Sons of the Forest is easy to recommend and easy to bounce off, often for the same reason: it trusts you completely. It hands you an axe, a GPS and a deaf soldier, and never tells you what to do next. If that sounds exciting, it is one of the best survival games on PC. If it sounds stressful, the rest of this review explains where the friction is and how much of it you can turn down.
Should you buy it? The short answer
| If you are... | Verdict | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A survival fan who loves building | Buy | The free log building is the best in the genre, and the base you build is what you are defending at night |
| Looking for a co-op game for a group | Buy | Up to 8 players share one world and one base, and the horror turns into chaotic fun with friends |
| A solo player who likes tension | Buy | Kelvin does the hauling and Virginia can fight, so the game is built to be played alone |
| A fan of The Forest | Buy | Same studio, same idea, better at almost everything: building, enemy variety, companions, structure |
| Someone who wants a guided story | Wait for a sale or skip | There is no quest log; the plot is in notes, laptops and a few cutscenes, and it moves fast at the end |
| Sensitive to gore or claustrophobia | Skip, or play on Peaceful | The caves are dark and cramped, the mutants are body horror, and Steam lists gore and occasional nudity |
| A Steam Deck or low-end PC player | Check first | Windows only, and Valve rates it Unsupported on Steam Deck because of graphics performance |
Our score is 8.7 out of 10. The building, the atmosphere and the companion AI pull it up; the onboarding, the story pacing and the end of content updates hold it back.
What kind of game is it?
You are part of a team sent to find a missing billionaire family on a remote island. The helicopter goes down, and from then on you are surviving: chopping trees, building shelter, drying meat, and dealing with tribes of cannibals who watch you from the treeline. The real progress happens underground, where caves hold tools like the Rope Gun, the Rebreather and the Shovel, and buried bunkers hold keycards that open the way to the ending.
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Developer / publisher | Endnight Games / Newnight |
| Release | Early access February 23, 2023; full release (1.0) February 22, 2024 |
| Platform | PC (Windows) only. Full controller support |
| Players | Single-player, or online co-op for up to 8 players; dedicated servers available |
| Game modes | Normal and harder presets including Hard Survival, Peaceful (no enemies), and Custom; creative mode unlocks after you finish the story |
| Languages | Interface and subtitles in 16 languages including Japanese, Korean, Chinese and Russian; full voice audio in English only |
| Price | Mid-priced, and heavily discounted in regular Steam sales; no microtransactions |
| Steam Deck | Unsupported per Valve's rating (graphics performance) |
Where it stands now: 1.0, Patch 16, and after
The 1.0 release was a large update, not a relabel. Its patch notes list an alternate ending you choose at the end, five new cutscenes, two new mutants (Legsy and Holey), creative mode, 14 new mini caves and cellars, a cave that opens after the ending, three new traps, and custom settings for search party frequency and building resistance. Golden Armor was renamed Ancient Armor, which is why older guides use the old name.
Patch 16 on January 15, 2025 added three buildable rafts, a mooring post, better aiming for bows and the shotgun, and drawn defensive walls that Kelvin finishes for you, plus a long list of fixes. Since then the Steam news feed shows only hotfixes and a small Unity security update in October 2025. There is no DLC and no announced roadmap, so buy it for what it is now.
The good and the bad
Pros
- +Free log building where you place, cut and split every log yourself
- +Kelvin takes written orders and does the hauling
- +Every enemy has a readable weakness
- +Caves and bunkers give the island a clear progression chain
- +Co-op for up to 8 players, with dedicated servers
- +Custom settings let you set the threat level
Cons
- −Almost no onboarding, and no quest log
- −Fragmented story with a rushed final stretch
- −Bugs in big builds and multiplayer; content updates have stopped
- −Dark caves, gore and body horror
- −Windows only, Unsupported on Steam Deck
Building is the reason to buy it
Beyond the guide book's blueprints, you can free-build: plant a log, stack the next, cut quarters to level a floor on a slope, or split planks for a door. It feels physical in a way menu building never does, and the defense has one rule worth learning: cannibals climb stacked log walls but not vertical logs with sharpened tops. Our Base Building guide covers where to build and which walls hold.
Kelvin turns solo survival from chores into planning
Kelvin is deaf after the crash, so you write orders on a notepad: gather logs, sticks or rocks, build or repair, clear trees, stay, follow, reset traps, fill drying racks. He never fights, and enemies cannot kill him, though you can. Virginia, the three-armed woman in the forest, cannot be ordered, but once she trusts you she fights with a pistol and a shotgun that use none of your ammo. Few survival games give a solo player this much help.
Combat rewards reading enemies, not reflexes
Each enemy has a counter: a ranged headshot knocks a Heavy onto his back, leg hits drop Fingers, explosives clear mutant groups, and the Cross sets Demons on fire. Once you know them, fights go from panic to puzzle. Our Combat guide lists every enemy and its counter.
The island has a shape
There is no quest log, but there is a chain: the Rebreather and Rope Gun open the Shovel Cave, the Shovel digs open the first bunker, and keycards open the rest, while laptops add locations to your GPS. Once it clicks, the island feels designed rather than random.
The bad, with evidence
- Onboarding is close to nothing. GPS markers come with no explanation, and nothing says the Shovel Cave needs both the Rope Gun and the Rebreather. Our Beginner Guide exists mostly to fix this.
- Bugs cluster where the systems are most complex. The 1.0 and Patch 16 notes are full of fixes for freeform structures not saving their links, structures missing for clients, and AI getting stuck.
- Content updates have stopped. Nothing has been added since Patch 16.
- Windows only, and demanding. The recommended spec is a GTX 1080 Ti or RX 5700 XT with 16 GB of RAM.
Solo vs co-op
| Solo | Co-op (2 to 8 players) | |
|---|---|---|
| Workload | Kelvin hauls logs and finishes structures; you plan | Split roles: builders, hunters, cave runners |
| Horror | Strongest. Caves alone are genuinely tense | Much lighter; fear turns into laughter |
| Story | Fully playable, and the best way to follow the notes | Shared, but easy to lose track of if others read the notes |
| Difficulty | Harder. You are the only one who can fight | Easier to survive fights; mutant health scales with the number of players |
| Bugs | Fewest | More sync glitches in large shared bases |
| Best for | Players who want atmosphere and a slower pace | Groups who want a base-building project with friends |
If you are on the fence because of the horror, co-op is the easiest dial. The game does not change, but a cave run with three friends feels nothing like the same cave alone with a flashlight.
How it compares with The Forest, Green Hell and Valheim
| Game | What it does best | Where Sons of the Forest is different |
|---|---|---|
| The Forest (2018) | The original island horror: cannibals, caves, a search for your son | Sons has companions, free log building, more enemy types and a clearer cave chain. The Forest is cheaper and also on PS4 |
| Green Hell (2019) | Realistic Amazon survival: wound inspection, mental health, a long story campaign; co-op for up to 4 | Green Hell's survival is harsher and more medical, and its story is more directed. Sons is more about building and fighting |
| Valheim | Viking survival for 1 to 10 players, progression boss by boss through biomes, procedurally generated worlds | Valheim is far less scary and has clearer goals. Sons has a hand-made island and much darker horror |
In short: if you liked The Forest, Sons of the Forest is the better game. If you want survival as a medical simulation with a story, Green Hell. If you want a long co-op project without the horror, Valheim; our Valheim review covers it.
Common complaints, and what is really behind them
"The story makes no sense"
The story is told through notes, laptops and a few cutscenes, and it never stops to explain itself. 1.0 added and reworked many story items, but the structure is the same: long stretches of survival, then a quick final stretch through the deepest bunkers and caves, ending in a choice between leaving the island and staying. Players who read the notes find a coherent plot; those who skip them feel lost. If you want the route without heavy spoilers, see our Story Progression guide.
"It is buggy"
Less than it was. Much of the reputation comes from early access, and 1.0 and Patch 16 fixed a lot. What remains is concentrated in complex freeform builds and multiplayer sync, so save often and expect the odd AI moment.
"It is too scary"
The surface is tense; the caves are scary. If that is too much, you have real options:
-
1
Peaceful mode
No enemies at all. You lose the combat but keep the building, survival and story exploration.
-
2
Custom game
Set enemy aggression, damage and search party frequency to low, or turn enemies off entirely.
-
3
Co-op
The same caves with friends are far less frightening.
-
4
Play the surface first
Build a base and gear up before heading underground; a good weapon and armor change how the caves feel.
"I do not know what to do"
The most justified complaint. The fix is knowing the tool chain (Rebreather, Rope Gun, Shovel, keycards); after that, the game opens up.
Where to start
New players should read the Beginner Guide for the first day and the cave order, then the Base Building guide before the first raid. If cannibals and mutants keep killing you, the Combat guide has every enemy and its counter, and the Story Progression guide covers the route to the ending.
★Honest Take: the best island in survival games, with almost no signposts
Sons of the Forest is at its best in the quiet hours: Kelvin hauling logs, a wall going up, a cannibal watching from the trees and deciding not to attack yet. No other survival game makes building feel this physical, and the companion AI is a genuine step forward for solo play. Its flaws are just as clear. It explains almost nothing, it tells its story in fragments that rush at the end, and since Patch 16 it has been finished rather than growing. None of that stops it from being an easy recommendation for anyone who likes survival building and can live with gore and dark caves. Go in knowing the tool chain, take a friend if the caves scare you, and it will give you dozens of good hours.
