You have been told "you are not that guy"; you are just a speck trying to survive a never ending battlefield filled with horrors and monstrosities. I absolutely love the atmosphere and setting of the game, which is a great foundation for a game that definitely is quite early into development. I find myself drawn to play more of the game despite knowing there is limited content, questionable AI, and extreme unpredictability in the gameplay itself.

I've been very drawn to PvE extraction games because the gameplay loop of them is very enjoyable, but having your time wasted because a cheater decided to kill you is not. But of all that I have played, they feel stale quickly without a depth of content to play, mostly centered around mil-sim style realism; The Forever Winter is not that. I find myself playing not to just amass loot, but actually enjoying exploration and discovery, as well as embracing the unpredictability and even being absolutely destroyed by it, but not finding myself wanting to stop playing because of it.

The game is currently quite favorable in that you can recover your weapons if you die, and if you manage to recover your corpse but die again, you can continue to try to make that extract. You will not be able to recover any of the loot you got (or ammo and meds you brought in), which is a bit of a shame, but honestly I find the game actually fun enough to just survive and play that I am not mindlessly pursing making a number go up. Overall it isn't terribly hard to profit and I do not feel pressured by death, striking a quite impressive balance where there is a desire to loot but death is not such a painful setback.

There are definitely performance issues, but on a very aged 980ti I was able to enjoy the game on low settings with FSR, not really hurting the visuals too badly. I can only hope over time this will drastically improve. I upgraded to a 4060ti for the time being and can play on high settings with decent fps at all times. There are no major issues with frame drops or game crashes for me, other than being tough on the gpu, which would otherwise hurt the experience.

The AI is certainly a work in progress and once you learn how it works, can be manipulated in your favor. This is expected to change over time, as the game is still only in an arguably very early version "0.1". I have seen what other small teams have done in early access with their AI such as Incursion: Red River, so I hold a similar hope for TFW devs to do the same, as they are very openly communicating with the community and regularly posting updates.

Players can play the game in co-op from the start, with up to four players. There is little to stop said four players currently going from "you are not that guy" to perhaps, we are that guy. You are quite free to play the game carefully and stealthily; or as you learn the game, improve your character and loadout, and become more experienced, you are not prevented from feeling strong and playing the game... differently. When not alone you have a chance to be rescued, and of course there is greater safety in numbers -- provided you do not put yourself in an unwinnable situtation by getting too overconfident. I rather enjoy the way the game feels played alone and carefully as well as in a group unafraid to fight their way through the landscape. There is a good balance here and can easily be expanded on by the devs with the new maps that release, with the newest one being quite commonly regarded as a place you don't bring anything you don't want to lose.




A lot of people have a pressing concern about buying this game (myself included) in regards to the "water system". You must accumulate water to maintain your stockpile of items and money and the drain is enforced in real time. There is currently an unfavorable skew in that a new player with no information and not seeking it online may find it a very punishing feature, struggling to find this item and starting with no safety net, or even others who play ignorant of the consequences and end up losing everything without ever knowing they were at risk. The fact of the matter is, if you play the game seriously for a handful of hours you can reach the point where you are able to loot multiple days of water in a quick run of a few minutes. You can then completely trivialize any risk of ever losing all of your items to this timer. There is a lot of debate over this feature but I find that anyone really playing the game does not actually worry about it at all.

The other end of the argument is that people don't want to be "wiped" because they quit to play other games and in the future they will come back to the game and have nothing. The devs are working on this feature actively and already added the ability to defend yourself once from losing everything should you hit this timer. It is a risk like all other gameplay in Forever Winter is. If you don't want that risk, you can simply accumulate more water in your stash at any time (no limit) and log in to deposit it whenever you need -- to a stack of 99 days that you don't have to login at the most. Another PvE Extraction game I follow closely, Incursion: Red River, regularly fully wipes players to zero every significant patch. In The Forever Winter, even if you lose your stash to the water timer, you lose* your rigs which is a bit of a setback, but you keep your character levels and weapon levels (the most extensive grind in the game), as well as your quest progression and likely faction standing. It's a bit painful to lose your rigs but not losing the time spent leveling your characters is a major boon and you can immediately take quests you had already unlocked to restore high powered guns to your character/sell for plenty of cash.

Ultimately I think the mechanic would be better off getting overhauled into a gameplay currency used for running advanced missions, unlocking vendors, or even purchasing upgrades, but no real world timer. Too many people fear even trying the game because of it, and I was originally in that crowd.

[h1]The Forever Winter excels in creative design in a way I have hardly ever seen from many games.[/h1] You have been told "you are not that guy"; you are just a speck trying to survive a never ending battlefield filled with horrors and monstrosities. I absolutely love the atmosphere and setting of the game, which is a great foundation for a game that definitely is quite early into development. I find myself drawn to play more of the game despite knowing there is limited content, questionable AI, and extreme unpredictability in the gameplay itself. I've been very drawn to PvE extraction games because the gameplay loop of them is very enjoyable, but having your time wasted because a cheater decided to kill you is not. But of all that I have played, they feel stale quickly without a depth of content to play, mostly centered around mil-sim style realism; The Forever Winter is not that. I find myself playing not to just amass loot, but actually enjoying exploration and discovery, as well as embracing the unpredictability and even being absolutely destroyed by it, but not finding myself wanting to stop playing because of it. [h1]Loss:[/h1] The game is currently quite favorable in that you can recover your weapons if you die, and if you manage to recover your corpse but die again, you can continue to try to make that extract. You will not be able to recover any of the loot you got (or ammo and meds you brought in), which is a bit of a shame, but honestly I find the game actually fun enough to just survive and play that I am not mindlessly pursing making a number go up. Overall it isn't terribly hard to profit and I do not feel pressured by death, striking a quite impressive balance where there is a desire to loot but death is not such a painful setback. [h1]Performance:[/h1] There are definitely performance issues, but on a very aged 980ti I was able to enjoy the game on low settings with FSR, not really hurting the visuals too badly. I can only hope over time this will drastically improve. I upgraded to a 4060ti for the time being and can play on high settings with decent fps at all times. There are no major issues with frame drops or game crashes for me, other than being tough on the gpu, which would otherwise hurt the experience. [h1]Enemies and AI:[/h1] The AI is certainly a work in progress and once you learn how it works, can be manipulated in your favor. This is expected to change over time, as the game is still only in an arguably very early version "0.1". I have seen what other small teams have done in early access with their AI such as Incursion: Red River, so I hold a similar hope for TFW devs to do the same, as they are very openly communicating with the community and regularly posting updates. [h1]Better with Friends:[/h1] Players can play the game in co-op from the start, with up to four players. There is little to stop said four players currently going from "you are not that guy" to perhaps, we are that guy. You are quite free to play the game carefully and stealthily; or as you learn the game, improve your character and loadout, and become more experienced, you are not prevented from feeling strong and playing the game... differently. When not alone you have a chance to be rescued, and of course there is greater safety in numbers -- provided you do not put yourself in an unwinnable situtation by getting too overconfident. I rather enjoy the way the game feels played alone and carefully as well as in a group unafraid to fight their way through the landscape. There is a good balance here and can easily be expanded on by the devs with the new maps that release, with the newest one being quite commonly regarded as a place you don't bring anything you don't want to lose. [h1]I would recommend The Forever Winter in its current state to anyone that is interested in the world, gameplay loop, and unafraid of not having perfect FPS at all times. I am already in love with the game and am excited to see where it goes from here.[/h1] [h1]! On the Water System:[/h1] A lot of people have a pressing concern about buying this game (myself included) in regards to the "water system". You must accumulate water to maintain your stockpile of items and money and the drain is enforced in real time. There is currently an unfavorable skew in that a new player with no information and not seeking it online may find it a very punishing feature, struggling to find this item and starting with no safety net, or even others who play ignorant of the consequences and end up losing everything without ever knowing they were at risk. The fact of the matter is, if you play the game seriously for a handful of hours you can reach the point where you are able to loot multiple days of water in a quick run of a few minutes. You can then completely trivialize any risk of ever losing all of your items to this timer. There is a lot of debate over this feature but I find that anyone really playing the game does not actually worry about it at all. The other end of the argument is that people don't want to be "wiped" because they quit to play other games and in the future they will come back to the game and have nothing. The devs are working on this feature actively and already added the ability to defend yourself once from losing everything should you hit this timer. It is a risk like all other gameplay in Forever Winter is. If you don't want that risk, you can simply accumulate more water in your stash at any time (no limit) and log in to deposit it whenever you need -- to a stack of 99 days that you don't have to login at the most. Another PvE Extraction game I follow closely, Incursion: Red River, regularly fully wipes players to zero every significant patch. [b]In The Forever Winter, even if you lose your stash to the water timer, you lose* your rigs which is a bit of a setback, but you keep your character levels and weapon levels (the most extensive grind in the game), as well as your quest progression and likely faction standing.[/b] It's a bit painful to lose your rigs but not losing the time spent leveling your characters is a major boon and you can immediately take quests you had already unlocked to restore high powered guns to your character/sell for plenty of cash. Ultimately I think the mechanic would be better off getting overhauled into a gameplay currency used for running advanced missions, unlocking vendors, or even purchasing upgrades, but no real world timer. Too many people fear even trying the game because of it, and I was originally in that crowd.