Magic is at the core of Forspoken. Athia is an other-world full of wonder and mysticism and evil sorceresses, while protagonist Frey is given spectacular superhuman elemental powers. There’s a surprising dollop of comedy too among the occult grandeur.
Yet after playing the game on PlayStation 5 at a recent preview event, I still have concerns about both its representation and its combat, despite its magical potential.
I suspect that Forspoken will be at its best when it’s most freeing. The freedom to explore the wide open plains and crumbling ruins of Athia and complete its myriad side activities. The freedom to fully customise Frey’s abilities. The freedom to flip between its extensive collection of spells to deal elemental damage and exploit weaknesses.
(Having played the newly released demo at the weekend, I can confirm this is the case. The demo is a snapshot of the open world that provides more of a playground for Frey’s abilities than the more linear preview build I played.)
There’s certainly the promise of depth to the game’s combat, but the early chapters I played through were a little too scripted. Tutorials and cutscenes occur every few steps as gameplay and plot layers unravel; a laughable stealth section practically played itself; and I didn’t have enough time to truly get to grips with the range of magic that will be available.