Do I Need to Play The Forest Before Sons of the Forest?

Sons of the Forest is the highly anticipated sequel to Endnight Games’ 2014 survival horror crafting title The Forest, boasting plenty of classic combat against a woods full of humanoid mutants and fleshy monstrosities. There is a lot from the first game that returns in the sequel, from the game’s intricate crafting systems and the opportunity to work with friends building a base of operations. There are also a number of new weapons from shotguns to a shock stick, as well as some impressively upgraded graphics. But will series newcomers need to play The Forest before the sequel Sons of the Forest for the game to make sense?

It Doesn’t Seem Necessary for Gamers to Play The Forest Before Sons of the Forest

Sons of the Forest has a new protagonist and a new plot, and the story does not appear connected to the previous game.

The first entry in this series does have an overarching story of a lone survivor of a plane crash searching through a vast terrain of trees, mountains, and a particularly deep cave system to locate his lost child, Timmy. But, in many ways, this overarching story took somewhat of a backseat to the game’s core mechanics of building walls and traps while making sure you have enough food, water, and weaponry to travel to varying points of interest across the map.

For the most part, these trips don’t contain integral cutscenes or an intense script with fully realized characters. Instead, the plot is dripped to the players through finding drawings from Timmy, short journal entries with cryptic information, and other environmental storytelling devices. Those who fully complete The Forest will uncover the full lore of why all those mutants are here, as well as Timmy’s role in a cult of resurrection.

Sons of the Forest is likely to cover any backstory from the first game, or, based on the two different endings available in the original The Forest, simply starts in a completely different timeline. 

For those still unsure if they should tackle The Forest first, from personal experience, the best moments of my playthrough were when I was playing with a party of four friends, creating cool tree houses or beachside encampments, all while exploring caves or going hunting together, creating our own adventure. Also, if you plan to play the multiplayer route (as it is one of the game’s best features), many of the story beats are more muted in the group play experience, meaning if you play through The Forest with friends, you likely won’t be getting as much of the story in the first place.

Plus, while The Forest was still plenty of fun to explore with friends or alone, the game has some dated framerate and loading problems on console, so if you’re more excited to just get into a scary adventure with friends in the woods, starting with Sons of the Forest seems like the better option. 

And that’s why we think you don’t need to play The Forest before playing Sons of the Forest.