked graphics options and trouble with the copy protection.