The Endless Forest

The Good
Great new kind of game.

Lots of little things to explore and do.

Clever game design, by forcing players to use deer body language to communicate.

Artistic concept and design, graphics and landscapes/locations are beautiful. Music and sound effects are good too.

If your into 'non-games' this will be your cup of tea. This is also a non-violent game with no talking/chatting so its perfect for all ages.

Magic system makes socializing with other deer more fun.

Frequent events with the 'twin gods' are always interesting.

The Bad
Not for everyone. May get boring for some real fast.

No quests, goals, getting stronger, or competition, and no written language. lol

Still on-going/in-development, so it has plenty it can improve on.

If you were looking for something different you probably wont enjoy this game.

The Bottom Line
Since no one has reviewed this, I'll do my best. This is a LONG review, forgive me, but I think it might help a some of you understand what kind of game this is.

The Endless Forest is a virtual place where you are a Stag (a male deer), and you play with and interact with other players (also deers). This is an always developing game and on-going project, as part of an artistic social experiment game, and has been going strong now for a few years. Currently in phase two, with the next phase in development. The game can run as a normal program, or even as a peaceful screensaver.

Unlike most online games, Endless Forest involves no leveling, no combat, and no quests. The game is not based on the standard goals and rules of most other multiplayer games, in fact its as far from that as possible. Some wouldn't even call this a game, but thats because they were looking for something else. This is a non-violent, open-ended, and 'free-goal' kind of game. If your into 'non-games' this will be your cup of tea. I'll say right now, if your looking for an online game, where you have set goals and quests, where you can become stronger, and compete with or against other players, try a different game. Endless Forest is more of a social experiment game, than anything else, a 'non-game' if you will. It's a very unique and different experience than anything out there.

In this game, you play as a deer... and just like a deer, you are unable to speak/type written words. This is what I meant by a unique experience, or at least part of what I meant. You see, in order to communicate what you want from your fellow deers (other players) you have to use deer body language. This consists of head movements, different stances, bowing, vocal roars, even dancing (ok maybe not true deer body language, but close), and there is lots of others emotes, and more will be added with time as the game develops. So for a simple example of how to use this body language, maybe if you want to get a mask, you could meet another deer, play with him for a little while, and try to get him to follow you to a mushroom on a tree, then make one of the larger emote movements at that tree, hopping he'll realize what you want, and with that process, you can both give each other what you want, hopefully... (This all refers to spells, and I'll get to more of that in a bit.) And you'll also need to figure out what other deer are trying to get you to do.

Starting off, once you download the game, you can start playing immediately, as an anonymous guest character. In this mode though, you are limited, and cannot experience the game's more advanced features... So it is suggested that you register a name for your deer (free) so that you can do as much as the game offers. Registering gives your deer a unique symbol between his antlers that identifies your deer, and also gives your deer the ability to give and receive magic spells. So once you log in, your dropped into this 'Endless Forest', so named because you can run in 1 direction forever. (Although it does loop back on itself.) Without instruction, or given goals, this can be a little overwhelming, but your here to explore and experiment, so its best to start walking, and see what you find. After a short time, your bound to find other deer, or hear them anyway, as other players that sense your near will make a roaring call, to which you can respond to if you like. The sound in game is directional, so you should be able to tell where the calls are coming from. Rather than telling you what to do, I'll let you figure out what to do with other deer... Thats part of the fun of it.

The locations in Endless Forest, at least for now, are a little limited, you have 4 or 5 major places, a lake, a big old tree, the ruins and the twin gods (representing the 2 creators of this game). None of these places are that huge, but for now they do just fine. Between all locations are trees and forests, and other stuff you'll find uses for later. ;) As I said before, this is an on-going project, in a constant state of development, so locations are bound to expand, and new locations are already in planning to be added soon. Of course, as the size of the landscape stands right now, it does just fine. But it would be so much better, if the locations were a little bigger, farther apart, and if there was more of them in general.

There is also magic in the Endless Forest, although limited, most can be used for changing antlers, masks, and new coat designs... Some magic is even able to change your shape into other creatures! The hard part of all this magic stuff is... most of it cannot be used on yourself. This means you'll have to learn to get what you want from other deer, forcing you to be social and actually learn how to act as a deer. You'll have to figure out what magic does what and where to find it, except I will tell you that tree mushrooms/fungus can give masks. As with everything else in this game, magics are still under development and more will be added with time.

Besides being a deer, trying to communicate with other deer, using magic and figuring out the world and exploring... there isn't much more to it right now. For some, this will be enough, but for others you make get bored fast. The game does have 'events' caused by the Twin Gods. Basically this means the game creators/admins decided to have an event, and they inhabit the Twin God statues, float around... and make an unlimited amount of stuff happen to the world! And believe me, they can do and make anything happen in this world, If your lucky enough to be online when they do an event, you will see everything from flowers growing, to fences suddenly appearing, to lightning, rainbows, snow and all kinds of other stuff.

So anyway, for the future of this game, they plan in a future phase to add 'Fawns' (a young deer). This is already in the beta testing version of the game... but in the future true release of the next phase, they will be playable deers, and possibly in the future, part of your own deer's life cycle. Aging is planned, as when you start, you'll be a fawn, and over the course of a real life year, your deer will grow up. At this point this is all just concept, at least publicly... But it certainly makes for an interesting idea of the future of this game.

Is the Endless Forest for everyone? no. If you want a heavy screensaver this may be for you. And if you want to run around in a forest, and act like a deer, this is for you. You can find a lot to do, in such a simple game, or you could be bored and want to play something else. That being said, if your willing to see this game for what it is, and give it a chance, it can be a great fun experience... And if you get involved in the forum community it can become even better! You may even have something useful to suggest they add to a future version of the game, you never know, they are always open to suggestions.

If I had to rate this game, I'd give it a 7.5 out of 10, but its still in development, so the future versions may be worth even a higher rating. On its own, its quite amazing, but there is still room for great improvement... And I personally hope they keep improving it, and I want to be there to see it happen!

Don't let doubts keep you from trying this, even if it sounds a little dull, you may find something you weren't expecting! And if you try it, then ^_~ See you in the Endless Forest!