The Forest has Left Early Access

After four years in Early Access, survival horror game The Forest has formally launched as version 1.0. Alongside the update, developers End Night Games released a statement detailing the changes, reminiscing over the development years, and announcing future plans.

The v1.0 update adds new items, such as a craftable warm suit and an alternate ending. The end game, as well as the caves, have been heavily re-worked. End Night promises significant improvements from what it used to be. They also spoke about their future plans for the game.

"There is a lot we still want to do, and plan on heavily supporting the game moving forward. Some other big items we hope to implement soon are proper cheat controls in multiplayer and fixes to the issues that will likely come up in this release."

They also announced an upcoming VR mode. They state that the VR version of The Forest will be available for free to game owners on May 22. It will contain the entire game, with the hud moved to a smartwatch, a 3D inventory, and motion control support. We recently published an editorial about how VR changes the way horror games affect us.

The full list of patch notes can be found on their website. Those running a dedicated server will need to update and restart to be compatible.