Forspoken: PS5 Review

Developed by Luminous Productions
Released by Square Enix
Platform: PS5

Forspoken is an interesting game, a curious mix between magic and parkour, snark and fantasy.

It's the story of Frey, an always on the verge of trouble kinda girl who one night finds herself spirited away via a portal to another world. Which is fortuitous given she's about to be majorly on the wrong side of proceedings.

And which also is in part how Forspoken feels a little flimsy in its narrative execution. As Frey escapes New York for Athia, she finds a world overrun by tyrants and sets out to free them - mainly with the help of a sentient bracelet....

Forspoken isn't a bad game per se, and certainly the damning reports which have been cast upon it seem more than a little harsh. It may suffer from some character leaps and may also have an overly almost hostile relationship between its odd couple Frey and the bracelet, but when it comes together, it shines.

Dragons tear through the skies, magical wolves haunt corners - there's plenty in the world of Athia to mark it out as something that's worth exploring. It's just the reason for fighting for it, is never fully clear or exploited to its best iteration.

The magical parkour element though marks it out. Fast and fluid, when it gels, it truly soars. There's nothing more thrilling than running up buildings and unleashing on the elementals and threats below - and graphically, the game doesn't let up either, offering quick pacy action when it's needed most.

It may have a lack of charisma among its characters, and you're never quite sure whether the bracelet actually likes Frey, but Forspoken has a glimmer of something in a new IP that may not quite mark it out above the rest of the pack, but does indicate that with a bit more depth, this could be a game series that grows in strength when it hits the ground running.