Forestrike
What makes a good fight scene? Sure, it needs a healthy dose of action in it, but for me, what makes a great scene is seeing someone methodically take down their enemies in precise and calculated ways. Sure, all-out brawls are fun, but for me, I love seeing surgical precision like you see in John Wick or one of the Ip Mam movies. That’s what made Superhot so appealing in the FPS world. Now, if only there was a way to get these feelings in classic, beat’em up form. Oh wait, there is! Say hello to Forestrike which is heading to both the PC and Nintendo Switch.
In classic, martial-arts-story fashion, you take control of one of the last of a dying breed, in this case, a member of the Order of the Foresight. These uniquely trained warriors have a special ability: to see the course of their battle before it even happens. Long story short, they (or you), can foresee what is going to happen before it happens with real consequences.
While it sounds complicated, it is actually pretty simple. Using your ability, you can “practice” a fight before you play it for real. This gives you a chance to map out the attacks and routes that your enemies are going to take and the tactics that they are going to use. You can do this as many times as you would like, giving yourself a chance to formulate a plan and strategically pick apart theirs. Once you feel comfortable and ready to put things in motion, you can initiate the actual battle and attempt to play things out in the manner in which you practiced.
It isn’t all kicking and punching though that would be too easy! You have a variety of tools at your disposal thanks to your training from the Order, and an arsenal of abilities that grow as you proceed. You will start with just simple light and heavy attacks, but as your training evolves, you will begin using parries, weapons, and utilizing environmental objects to construct a masterpiece of violence on your numerous enemies.
Recently, I was give a chance to explore a preview build of the game for a few hours to see just how this all fit together in an actual game. I will admit that, at first, I wasn’t exactly overwhelmed with just having the ability to “practice” a stage before playing it; however, as I gained more advanced abilities and eventually began to face more difficult enemies, the beauty of this started to come to light. It becomes beyond simple trial and error and forced me to truly break down and decipher all of the clues in each battle to make it out alive.
Once I hit this point, I began to thoroughly enjoy myself. Unfortunately, however, that was also about the time that my demo came to an end. It served as the perfect taste test for what is to come and served its purpose of getting me excited for the full game.
This brief experience has shown me that I am just scratching the surface of the Forestrike experience. It looks like there is going to be a lot to digest in the full experience. I got a glimpse at the branching paths in the story, which will help the game play out almost like a roguelite, as you get to choose the direction you take on your journey.
There are also a variety of challenges that are laid out for you, which will encourage you to experiment and perhaps change your approach to accomplish certain goals. Those goals come with rewards though, which ultimately help you expand your abilities and repertoire. Plus, in my experience, I only got to “study” under a single master and learn his way of fighting. There are several others that weren’t selectable and noted as available in the full version. If you’re one of those people who likes showing off your abilities or comparing your battles with friends, the game allows you to do that as well by offering “Fight Codes” which can be shared to other players so that they can experience the exact scenarios you did (think Balatro seed codes).
All in all, I now have a game high on my radar that I had never heard of a month ago. Forestrike is a unique take on the beat’em up / fighting genre that looks to take up a lot of my time when the full game finally releases later this year. IF you want to check it out for yourself, a demo is now available on the Steam Store.
* The product in this article was sent to us by the developer/company.
About Author
Guess who's back!!! If you have been here before, you know the basics: lifelong gamer, father, and of course, former certified news monkey. I still consider myself all of those things, just maybe not in the grand scale that I once did. I’ve been blogging on the industry for more than decade now, in some form or another. It wasn't until I landed here at Gaming Nexus that I really dove in head first. Now, writing about games has become what I do for fun (and sometimes work) and something I intend on doing until the day I die (in some form or another).
I'm a huge fan of just about everything you can interact with using a controller, no matter how old or new, good or bad. If you put it in front of me, I will play it (at least once).
