Introduction
A new game has released today on October 13th, 2020, Foregone. In this new game, you play as an arbiter, a super-soldier. The art style is very similar to Dead Cells and anyone who has played the game will recognize it immediately.
This game is nothing like Dead Cells, whereas Dead Cells is a rogue-like game where you restart at the beginning of the game every time you die in Foregone you will be teleported back to your main base called the Outpost.
When you die you will lose all your skill orbs and gold, you will need to find your way back to your body to get your skills orbs and gold back.
You will find many different items throughout the game to equip that will alter your playstyle, there are also multiple tiers of equipment to find. I will go more into detail in the gameplay section of this review. As a super-soldier you are the only person that can save the world, the game runs super smoothly and the movements are fluid. Foregone is a roleplaying game but without leveling up. To get stronger you will find more powerful items the further that you get into the game, there is also a new game+ where the items get even stronger but beware the enemies will also grow stronger! The story and gameplay are very linear but there are a lot of secrets to be found, you can look up my Foregone video where I will show you all the secrets in the game!
What did I think of Foregone before playing?
The first thing that I thought when I saw Foregone was that it looked a lot like Dead Cells, this gave me an instant attraction to check out the game.
I quickly learned that game was very different from Dead Cells, it seemed like a what-if Dead Cells was a story-driven game.
I quickly sent an e-mail to the developers that I was very interested in reviewing their game. There is also voice acting in the game.
I like 2D graphics especially when executed perfectly, this created a fluid looking battle in the footage that I saw.
You have two weapons that you carry with you, a ranged weapon and a melee weapon. You can alternate between your weapons when you are performing a combo.
For everyone there is a different weapon as I noticed they all fight differently, it gives you a lot of incentive to try out different weapons.
I was really excited to start playing this game, I quickly installed the game when I received the code. Little did I know that I would end up completing the whole game five times.
I rate Foregone before playing with an 8.7.
The game looks very attractive and it draws you in with its amazing graphics, it might look similar to Dead Cells but the game is certainly not a rip-off or a clone.
You can clearly see this in the footage before playing, When I received the key I actually did a little happy dance. Anyone that loves games like this will be very excited to take Foregone for a test drive.
Story
You play as a super soldier, called an arbiter. You are from a country called Calagan and they are the most advanced state in this world. A rival state attacks Calagan and to protect themselves Calagan creates the arbiters. One of the failed projects creates the harrow, a deadly virus that mutates people and dead beings. You are one of the strongest arbiters and you are sent out into the world to stop the failed projects including the project that creates the harrow. It seems your character might know more than you think.
Will you be able to stop the harrow and kill all the failed projects? Or will you choose another fate?
I rate the story of Foregone with an 8.0
The story is something that of course is used more often but what set it apart in my eyes was the huge plot twist. Now you know there is a plot twist, are you interested yet in what the plot twist is?
I did like that your character is used in the story, this is a very important thing in gaming but it is something that is sometimes overlooked by developers.
Gameplay
The gameplay is very simple but also deep in Foregone, you will have three major passive skill trees to choose from. To really start with one skill tree, you will need to find a catalyst, these can be found when you are exploring the world. One of the skill trees offers you to either set explosive charges or tether the enemy to a single spot. Breaking the tether would cause the enemy insane damage. Your health points and damage per second depending on your skills and the equipment that you are carrying. To learn new skills, you will need to defeat enemies and when they are defeated, they will drop skill orbs for you to use. When you have acquired the catalyst for upgrading your passive skill tree you will also have the ability to refund it with gold to test out the other skill trees. You can build your character however you see fit, it is fun to make a build that has great synergy with your equipment. You will be able to find loads of active skills in the world, you can have two active skills at any given time. Now comes the fun part, all these active skills also have skill trees and they also require a catalyst. You can choose two paths with each active skill but don’t worry you can always refund your catalyst. In the world you will find many secrets, they are very important in this game as some of the secrets contain upgrades for your active skills. If you have trouble finding them all then you can look at my video.
The gameplay itself is very fluid and fast-paced but the difficulty depends on your skill in these kinds of games but some of the enemies can deal high damage. This game was a breeze for me once I learned the ropes but I had a lot of fun with Foregone. You will be able to find many items in the world, I expect that in the future this game will receive many updates that add new weapons, armor, and accessories. The game already has a lot to offer, I have tried out many of the weapons. They all fight different and use different animations, the daggers are faster and need to finish a combo for high damage. the falchion is a 2handed sword that is slow but offers a high damage output. There is also an odd weapon called the gun-chucks, these are nun-chucks that explode! You might also find some armor, this armor can have many effects to help you. The most useful one for me was when I got hit that leech activated. I used the leech skill tree so this worked wonders for my build!
You will also find emblems and rings, these will also provide useful bonuses for your character. A good idea is to combine your melee attacks with ranged attacks, ranged attacks use ammo but when you use melee attacks your ammo will regenerate.
When playing the game you will see many areas that you cannot reach yet, you will need to come back for most of the areas that will upgrade your active skills. You will gain new abilities when you defeat a failed project. There is a total of three abilities in the game that you will need to reach all the areas. The first one is gained by defeating Project Hera, after defeating Project Hera you will gain the ability to dash in the air. You can use this to reach new platforms that were not accessible at first. The second ability will be granted to you when you have defeated Project Demeter, this ability will allow you to ground pound. You will most likely have seen the ground shaking at some places. When you use the ground pound ability here you will reach a new area or secret. The last ability will be granted to you after you have defeated Project Poseidon, this ability will let you wall kick against walls. You can repeatedly wall kick against the same wall, this ability is needed for many hidden secrets!
Equipment tiers
In Foregone the equipment that you find will have different tiers, the further that you get into the game the better your equipment will be. You can also upgrade your equipment by using gold in the outpost, it depends on the tier with how much you can upgrade your equipment. If you do not want to use the equipment that you have found you can salvage the equipment for gold. All items can be found in these tiers.
White
This is the most basic equipment in Foregone, you will find these items in the beginning and they should be replaced as soon as possible. These don’t offer too many extra bonuses for your journey.
The white tier equipment can be upgraded one time at the outpost.
Blue
It won’t be long before you find some blue items in Foregone, these are a little bit better than the white tiered items. The bonuses on this tier are also very slim.
You can upgrade the blue tier twice at the outpost.
Purple
The purple items can be really useful if you find them early on in the game, these offer better bonuses than the blue and white tiers.
You can upgrade the purple tier three times at the outpost.
Yellow
The yellow tier items are very strong and they offer fairly good bonuses especially when found early on. It might be wise to equip these yellow tier items even if it is not the weapon that you prefer.
You can upgrade the yellow tier four times at the outpost.
Red
The highest tier in the game, you will usually find this near the end of the game and in new game+. These are quite rare early on and they offer very strong bonuses.
Getting a red tier item that upgrades the same skills as that you use will be extremely useful.
You can upgrade the red tier five times at the outpost
Red+
This is the same as the other red tier but there is one big difference, these have gameplay altering bonuses! These extra buffs should not be taken lightly as they can take your character to a god-like status.
For example One of the ranged weapons can have the bonus to have infinite ammo when the overdrive skill is active. Combine this with an armor that gives you leech to restore your health when overdrive is active!
To find these rare items you would need to play new game+, they can be found in new game+ the most but they are still rare.
You can upgrade the red+ tier five times at the outpost.
I rate the gameplay of Foregone with a 9.3.
The gameplay is very addictive and you want to keep getting stronger, finding better loot is always fun. The game also features high replay value as you can keep trying out new weapons and skills. The game is still in early stages, I can see a bright future if there will be even more different kinds of weapons and skills. I am looking forward to more updates to replay the campaign once again. My wife liked the gameplay very much as well, she will be playing the game when after the launch!
Sound and Graphics
The graphics are great, the 2D sprites are fluid and they look polished. You can see the developers put effort into making the graphics and animations run smoothly. The layout for the inventory and skills is very simple and efficient.
The sound and sound effects fit very well with the game, I have no complaints whatsoever. The voice acting is done properly and adds extra depth to the game.
I rate the sound and graphics of Foregone with an 8.0
What did I think of Foregone after playing?
I have completed the campaign five times and invested almost thirty hours into the game, simply put I liked this game and played it to death.
All the secrets are hidden very well and I liked it very much that I had to return later to find new secrets and upgrades with my newly collected abilities.
Testing out the weapons and skills was also very fun, I liked the daggers and the spear the most! I disliked the falchion the most, the game is very fluid but the falchion was too slow for me.
I tried many skills but eventually, I ended up using Overdrive and Barrier the most, the laser beam is also fun! If you like experimenting with builds this game is perfect for you.
To me the game plays perfectly even though it is in early stages, I wonder what Foregone will become as time passes.
The boss fights are executed properly and you will need to learn their patterns to beat them, they were not simple pushovers.
I did not expect that the game would have new game+, this surprised me a lot and I was very pleased when I saw this option.
Foregone has exceeded all the expectations that I had before playing the game.
I rate Foregone after playing with a 9.2
Simply put, this is a masterpiece in the works and we all need to wait until the masterpiece is completed. Anyone who loved the Dead Cells art style will also love this game.
My personal rating
I really enjoyed my time with Foregone and I am not done yet, otherwise, I would not have completed the game this many times. I thought the secrets were hidden very well so I decided to make a video for the people that would like to go secret hunting!
I don’t have much more to tell you, I can only recommend that you buy this game to experience it for yourself.
My personal rating of Foregone is a 9.5
Pros and Cons
Pros
– Foregone has high replay value.
– The game has a very nice art style with fluid 2D animations.
– There are already multiple weapons and skills to try out with multiple different tiers. I would love to see a new higher tier in the future for new game++ though!
– The abilities that you gain are a very nice touch, these usually can lead you to new secrets.
– The combat is very enjoyable in Foregone, all enemies and bosses have a pattern that you can learn.
– You have multiple save slots to choose from, this is a nice extra feature.
– This game uses a female protagonist, I appreciate that a lot.
– There is an unexpected twist in the ending.
– The game is still in early stages, we will need to wait for the game to grow with many new shiny items or skills.
– I have found only one tiny bug.
Cons
– The secrets are in a weird order in most of the maps, this can lead to difficult situations when you are +looking for the last secret.
– The game is still in early stages, we will need to wait for the game to grow with many new shiny items or skills.
I would recommend this game to anyone that loves fast-paced 2D action-adventure games with role-playing elements.
The final rating is of Foregone is …drumroll…
8.6
Leave your thoughts about Foregone in the comments, you can also give your own rating to the game.
I hope you liked reading this review, I hope to see you in the next review!
