Terraria, Stardew Valley and Don't Starve - all these games are priced below 15€, while this game costs 20€ on launch. Keep that in mind while reading this review.

Let me start by saying that I really appreciate HopFrog's effort and time that he put into his passion project that we now know as Forager, it was long three years of development and the game finally sees the light of day. It's always exciting to see a new game made by a single independent developer, this in itself is a big accomplishment. That said, the game is far from finished and should belong in the early access category with a much lower price tag.

Technical issues:
- Broken achievements. "Tool collector" achievement is triggered before a player upgrades every tool. "Waterproof" achievement is absolutelly broken. If you thought Dark Souls games are hard, think again. You might have to porposely glitch the game to get this achievement and it will require a lot of patience. Guide here: https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1720900376
- No option to disable screen shake. Best-case scenario you end your game session with a headache, worst-case scenario on the floor having a seizure.
- No option to zoom out. I honestly have no idea why the game screen is zoomed in so much by default and why there's no option to change it. I'm no developer, but CTRL+mousewheel shortcut doesn't seem to me to be very difficult to implement into a game.
- No quick heal/eat option. The menuing in this game is bad as it is, please give us something to work with.
- No map. I guess the developer went the realistic route.
- Sound settings might as well not exist. You'll have to use your sound mixer to control the volume of the game.
- Poor inventory management system. No option to move or split items in the inventory or the toolbar. Becomes mildly inconvenient in the midgame, when you can't split your resources to sell one half and use the other.
- Invisible mouse cursor. Seriously, where is it? Should be an option to use your default computer mouse cursor in-game, it's not fancy, but at least it gets the job done.
- Very poorly coded object hitbox. You will start to think this game wants to fight you.
- Droid AI constantly obstructs object hitboxes. This game definitely wants to fight you. You're essentially shooting yourself in the foot by progressing through the game, might as well avoid drones altogether.
- Item feed obstructs 1/5th of the whole game screen. Sure, take it. It's not like I need to see what's happening on the right side of the screen or anything.

QOL issues:
- Pulsating indicator of selected object or item. This game really favours style over function.
- No building description.
- No gear desciption in the toolbar.
- No stats on items or your character.
- No option to fast-forward time. We all know that this game is mostly an idle game, the option should be there.
- Building and destroying mechanics are wonky and inefficient.
- Electric cubes involved in puzzle solving are very poorly coded.

Overall issues:
- There's absolutely no challenge in the game whatsoever. The only challenge in the endgame is to be able to die.
- The game tries to do many things at once rather than doing one thing well.
- Dungeons are short, dull and unrewarding.
- Combat system feels cheap and shallow.
- Item and gear variety is laughable.
- Power creep is way too fast and unbalanced. You will be constantly asking yourself "Am I cheating or is this an intended way to play the game?"
- No meaningful end goal. You know something is wrong if your game's end goal is to cover the whole map with dirt. It's really a shame. Even some other good idle games have ascension systems in place for a player to have a sense of some sort of end goal.

Forager is objectively a bad game. In a clear conscience I cannot recommend this game at this stage and at this price. Hopefully, it can become a game that's worthwhile in the future, but for now, don't waste your money, especially when there's so many great games at lower prices on the market.



EDIT:

Thank you everyone for your feedback, I'd like to adress a few things. Yes, the price of the game did influence my overall opinion of the game, as it should. This review was meant to magnify the game's flaws and I did focus on the negative on purpose. 90% of the reviews here do a great job at explaining what the game does well. I did focus on the flaws, because I honestly want the game to suceed and become the game it claims to be. I did overexadurate a few of the issues, mainly for a comedic purpose. Many of you asked me to share what I enjoyed about the game. Well, let me compare this game to a bad movie for a brief moment. Let's say that you are watching a movie and you're really enjoying it. You like the plot, the dialog, the characters, the soundtrack, everything seems to be right up your alley. But after a while, you approach the ending of the movie, and it just doesn't make any sense. The plot takes a nonsensical twist, the actors break their character they've been building the whole time, the music does not match the emotion meant to be portrayed, and the whole universe of the movie collapses before your eyes. You just have this weird feeling that the ending of the movie was rushed and rushed so bad it ruined the whole experience. That was the feeling I got after my first 10 hours of gameplay. I felt that this game had so much potential to be more than it is and maybe it still has. After I unofficially beat the game, I tried to analyse what makes Forager a bad game of its genre and where it could be vastly improved. I'm relieved to know that HopFrog does listen to his playerbase and takes our concerns seriously. I'm informed that a few of the issues listed above in the review are being worked on as we speak. I really wish the best for the game and I hope that one day I'll be able to experience it in a different light. I might update the review in the future.

Terraria, Stardew Valley and Don't Starve - all these games are priced below 15€, while this game costs 20€ on launch. Keep that in mind while reading this review. Let me start by saying that I really appreciate HopFrog's effort and time that he put into his passion project that we now know as Forager, it was long three years of development and the game finally sees the light of day. It's always exciting to see a new game made by a single independent developer, this in itself is a big accomplishment. That said, the game is far from finished and should belong in the early access category with a much lower price tag. Technical issues: - Broken achievements. "Tool collector" achievement is triggered before a player upgrades every tool. "Waterproof" achievement is absolutelly broken. If you thought Dark Souls games are hard, think again. You might have to porposely glitch the game to get this achievement and it will require a lot of patience. Guide here: https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1720900376 - No option to disable screen shake. Best-case scenario you end your game session with a headache, worst-case scenario on the floor having a seizure. - No option to zoom out. I honestly have no idea why the game screen is zoomed in so much by default and why there's no option to change it. I'm no developer, but CTRL+mousewheel shortcut doesn't seem to me to be very difficult to implement into a game. - No quick heal/eat option. The menuing in this game is bad as it is, please give us something to work with. - No map. I guess the developer went the realistic route. - Sound settings might as well not exist. You'll have to use your sound mixer to control the volume of the game. - Poor inventory management system. No option to move or split items in the inventory or the toolbar. Becomes mildly inconvenient in the midgame, when you can't split your resources to sell one half and use the other. - Invisible mouse cursor. Seriously, where is it? Should be an option to use your default computer mouse cursor in-game, it's not fancy, but at least it gets the job done. - Very poorly coded object hitbox. You will start to think this game wants to fight you. - Droid AI constantly obstructs object hitboxes. This game definitely wants to fight you. You're essentially shooting yourself in the foot by progressing through the game, might as well avoid drones altogether. - Item feed obstructs 1/5th of the whole game screen. Sure, take it. It's not like I need to see what's happening on the right side of the screen or anything. QOL issues: - Pulsating indicator of selected object or item. This game really favours style over function. - No building description. - No gear desciption in the toolbar. - No stats on items or your character. - No option to fast-forward time. We all know that this game is mostly an idle game, the option should be there. - Building and destroying mechanics are wonky and inefficient. - Electric cubes involved in puzzle solving are very poorly coded. Overall issues: - There's absolutely no challenge in the game whatsoever. The only challenge in the endgame is to be able to die. - The game tries to do many things at once rather than doing one thing well. - Dungeons are short, dull and unrewarding. - Combat system feels cheap and shallow. - Item and gear variety is laughable. - Power creep is way too fast and unbalanced. You will be constantly asking yourself "Am I cheating or is this an intended way to play the game?" - No meaningful end goal. You know something is wrong if your game's end goal is to cover the whole map with dirt. It's really a shame. Even some other good idle games have ascension systems in place for a player to have a sense of some sort of end goal. Forager is objectively a bad game. In a clear conscience I cannot recommend this game at this stage and at this price. Hopefully, it can become a game that's worthwhile in the future, but for now, don't waste your money, especially when there's so many great games at lower prices on the market. EDIT: Thank you everyone for your feedback, I'd like to adress a few things. Yes, the price of the game did influence my overall opinion of the game, as it should. This review was meant to magnify the game's flaws and I did focus on the negative on purpose. 90% of the reviews here do a great job at explaining what the game does well. I did focus on the flaws, because I honestly want the game to suceed and become the game it claims to be. I did overexadurate a few of the issues, mainly for a comedic purpose. Many of you asked me to share what I enjoyed about the game. Well, let me compare this game to a bad movie for a brief moment. Let's say that you are watching a movie and you're really enjoying it. You like the plot, the dialog, the characters, the soundtrack, everything seems to be right up your alley. But after a while, you approach the ending of the movie, and it just doesn't make any sense. The plot takes a nonsensical twist, the actors break their character they've been building the whole time, the music does not match the emotion meant to be portrayed, and the whole universe of the movie collapses before your eyes. You just have this weird feeling that the ending of the movie was rushed and rushed so bad it ruined the whole experience. That was the feeling I got after my first 10 hours of gameplay. I felt that this game had so much potential to be more than it is and maybe it still has. After I unofficially beat the game, I tried to analyse what makes Forager a bad game of its genre and where it could be vastly improved. I'm relieved to know that HopFrog does listen to his playerbase and takes our concerns seriously. I'm informed that a few of the issues listed above in the review are being worked on as we speak. I really wish the best for the game and I hope that one day I'll be able to experience it in a different light. I might update the review in the future.