u/Gullible-Ad-8171

Thing is, the forest franchise does something very special and puts horror into the survival genre.

Because while a bear or a pack of wolves does indeed pose a threat to your existence, there isn't usually an incentive to fear natural predators because by that time you have created spears, and other weapons to even hunt these animals for their hide.

So if the animals themselves aren't scary in a survival setting, what would be?

Humans. More specifically cannibals. They act like animals almost. Watching you, observing from a distance, stealing and eating animals from your traps. They pose a real threat because they think like us. Hence why the importance of base building.

Suddenly it's ten times more important to build defenses, gates, walls, spikes, traps.

And the more you build, the more you deforest, the more of them will come. And eventually either you or them will attack. Violence is inevitable.

In a sense it's beautiful. There are entire videos about how the AI of cannibals is complex. How they have their own culture of sorts. How patrols work, how skinny cannibals eat other dead cannibals.

Like it's crazy how much thought was put into this.

And the survival side of this is interesting. But where it almost breaks are the caves.

You can venture down into caves with nothing but a lighter that gives off little light. This is also great for the first half an hour of the game because this too creates dread and terror because you're in an unfamiliar place. With little to no visuals.

But as you get more familiar with the game, the game should reward the player and allow him to be better.

There's little to no guidance from the game itself.

Which cave to explore first to get the gear necessary to access other caves? You're plopped into the world and you can do whatever you want.

Which works in a Minecraft setting where there isn't a story to follow. But the forest franchise is a story driven game. With specific gear more or less accessible in certain caves. So it can be hours upon hours until the player stumbles across the right cave order.

This is a big hinderance. Even in games like Subnautica, which is a story driven game, it guides the player through the story. It uses the radio where you receive distress call from the other crashed pods. Upon arriving, you find them tore open, crew nowhere in sight. But blueprints or crafting logs that help you progress.

Thing is, games like Subnautica isn't anything new. Sons of The Forest was a new game. And yet it's even worse than Subnautica. It has a bigger map, now you have a GPS which is nice but it doesn't guide you to the correct caves. It just shows points of interest.

You can't collect clay and create a kiln where you would smelt I don't know copper or iron to make better tools. In fact the base building heavily relies on wood, stone and sticks.

Like the Forest games want you to feel like it's a survival. But most of the gameplay is in the caves.

It's through the caves where you find enough clues as to where your missing son is. But you can't even mine any ore or anything of note.

So we have a surface gameplay where yes you can build a wooden base, set a few traps down and repel cannibals and mutants. You can craft various tools yes, but you still have to venture down to the caves in order to progress the story and get better gear.

Grounded stays as a peak Survival Game. It combines the elements so well. The base building isn't long and tedious unlike in Sons Of The Forest.

Or doesn't just use one material like The Forest.

You can actually get plethora of resources whether for weapons, armor, weapon upgrades, armor upgrades, tools, tool upgrades, explosives, cooking...like you name it, Grounded has it. Grounded 2 even has mounts which can help you carry base building pieces which makes base building so much fun. In Sons Of The Forest you get Kelvin who is unreliable by design.