The Forest was one of the best horror games of 2018, with developers announcing a sequel the following year. However, Sons of the Forest missed its planned 2021 launch, with the studio pushing its release date back to Fall 2022.
Unfortunately, for fans of the wilderness survival horror game, it appears that Sons of the Forest won’t be coming this year at all. Indie Developer Endnight Games recently announced that it is further delaying Sons of the Forest until February 23, 2023. And while the studio’s justifications seem reasonable, it’s still bad news for fans of The Forest.
Endnight announced the latest delay over Twitter on Wednesday, along with an announcement that the game will retail for $29.99 when it finally releases next year. Developers explained the delay by saying that the team needed more time to give the upcoming Sons of the Forest the polish it deserves. The studio also attributed the multiple delays to the upcoming game’s larger scope, which makes it more difficult for developers to estimate how much work is remaining.
It’s understandable that a smaller studio like Endnight might have its hands full with a big project like Sons of the Forest. Still, it’s also understandable that fans aren’t particularly pleased with this news. There were still plenty of positive comments in the tweet’s replies, with some fans saying that The Forest was good enough to make its sequel worth waiting for a little longer. Others, however, seem to have lost their enthusiasm for the thrice-delayed game. Hopefully, the tweet is accurate when it describes delaying Sons of the Forest “one last time.”
Endnight Games’ Sons of the Forest follows a similar premise to its predecessor, with players tasked with surviving in a remote, mutant-infested wilderness. After a rescue mission goes wrong, the protagonist must fight, forage, and build to survive the elements and the island’s inhabitants. New features include changing seasons, affecting the available resources for players to collect, and the hazards they’ll need to manage. For example, food will be plentiful during Spring and Summer. However, Winter brings scarcity, and players must ration their resources while fending off bands of hungry mutants.
As with its predecessor, Sons of the Forest also boasts optional co-op gameplay, letting players team up to survive and explore the deadly wilderness. It also launches with full controller support. However, while some people were asking about it over Twitter, developers haven’t indicated any intentions of bringing Sons of the Forest to consoles.
Sons of the Forest releases for PC on February 23, 2023.