With no confirmation for The Last of Us Part 3 in sight, despite recent cryptic comments from Naughty Dog head Neil Druckmann, we're going to have to turn elsewhere to get our fill of scrabbling for survival in an unforgiving world.
Fortunately, it's proven to be a quite popular genre in recent years and we have enjoyed a veritable feast of actually very decent releases that go some way to replicating the same feelings that The Last of Us did.
Over on Steam, Forest Reigns is an emergent FPS that set in a stylised post-apocalyptic version of Paris (France, not Texas), with all the famous landmarks dotted through the city, only overrun by nature since most of the humans went away.
In this world, the forests have become, for lack of a better term, strange, and they evolve and grow at an exponential rate. Not only that, but the flora found within are also a lot more dangerous than what you'd expect from lush European greenery.
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It's sort of a sentient entity in its own right, actively reacting to the choices you make. It's even able to be manipulated to take out enemies, assuming it responds in the way you're expecting.
The story is non-linear and there are dozens of missions to work through on your way to unravelling the game's deeper mysteries. The world is also populated by factions of varying levels of nefariousness, and your interactions with them will also affect how the story plays out and how the world develops.
More so than many other games, Forest Reigns is heavily focused on delivering realistic gunplay. The handling is tuned to each weapon and there are a ton of customisation options, so you can put together the perfect ranged build, or go for something more close quarters. This will also have a direct effect on the damage you do with each shot, and the accuracy with which you can do it.
Holding you back is the scarcity of resources, which will limit how much you can craft consistently. Planning ahead is key and making sure you're prepared for each foray into the green wastes is crucial to your survival. If you've ever played Green Hell, it's a very similar aesthetic and should be pretty pleasing if you were into that game.
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There's no confirmed release date yet, with the Steam page simply marked as coming soon at the time of writing.
Topics: Indie Games, Steam, The Last Of Us, The Last Of Us Part 2, Naughty Dog, PC