

Four big bosses are spread across its landscape, which is corrupted by a suspicious environmental plague called The Break.

It’s not technically long in truth, but it sure feels like a while before you land in Athia, the sizable mythical realm where the meat of Forspoken takes place. The only vibrant book on Frey’s dining room table is Alice In Wonderland, and she’s got a cardboard escape plan on her bedroom wall. READ MORE: ‘Forspoken’ preview: breakneck speed and magical combat.You’ve seen it all before, but Forspoken’s New York opening, with its foreshadowing pockets of heavy-handed gameplay, doesn’t miss an opportunity to bat you over the head with a familiar premise and some seriously hammy dialogue, leaving a difficult first impression. Plucky orphan Frey Holland is whisked into a magical world and lumbered with divine purpose, superpowers and a smarmy British sidekick. The next game from Final Fantasy XV’s Luminous Productions is a mechanically solid open-world adventure game with a fantasy narrative that has been focus-tested much too far.
