Forest Warrior

Forest Warrior took me completely by surprise.

I looked at no reviews, videos or screenshots before I played the game, and I thought it was simply just a platforming 8-bit game. Forest Warrior is a 2D action-survival game. You fend off zombies, birds, and wolves that are attacking you in the forest. The game has great visuals and animations, wonderful and relaxing music, and interesting gameplay.

​Gameplay –
You start off on the first night with just your hatchet, and many zombies attempting to kill you. You have to fight to survive and each wave has increasing difficulty. As you progress through the game you get more weaponry to fight off the enemies. The game is challenging, as you only have 3 hearts, but the game is still enjoyable. The only issue I had with the gameplay is that the range on the axe is very long, and seems to be a bit buggy, as the animation plays and the hit registers after the animation is completed. The birds are a huge pain, as they move extremely fast and you can’t seem to roll out of the way of them. You have special abilities that charge up by getting kills, which you can then activate to provide a huge advantage against the enemies. If you charge up all 4 bars, you unlock your rampage ability, which lets you spin around with your axe and destroy every enemy in your path for 20 seconds. I was unable to make it past Wave 4, but there are bosses in the game, as well as other weapons like grenades. It is very challenging, but I had lots of fun playing it.

8/10

Graphics –
I always gush over 8-bit or pixellated games, as it reminds me very much of many classics I love. The visuals are pretty and detailed, with the puffy clouds drifting by in the background as you slaughter zombies. I was very surprised by the animations however, as they are quite spectacular. The pause menu is very beautiful; it zooms out and has a lovely blue shimmer around the screen. When you swing your axe you feel the power in the swing, as the screen pulses and the enemy reacts very well to the axe hitting them. During the swinging animation there is a trail of blood falling behind the axe from the enemies you have killed. You can see the kickback when you fire the gun and it has a big flare from the bullet exiting the barrel. There is a blood splatter animation when you hit an enemy and when you kill them they shatter and pieces of them get blown away in the wind. Overall the game is very beautifully crafted with wonderful animations.

9/10

Audio –
The music in Forest Warrior is spectacular. It is very relaxing and enjoyable. For example, I have been listening to the menu screen music for the entirety of the time I wrote this review. The enemy sound effects, like the caws of the birds and the growls of the zombie are wonderful and sound very nice. The sound of your axe hitting the enemy is very satisfying, as you can hear the axe embedding into the enemy, and the splatter as well. The gun sounds very similar to a real gun and the sound of the bullet hitting is also satisfying. The soundtrack in Forest Warrior is amazing, and the sound effects are great.

8/10

Conclusion –
Forest Warrior is a beautifully crafted 8-bit indie game, and I highly recommend it. It is difficult at times but is very enjoyable. There is no real story to the game, but that is usually common in survival games like this, and a story in a game like this might not appeal to some people who just want to kill some monsters. It is a great game to play when waiting for time to pass or you just want to hop in and slaughter some zombies. However, I don’t believe the game is worth the whole $3.99, as there isn’t much gameplay, even though there are many waves to conquer. Nonetheless, it is still a great game and if you manage to catch it on sale I highly recommend that you snag it and have some fun killing monsters!

Overall – 8/10