Sons of the Forest isn't just a bigger sequel: "Everything is more detailed this time"

Sons of the Forest promises to be a sequel that's simultaneously bigger and more detailed than its predecessor in every conceivable way. 

As developer Endnight Games told GamesRadar+ in our Big in 2023 showcase for Sons of the Forest, "in just scale, the world is around 4x the size of The Forest." But perhaps more impressively, the devs maintain that "everything is more detailed this time."

"With more plant and tree variety, more log and stump types, and visually when you craft items, for example, a Molotov Cocktail, you actually see the player take some cloth and shove it into a bottle of vodka," the Endnight team explained. "When you place a log on a wall or cut a floor apart you see the player actually do it. We wanted this to feel like the ultimate camping simulator meets a terrifying horror survival game."

We've seen some of these details in the snippets of gameplay footage Endnight has put over the past few weeks and months. It really is impressive how granular the building gets, for example, right down to individual logs splitting right at the point where you swing your axe and then sliding off in pieces as you push them out of the way to shape your domain. "Ultimate camping simulator meets terrifying horror survival game" takes the words right out of my mouth. 

Another fascinating innovation in Sons of the Forest has to do with its newly added companions, who you can enlist to help maintain your camp and, more importantly, gather resources while you focus on more pressing matters, like not being killed by cannibals. You start the game with one such companion: Calvin, a bodyguard with a can-do attitude and just enough plane crash head trauma to keep him from questioning why he must punch trees for hours on end. 

Big in 2023 is your guide to the most anticipated games of the year, complete with exclusive interviews, hands-on impressions, and editorial insight.