Forspoken review: 2023’s unlikely (and unlikeable) heroes

Neither Forspoken nor its main character make a good first impression. Without spoiling, the latter spends the first several hours of the game complaining about her life’s direction, both in New York and in the fantasy world where she’s transported. Having since finished the game, I can say she only ever gets marginally better — and not so much that it outweighs that ruinous first meeting.

The combat and traversal are fun, if not innovative. That might be just enough to elevate the game from the pits to which its characters, open world and color palette consign it. But so far it’s a mostly empty, unremarkable action-adventure game with a few decent features and pretty much nothing else to call its own.