Forspoken’s new demo has fun parkour hiding under a generic action RPG

I admit I wasn’t particularly excited left during each part of its development cycle. It looked like a very generic action RPG whose only interesting feature was that it had the shiny veneer of a PlayStation 5 exclusive with all the soupy graphical impressiveness that entails. The game’s marketing wasn’t the greatest, including Dialogue that went from dimension to death (and not in a good way). taken together, leftIf so, looks like a bit of a mess.

It might still be, as the demo was extremely short. I was able to finish all the objectives in 20 minutes, but the demo time can be extended if you decide to hardcore parkour your way through the world. Despite the brevity of the demo, the little I saw, I really liked. The demo starts with a short cutscene that explains Frey and how she got to Athea and what she needs to do now. Everything is very messed up, a girl is teleported to a mysterious world where she becomes the team meant to save him.

I think it was really smart to build around Frey’s parkour powers. As she uses her parkour abilities to reach the next destination, obstacles in the terrain become mere suggestions. For some reason, I expected all her momentum to stop once she hit the rock (thanks, Sonic Frontiers), but she jumped over them effortlessly, and I was duly impressed. Frey’s parkour also translates to combat, and she can dodge, dodge, dip, dive, and dodge enemy projectiles with those fluid movements that remind me a bit of my favorite game, kingdom of hearts.

If the game had instead focused on the magic that Frey can cast with her magic sleeve, then I don’t think it would have piqued my interest as much as her scrolling and sounding as she travels around with her. Parkour is fun in the way grid clearing was fun Spider-Man: Miles Morales, And it does left stand out in a way that its marketing failed to convey correctly.

The fight itself wasn’t terrible either, just generic. You have a handful of spells that you fire with both triggers. Click them at the same time to unleash an explosive area of ​​effect attack that destroys everything in range. You can change the type of magic you cast – the demo had two types of magic: rock and fire – and each class of spells has different sub-spells that you can mix and match together depending on the enemies that surround you.

The world is wide, and there are many different things Frey can get to when she’s not completing the story objectives. Early in the demo, I abandoned the main quest to walk around and see what I could, when I came across a strange village that needed to be cleared of the creatures infesting it. Looks like there will be plenty of opportunities left Parkour to your heart’s content.

Since this is a demo, that’s the length and breadth of what I’ve seen, and I have to say I’ve come a long way left. I have a very similar suspicion Guardians of the GalaxyIt’s going to be on its way. way Better than people give it credit for – cool dialogue aside. And while I can’t say I can’t wait to try it, I can say that at least I am wants to Try it when it launches on January 24th.