Sons of the Forest

Sons of the Forest is a direct sequel to The Forest (2018) from the Vancouver indie studio Endnight Games (about 20 people, founded in 2010, no outside publisher). You play as Jack Holt, a journalist hired for a search operation on a remote island where the family of the billionaire Puffton went missing. The helicopter is shot down, and you end up among jungles, cannibal tribes and mutants. The game left early access in February 2024 after exactly one year of EA development.

Kelvin is a mute soldier companion who survived the crash next to you. He suffered a traumatic brain injury and cannot speak, but he understands commands through notes (the E key). Kelvin chops trees, gathers resources and builds simple shelters on his own, and follows you on command. He is a real helper in everyday survival, not just decoration. By default, Kelvin's death is permanent.

Virginia Puffton is the billionaire's 20-year-old daughter, who survived as a mutant with three arms and three legs. She appears in the first days of the game: timid, quick to run away and dangerous when threatened. To make her an ally, put your weapon away, do not attack her, and let her approach in her own way. Over time she starts bringing food and resources, and later she can be armed with a pistol or a shotgun. Virginia defends the camp and can be tracked on the map with a GPS tracker.

The gameplay rests on three pillars: survival (hunger, thirst, sleep, temperature, injuries), building and exploration. The building system is the most detailed in the genre: you lay logs by hand and put up multi-level walls, traps and rope bridges. The January 2025 patch added procedural defensive walls: you draw a path and Kelvin builds it himself. The map is divided into jungles, mountain areas and underground caves.

Up to 8 players in co-op, with no PvP: everyone plays against the environment and AI enemies. Roles form naturally: one player builds the base with Kelvin, another explores the caves, another tames Virginia. Solo play is fully viable, unlike Rust, where it is hard without a group. The dedicated server is a separate free Steam application (app 2465200) and suits a permanent community.

At the start of EA in February 2023, the game sold 2 million copies in the first 24 hours, a record for indie survival games. Peak concurrent players reached 414,257 (top 20 on Steam of all time, between Cyberpunk 2077 and ELDEN RING). The average online count is now around 9-10 thousand: Sons of the Forest is a completed story with several endings, not an endless live-service game, so the online count falls after mass completion, which is normal for narrative games.

Scores: Metacritic PC 86 (12 reviews, 92% positive), Steam Very Positive 88% from 305,000+ reviews, a rare agreement for a genre where critics and players usually differ. There is no DLC: one purchase includes everything, including free updates after release. Localization: the interface and subtitles are in Russian, the voice acting is English only.

Sons of the Forest is the sequel to the survival game The Forest from Endnight Games. You are sent to an island to find a missing billionaire and find a cannibal survival horror instead. Co-op for up to 8 players. Russian subtitles, English voice acting.