PC gaming platform Steam has a new most wishlisted game, Sons of the Forest.
But, if you’re not knee-deep in the world of PC gaming, you may have never heard of it. So what is this mystery game?
Sons of the Forest has booted Bethesda’s Starfield off the top spot of the most wishlisted games. This is where Steam users tag upcoming games they think they may want to buy on release.
It is due out in only two days at the time of writing, on February 23. This is a big part of why a relatively unknown game is picking up so much heat.
What is an Early Access game?
Sons of the Forest is the follow-up to The Forest, a survival horror game released in 2014 as an Early Access game on PC. Early Access is where developers release games that aren’t quite finished, letting fans play titles early and see how they change in the final stages of development.
The Forest spent a whopping four years in Early Access, reaching “final release” stage in 2018.
Sons of the Forest will also be released as an Early Access game. However, developer Endnight Games says this time the plan is to spend “around 6-8 months” finishing off the game rather than years.
It entails searching for a “missing billionaire” on a remote island. But instead of a paradise, you find a “cannibal-infested hellscape.”
You’ll build items and buildings, scavenging materials from the world around you. Sons of the Forest can be played as a single-player or multiplayer game — with a focus on working together with friends to survive rather than competing with them. Up to eight people can play together in the current version.
The idea of investing in an Early Access game may not appeal that much to casual players, but this is the route many of the best and most popular titles in this survival genre have taken. Well-known past examples include Ark: Survival Evolved, Subnautica, Stranded Deep, Raft and, of course, the original The Forest.
In 2018 Endnight Games announced The Forest had sold more than five million copies. There is currently no news of Sons of the Forest coming to other platforms, but its predecessor was ported to the Sony PlayStation 4.
