Study of Unusual: Forest of Secrets

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The Short of it: Currently I'd give this a neutral rating. It scared the hell out of me, raised my heartrate and gave me the gitters - so that is a plus for a horror game. But I spent a lot of time lost in the dark.
A quick pointer for anyone playing. Hold shift to move faster, and if you continue walking and press M at the same time for map, you can actually see which direction you are moving in. To the devs: If you make the map marker an arrow that points in the direction the player is facing, it could be a good tweak to the visual.
The main point I'd want to make is that I spent most of my gameplay sprinting (which actually is pretty slow) through a dark landscape with some trees, a few rocks and bushes, but didn't see much else. I turned my flashlight on and ran with it, and I think that attracted the monster, and I died having seen nothing. On my second try, I found a note right near the starting location and gave that a read, and then by chance noticed a campfire with a note there as well. But after that I headed east to the edge of the map, and then south west for 10 minutes, found nothing and honestly just got bored and wasn't willing to continue. I feel like if the map at least expressed buildings, or camps (are there buildings in the game? I didn't find one), the player would have a sense of what direction was worth trying to head to. I don't play a lot of horror games, so maybe some people like the feeling of hopelessness or something? The setting is quite frightining, but it gets unengaging if you walk for 10 mins in a straight line, looking side to side and see nothing but trees, in my opinion. The basis for a scary game is here, it just needs more content, and more things to see and explore.
I should also note that the English translation isn't bad, but it's not great either. It's mostly just grammatical oddities that makes some of the story within the notes hard to read because it doesn't flow like good English. Having someone that speaks English as a first, or proficient second language, would be a good idea as they could help iron out the translation to be better I would imagine.
I'd actually also suggest that the title of the game should be something like: "The Study of the Unusual: Forest of Secrets" or maybe just "Forest of Secrets: The Study of the Unusual" or even just "Forest of Secrets." Currently it's a bit of a mouthful (long), and isn't grammatically correct.
With some content updates, I would actually return to this game and give it another go. It really is frightening, so there is a workable experience here, it just needs more content and a improved way for the player to understand where they can go to avoid long walks in the dark nothingness of the current map. I had no idea where to go, so wasn't interested and gave up after getting lost in the nothingness of the map. I hope that helps! Keep adding to it =)

Steam User 0

Reviewed 10.2023

10/10 ... hearing your girlfriend scream "im stuck in the poopie hole" and turning around seeing her inside the hole in the outhouse made it worth it
Steam User 0

Reviewed 03.2023

Hunting for spooky secrets in the spooky woods with a creepy monster out to get you. I enjoyed every minute and recommend this game!
Steam User 3

Reviewed 08.2018

Check out my Steam Curator page, "Minorthreatt Gaming Reviews." I have the most organized and extensive genre lists on Steam! Be sure to "FOLLOW" for more of my recommendations:
The Short of it: Currently I'd give this a neutral rating. It scared the hell out of me, raised my heartrate and gave me the gitters - so that is a plus for a horror game. But I spent a lot of time lost in the dark.
A quick pointer for anyone playing. Hold shift to move faster, and if you continue walking and press M at the same time for map, you can actually see which direction you are moving in. To the devs: If you make the map marker an arrow that points in the direction the player is facing, it could be a good tweak to the visual.
The main point I'd want to make is that I spent most of my gameplay sprinting (which actually is pretty slow) through a dark landscape with some trees, a few rocks and bushes, but didn't see much else. I turned my flashlight on and ran with it, and I think that attracted the monster, and I died having seen nothing. On my second try, I found a note right near the starting location and gave that a read, and then by chance noticed a campfire with a note there as well. But after that I headed east to the edge of the map, and then south west for 10 minutes, found nothing and honestly just got bored and wasn't willing to continue. I feel like if the map at least expressed buildings, or camps (are there buildings in the game? I didn't find one), the player would have a sense of what direction was worth trying to head to. I don't play a lot of horror games, so maybe some people like the feeling of hopelessness or something? The setting is quite frightining, but it gets unengaging if you walk for 10 mins in a straight line, looking side to side and see nothing but trees, in my opinion. The basis for a scary game is here, it just needs more content, and more things to see and explore.
I should also note that the English translation isn't bad, but it's not great either. It's mostly just grammatical oddities that makes some of the story within the notes hard to read because it doesn't flow like good English. Having someone that speaks English as a first, or proficient second language, would be a good idea as they could help iron out the translation to be better I would imagine.
I'd actually also suggest that the title of the game should be something like: "The Study of the Unusual: Forest of Secrets" or maybe just "Forest of Secrets: The Study of the Unusual" or even just "Forest of Secrets." Currently it's a bit of a mouthful (long), and isn't grammatically correct.
With some content updates, I would actually return to this game and give it another go. It really is frightening, so there is a workable experience here, it just needs more content and a improved way for the player to understand where they can go to avoid long walks in the dark nothingness of the current map. I had no idea where to go, so wasn't interested and gave up after getting lost in the nothingness of the map. I hope that helps! Keep adding to it =)
Steam User 1

Reviewed 02.2020

3/2 would play never again

Study of Unusual: Forest of Secrets

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