14 DAY TRIAL // My investigator, virtual as he is, has managed to re-construct a hallway incident, although I feel like there’s at least one clue there that’s eluding him. And he’s already rotated a secret key book 20 times to find one piece of DNA and there’s still another hiding from him. He also needs to try and find clues to open one big safe, while also trying to find hidden meanings in one conversation between friends.
Forest Grove is developed by Miga Games, with Blowfish Studios handling the publishing duties. It aims to deliver a complex puzzle that allows players to gather evidence, think through situations, and develop their own theories.
The story is centered around the disappearance of Zooey Kunstimatigaard. She is the daughter of a tech billionaire, which means an entirely new untested concept called the Nanodeck is activated to find her. The Remote Forensic Bureau will use it to create a replica of the family’s house, allowing a remote investigator to try and find the girl.
This means players will move around a series of spaces, looking for clues, trying to piece together what happened. Everything is seen from a first-person perspective. Both physical and digital evidence gets logged on a tablet and can be reviewed. Special camera bots can be hacked to re-create scenes. The family and their associates have plenty of secrets.
The interesting twist of Forest Grove is a promise that the developer will not hold the player’s hand in any way, which means no hint system and the possibility of failing to make correct deductions.
Forest Grove opts for detail and complexity over breadth. The house, with its many rooms and secrets, looks pretty good if a little too classical for such a tech-heavy family. Music seems to only exist when it does in the game world, which is an interesting choice, and the voice work is pretty good.
Conclusion
The game’s success will depend on how well it can push the player to do the work unveil more of the story while keeping the mystery interesting. The idea of no handholding can also be frustrating or rewarding. A lot depends on implementation, and I am eager to see what Forest Grove has to offer when it arrives later in 2022.
Preview code provided by the publisher.
