Sons of the Forest is a survival horror video game created by Endnight Games and published by Newnight. It is a follow-up to the 2018 game The Forest. The story follows a main character who travels to a mysterious island to find a missing CEO and his family. The character must survive dangerous monsters that eat people and discover a secret from long ago that is hidden underground. The game was first available to try on February 23, 2023, for Windows computers on Steam. It was fully released on February 22, 2024.

Gameplay

Sons of the Forest places players in control of a character trapped on an island where people who eat humans live. Players can create weapons and structures to survive. The game allows up to eight players to work together, or players can choose to play alone. Based on the choices players make, the game ends in different ways.

The map in this game is four times larger than the one in its earlier version. New features include 3D printing and friendly characters called NPCs. These NPCs include:

• Kelvin, who cannot speak or hear. Players can write instructions on paper to help Kelvin complete simple tasks, such as gathering materials or starting fires.
• Virginia, a woman with three legs and three arms. Virginia is shy at first, but players can persuade her to become friends. Once friendly, Virginia can be given weapons to help during battles.

Plot

Many years after the events of The Forest, a group of private military contractors hired by PuffCorp is sent to an island called "Site 2" to find Edward Puffton (PuffCorp's founder and CEO), his wife Barbara, and his 20-year-old daughter Virginia, who have been missing for several months. Jack Holt, the player's character, is a well-known journalist and close friend of Edward. He joins the team. The team's helicopters are shot down by unknown attackers. Jack survives the crash but is knocked unconscious by a man in a silver coat named Jianyu Zhang, a former PuffCorp employee now working for Sahara Therapeutics, the company responsible for the events on Site 1. Jack wakes up with another surviving teammate named Kelvin, who was made deaf and mentally affected by the crash.

Together, Jack and Kelvin set up camp, gather supplies, and prepare to survive the island while protecting themselves from cannibal tribes and underground mutants. They are later joined by Virginia, who became a mutant but still retains her humanity. As Jack explores the island, he discovers large cave systems, underground bunkers, luxury facilities, and ancient structures that suggest the presence of an advanced civilization. From documents he finds, Jack learns that PuffCorp claimed the island was to be turned into a resort, but secretly, it was competing with Sahara Therapeutics for control of an artifact called the "Cube." This artifact is made of a rare, previously unknown golden ore named "Solafite," which has medicinal properties. Jack finds surveillance footage showing that all the resort guests were suddenly turned into mutants during a dinner party. Edward and Barbara Puffton were among them, and Jack is forced to kill them when he finds them.

Jack also meets Eric and Timmy LeBlanc, survivors of the Site 1 incident, who are searching for the Cube to cure Timmy's uncontrollable mutations. After being separated from them during a confrontation with Jianyu, Jack learns that the Cube can move between alternate dimensions and activates every eight lunar cycles. The only safe place is inside the Cube itself. It is discovered that the Cube's activations caused the mass mutations on the island, creating the cannibals and mutants. The next activation is soon to occur.

At the VIP bunker, Jack reunites with Timmy, and they travel underground toward the Cube. They enter just before it closes, trapping Jianyu outside. When the Cube activates, Timmy has a seizure and briefly splits into multiple versions of himself. The Cube shows a vision of a futuristic alien city. After deactivating, the Cube resets its timer and reopens, revealing Jianyu has mutated into a giant monster. Jack and Timmy return to the surface, where helicopters arrive. They fight Jianyu. After defeating him, an artifact found by the player removes Jack's backpack and tries to lure him back. Several endings are possible:

• If the player retrieves their backpack or waits, Jack chooses to stay on the island, and the LeBlancs leave without him.
• If the player boards the helicopter, Jack leaves the island with the LeBlancs. In the epilogue, Timmy shows a sample of Solafite to a doctor. News articles later reveal Timmy becomes CEO of a pharmaceutical company using Solafite to create medical cures, which also cured his mutations. Jack publishes a book about his experiences on Site 2, and Timmy discovers another island rich with Solafite but disappears, and contact with the island is lost.
• If Kelvin and Virginia survived, they join Jack inside the Cube and board the helicopter if the player chooses. In the epilogue, Virginia is cured of her mutations, and Kelvin remains mentally affected but becomes close friends with Jack. Five months later, Kelvin and a pregnant Virginia join Jack for a joyride in his sports car.

Development

The game Sons of the Forest was delayed twice. It was first announced in December 2019, with an original release date of May 2022. On March 25, 2022, the developers, Endnight Games, announced a delay to October 2022 to ensure they could create the game as planned. In August 2022, the release date was delayed again to February 23, 2023. On February 3, 2023, it was announced that the game would launch in early access to prevent more delays.

On November 29, 2023, Endnight Games revealed that the 1.0 version of the game, which includes major gameplay and story updates, would be released on February 22, 2024.

Reception

Sons of the Forest received "generally favorable" reviews from critics, according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. The game surpassed Starfield as the most wishlisted game on Steam. It sold over 2 million copies within 24 hours of its release and had more than 250,000 players at the same time on Steam during its launch day. At that time, it became the best-selling game on Steam.

IGN said that "Sons of the Forest takes everything its predecessor did well and does it a little bit better," including improved AI, a larger map, and better graphics. However, the review noted problems with how the game runs on different computers and an unfinished story.

GamingBolt stated that Sons of the Forest is "exciting, immersive, and beautiful" and described it as "extremely scary and absolutely packed with content." The review called the game a success and said it is "absolutely worth your time," even though it was not complete at the time of its Early Access release. GamingBolt referred to the game as "Greatness in Progress."