Future Unfolding

I had Future Unfolding on my wish list for several years, eventually buying it, then not playing it for even longer. Now I finally played it, I can't remember why I ever wanted to buy it.

This is essentially Nethack: In A Forest (Except You Have No Weapons). You randomly walk around a randomly-generated maze that seems like it's outside except actually it's all little rooms surrounded by cliffs and doorways leading to other rooms. You get chased by monsters that one-shot kill you and send you back to the start of the room. Eventually you stumble upon the exit. And then you go to the next dungeon of little rooms-connected-by-doorways.

The game is ostensibly about running free in nature, but because the landscapes are all walled-in and claustrophobic, it never really captures the grandeur of actually being out in nature. There are some animals you can find and occasionally follow or manipulate to go to the next place, but it's hardly a puzzle game because everything is procgen so it's just an exercise in spamming the spacebar on anything that looks mildly different from the other million things to see if something useful happens. (Usually nothing happens.)

This kind of game could be meditative, I suppose, if you have the kind of personality that feels the need to visit every square inch of a minimap just for the pleasure of having it mapped out. But there's just not very much to find there. I agree with the reviewer who said you'll know after the first level if this is for you, because the second level, and the third, are exactly the same. Do not go in expecting a puzzle game, or something with a well-paced narrative arc. There might be a story here, but I doubt it after only being given a couple of lines of tedious poetry after an hour of "exploring" (read: randomly running around till the exit appeared). Not recommended.

I can see some potential here (or maybe I see aspects that were carefully placed so the game looks like it has potential), but my experience was just VERY disappointing at the end of the day:

- You start with no goal or indication of what to do, you just explore aimlessly, but the world is procedurely generated, so you end up just walking around A LOT, and you end up backtracking A LOT more than doing anything else.
- You can explore the map off the beaten path, and each world is HUGE! But exploring is not rewarding at all. You have to spend a lot of time just seeing more and more trees until you reach a point of interest.
- The random order at which stuff are thrown at you make the mechanics too obstruse. For example, you find the rabbit soon in the game and it can create a bush, but I only found out a use for the bush on the 2nd world (and each world takes a LONG time), and only knew of that use because I looked it up.
- There's no real story. Everything is just too vague. Sometimes you find a creature that will tell you random vague self-help messages totally out of context or order, and that's about it. Throughtout my whole experience, I saw no purpose in my explorations.
- The game calls itself an "action adventure". There's no real action. This is more a walking simulator.
- This game is INSANELY repetitive. You walk around A LOT (I can't stress this enough), only to find a procedurely generated obstacle you've probably faced before, with some little variants that don't feel different at all to be honest.
- You can interact with animals, and some of them wil lhelp you a bit, but barely. Enemies are either very easy to avoid or really annoying, depending on the amount they cram into a given area. Also, there are some plant interactions that made no sense at all to me, I still have no idea of what they do. Everything is very obscure and make little sense. There's no feeling of reward in trying stuff out.
- Since you spend most of your time running through woods, it REALLY sucks that (1) you have stamina for running and (2) bumping into the trees will slow you down. You're just making the game artificially longer.
- Deaths mean little to your progress, but they're cheap, and sometimes they force you to backtrack a LARGE area. For example, you take the wrong turn, you die, Use the wrong teleporter, you die.
- Whenever I finished covering an area on the map, and then I saw the size of the next and figured the world was even larger than I'd expected, I just felt annoyed "ugh, more ground to walk over", instead of "great, more interesting stuff to explore!", because there's nothing interesting to explore, seriously!

Basically, this "game" is really uninteresting, boring, and repetitive. I've played for 5 hours and it felt like 15, And I didn't even finish world 2, which was dragging way too long and felt like it was 3x as large as world 1.

There's no sugar-coating, Future Unfolding is just a plain experience that looks pretentious enough to make you think "oh, I think there's something here", but actually there's nothing. Nothing. Maybe the whole point of the message here is that "life is meaningless", in which case, "yeah, that's obvious, but I'd rather have fun while I'm at it".

Don't even bother!

I just played through this game. I don't think I can recommend it, though.

First, though, the game seems to have its speed tied to framerate, and the framerate is really variable on my computer (ranging from ~50fps to ~300fps when playing the game), so the character would sometimes be sluggish and sometimes zoom across the map. This, plus the saturated colours of the game, gave me motion sickness.

I have no clue what the story of the game is, other than perhaps a vague theme of "nature should be in balance".

Gameplay-wise, the game doesn't explain itself very well; there's little tutorial other than showing prompts for the controls at the very start. I feel like there's more to the game than what I managed to figure out.

The game claims to encourage exploration, but the forests are generally dense enough that trying to move through them is a chore. Yet you're required to do that when exploring, which poses the question "why are they so dense that they act as a deterrent?".

The deadliness of the wolves, snakes, and bees, especially given that I often found hordes of them placed right upon completion of a puzzle, felt like cheap deaths all around. The puzzles themselves weren't generally that deep either (though I'm not sure this is that much of a flaw). The game is procedurally generated, apparently, something I didn't realise until I got stuck and decided to restart the level.

If you can look past all the flaws, then what you have is a pretty cool exploration game, but its flaws are really dragging it down.

I'm going to go throw up now.

Honestly kinda torn with this game.

Future Unfolding is an odd game in that you'll see most people's experiences are positive, but the all of the negative reviews share the same problem; The game is excessively vague, and the gameplay is extremely repetitive. My main issue with Future Unfolding is that, like most Indie games, it relies on breaking away from the mould, but this also usually comes with a gimmick.

The gimmick here is that Future Unfolding, is a very predictable, and monotonous style of play, that requires you - ideally - to fully explore your surroundings to fill in your map, and then use certain mechanics to solve puzzles. As there are collectables and secrets hidden in the map, you will spend more time than you want to scouting around instead of accomplishing goals. The ambiguity and vague map layouts will have you finding trail after trail, and only when you reach the end you may realise you were following your main objective the entire way. For the completionist, this means you're going to be backtracking a lot to fill voids on your map. The visuals are unique but they lose their charm pretty quickly when you realise how empty the game actually is. Outside of key areas on the map, there's very little to find, and most areas feel very cut+paste with any real personality. Pair all of this on top of a sprint system that you can only enhance by finding special white flowers, expect the game to be drawn out a little.

The puzzles, whilst not too obtuse or demanding, focus around core mechanics that you have to discover yourself. Eventually they'll build up to be more complex, but the indeterminate story begs you to ask why you're even completing any of these puzzles. Pair this with some rather, punitive gameplay features, whilst I never felt overly 'pressured' I felt more frustrated when set back from being killed by a hostile creature, in which you can expect to die to them, a lot. Most of them have the ability to one shot, encouraging you to be increasingly agile in encounters, wherein upon death, you will lose everything you've gained, mainly, your sprint duration boosts.

Most people here speak of finding some, profound meaning behind the game, some greater purpose, something spiritually lifting or some kind of revelation. In my short experience with this game (I didn't finish it) I found hints of what could be some intellectually engaging commentary, but the presentation felt overly superficial and pretentious. This is where I found first impressions to be extremely crucial. The game, due to its flaws in game design, couldn't reel me in beyond the first two hours, especially when I noticed that I had only completed a third of the game by that point, and I had already grown immensely tired of the formula the game was enforcing onto me.

I'm usually pretty open and engaging to indie projects like this, but this was a game that really seemed to communicate to me, that the beauty here is only skin deep. Maybe there was something at the end of the tunnel, maybe there was some wisdom to be found amongst the spirit animals and winding mountain paths snaking through the pine forests, but I guess I'll never know, because for everything this game does right, namely the visuals, it fell short in every other aspect, and it couldn't give me anything to make me truly care to invest potentially 10+ hours into a game predominantly involving running nigh aimlessly around a map, just to have a sense of direction.

For an action/adventure game, this couldn't be any more of an overstatement. Action doesn't exist, and usually adventures come with some kind of motivation and/or purpose, neither of which you'll really find here.

Based on my experience, no more than a 4-5/10. Absolutely, positively, not anywhere remotely worth $30. Pick up on either extremely heavy discount, or wrap your head around some other games like Dear Esther or Gone Home, which whilst just as vague, are far more rewarding.

It's not an easy game to try and sell you on. You'll need to like exploration for the most part. Game play mostly involves searching through almost all the map (randomly generated) to find those key elements to progress. The game gives you next to no guiding information but for some reason figuring out the way forward through some trial and error worked pretty well.

Fair to say if you don't like it after the first or second level, it won't grow on you. The game play loop/levels are pretty repetitious and I could only play one or two levels at a time before quitting out. However I actually enjoyed booting it up, throwing on some of my own music/podcast and knocking out a level in an unwind your brain kind of vibe.

I'll give it a technical thumbs up, it ran fine, was artistically something a bit different and I enjoyed it enough for what it is. I grabbed it for 90% off so that probably helped my opinion on it. At full price, I'm not sure I could recommend it. Great for short play bursts but it's clearly not a game for everyone.

I got stuck in the very first level, after endlessly wandering around to find every nook and cranny. So I watched a playthrough to see whether I had overlooked any mechanics. Didn't learn anything relevant. So I reset the level and tried again. Again wandering around endlessly through a huge procedural level, again to get stuck in the end.

I did think I solved some puzzles that destroyed some rocks, but not enough rocks were removed to actually clear a path. Was that a bug or did I do it wrong? Having an "unsutck" button and a "regenerate level" button in the menu makes me constantly wonder whether the level is bugged or I overlooked the solution to the puzzle and that's incredibly frustrating in a puzzle game.

Also, systematically covering all of the map just gets boring after a while, especially since the graphics are pretty, but constantly pretty in the exact same way. The 10,000th pretty tree isn't doing much anymore, I'm afraid.

Pros:
* Great art style
* Good soundtrack
* Relaxing

Cons
* Largely pointless

The biggest problem is in my opinion the procedural generation part. For such a game the most important point is exploring, ant thus it has to have a good level design. Procedural generation can't achieve that. I understand developer's will to increase replayability (poopular thing today), but in my opinion, the solution taken is not good for an exploration game.
To be concrete, game has to be rewarding for trying to find secrets, but this means, there has to be little of pointless paths and locations, but here generator creates them constantly.

Very marginally recomended, only to check out the great art, and not the gameplay.

Interesting concept, poorly communicated. The hours of running around isn't helped by the limited sprint or the one-shot mechanics of the enemies.

This is a really interesting game with beautiful art, a great soundtrack, and cool puzzles. I enjoyed being able to explore the world of Future Unfolding and getting to interact with cute animals. However, this game can get repetitive and frustrating as you keep playing, so I recommend playing this game in parts so you don't get too annoyed.

Beautiful exploration game... but only to a point. After about 1.5 hours it started to get frustrating and I spent a lot of time going in circles (and not the fun kind of circles). Recommending for how unique it is but I don't think I'll be putting any more time into it than I already have.

I sadly wasn't entertained, what intrigue I had was quickly dashed by time consuming running around trying to find something that stood out. Once I found something, I eventually figured out what I had to do, but then I was again teleported to a new place to do more tedious running around.

I personally couldn't get enough out of the landscape or music to warrant my time being spent running from A-all-over-to-B to find the interesting parts of the game, I'm usually more capable of finding patience for games like these, but this wasn't one of them.

I love it when games present weird systems to the player with very little guidance to cultivate a sense of mystery. This goes beyond just presenting a mystery within the game, I'm talking about having important aspects of the game that need to be figured out with next to no explanations. First thing to come to mind would be Dark Souls, which made you work to figure out some of its systems and most of its lore. Betrayer might be a better example; What to do, and how to go around doing it? Well, it's up to you to find out. Night Shift was almost 100% this, but unfortunately no one played that.

The best thing is that this aura of mistery fits all of these games - it enhances and makes sense for them. It's not just broken logic, a bad translation or lack of budget for proper tutorials. It's an integral part of what they are.

Future Unfolding might be the purest example of this I've played yet. You start off with a couple of actions available to you, and from there, with observation and experimentation, you'll need to work out how to interact with the environment and advance in the game.
We might be looking at a new-ish genre. I humbly suggest calling it WTF'em up.

I'm loving it to pieces. There's not much I can say without going into spoilers, but: it's a top-down exploration game with procedural environments and puzzles. It looks and sounds great and it's got a great in-game automap. It plays like nothing else out there I know of, but there's definitely structure to it, and a (dream) logic.
The game does feel a bit overlong, with large environments that can be a slog to map completely; going through forests becomes a bit tiresome. That's probably my fault, though, since I'm trying to map and find everything. It usually doesn't take too long to find a new enigma and the environments have decent variety. Also (for now), it's all mystery and no plot. There's some lore here and there but most of it comes off as mystic mumbo jumbo.
Future Unfolding is a great game that's really hard to recommend, since I can easily see someone bouncing off it hard. Still, recommend it I do. Just be forewarned.

My go-to game to chill out. Just make sure you explore the forests and try lots of different things if you get stuck.

There's no hook in Future Unfolding to keep you intrigued or curious about the game. Obfuscation of the very few possible interactions that you have with your world is the 'mystique' behind the game's aesthetic. There is no gameplay, no story, and no significant score or media to warrant the tag price of the product if purchased as a standalone ambient audio compilatin.

Ten thumbs up. You'll certainly need them all. Best game I've ever found via following steams suggestions and reviews that were "positive". Personally I'd say it was "overwhelmingly positive". Awe-striking complexity. Loved everything about it, especially how music and movement drives the whole mission. Also fun to have to figure out everything for yourself throught the whole game. Beautiful graphics even my laptop could run. Ever since dowloading, I've either been playing this game or searching steam for a way to find alike games. 10/10!

Note: This is not a "should I buy" type of review. It's more an analysis of the game, and will spoil some stuff in the game. Future Unfolding is best enjoyed without knowing anything about it other than that it's about exploration, so read on your own risk.

Future Unfolding is a game about mysteries, and finding your place in nature. More specifically, it's a game about running around in procedurally generated natural habitats, and figuring out hidden rules. How to ride a deer? Which bushes are teleporters? How to move rocks? How to use the snake for your adventage? The game explains absolutely nothing. You are on your own. This is its strength and weakness.

Some of the things I'll write will feel like I'm complaining too much. These don't mean that the game is bad. But they do mean that it could be better.

The game is visually very pleasing in motion. Straight up, if you liked Proteus, I think you should get this game. Just to experience running around in top down view, and exploring. Player movement is joyful, the nature is playful, and everything looks beautiful.

Now, about the rules... There are a lot of them, but you don't need all of them to finish the game. Some of them are really easy to find, like riding a deer. Some of them more complex, like teleporting with sheep, and what you take with you while teleporting. And some of them I just cannot find. One time an animal told me that I can hug snakes, I kept trying to press B on the controller while on top of snakes, nothing happened. That's the thing about not telling anything directly. Some things are bound to create confusion. I'm still curious if there's a rule I couldn't find about the snakes.

One of the things that bother me is that on most areas with enemies, you can just run away and you'll be fine. It's luck based rather than skill, so you might have to try a few times. This makes the game feel loose. Like, there are rules but some rules are just boring (collect the lake leaves through the flowers to find a new path, repeat 10 times). And most challenges are not fun. Like the lions. You'll be chased around. But the chase won't give you an adrenaline rush, you'll just be annoyed when you get killed.

That's my main gripe with the game. Almost every element in the game feels overused. Some puzzles are really nice, but then they are repeated again and again, same rules apply in tens of areas. There are times the feeling of exploration leaves itself to the feeling of monotony. But I still finished the game, and I'm glad I did. I saw a beautiful ending cutscene as my reward.

Let's talk story. There is one. But it's hard to get invested in it. It talks about your position in nature as a humanbeing. It tells you to not look for meaning. It wants you to simply exist, and enjoy. It's good that the story wants to put you in a mood where you'll have the most fun out of the game. And the writing is good. There are some beautiful quotes in there. But there's also a moment where an animal just says "I have nothing to say, go further". That feels pretty bad. Also, the way you learn the story is by finding a white animal, and it saying a few words. I think I could be invested in the story more if things were more dynamic. If I could travel with talking animals and they could develop deep personalities. If there was actual tension. If there was something to lose or gain. If my character had personality. Instead, the game goes heavy on taoist themes, which are beautiful, but again, can feel overused.

The sounds and music were minimal, but they work just fine.

My favorite part of the game has to be the procgen, and the render technics used to make 2D sprites feel 3D, But that's quite technical. I wish the hidden game rules had more weight. I didn't really feel like I was smart when I solved a puzzle. And the repetition gets really bad sometimes. I unlocked just half of the achievements. But I feel like I had enough. Beautiful game, I am very glad I played it, but you have to be okay with some of its weird design decisions.

One of the most artful games out there. I'd best descibe it as an exploration adventure.
It's interesting how you don't truly understand what's going on and still get sucked into exploring all the environments.
I've only seen the beginning of a huge world that feels vibrant and interesting, filled with mysteries, puzzles and awesome weirdness.

If you're into exploration and puzzles this is a must-play for you!

Wow! The puzzles, atmosphere, and mechanics in this game are so unique! I've never played anything like this before and it's truly beautiful! I feel like I am a kid again and playing Zelda or Final Fantasy VI for the first time. It's magical! I won't say more than that. It's too easy to spoil the game. Just buy it now before social media spoils it for you. 10/10

Pretty much a pure exploration game. It plays smoothly, looks and sounds fantastic, doesn't devolve into tedium and constantly keeps the mystery going.

If you like a tutorial...buy something else...if you want to be challenged about the entire concept of "What do I do here?" then this is for you.

At first it felt kind of "limbo-ish", because after you press start nothing happens...you'll have to jab at your controller to get into the game proper. Even then, there's no preamble, no "this is why you are here". So you just have to touch stuff and see what happens...

...and things do happen....wonderfully animated things.

...you don't have to walk to far to find a "questgiver" of sorts. In fact, hje's a bit of an "anti-questgiver"...he basically says don't try and figure out why you're here..go do some more stuff, see what happens.

Explore. Interact. Fail. Try something different. Think you're stuck when you're not. Realise that sheep are more powerful than they appear (doubly so when wet).

Great game. 10/10/

(UPDATED) I finished the game and my view of the game changed.

Below are my experience 1-2 hours in the game:
- I was addicted to Rocket League.
- I like game like The Witness, ABZU, Firewatch, Grow Home/Up, Trine 2.
- I was bored because I don't have much time to play game.
- I can't afford to play long sessions games, games with lot of story element like RTSs, RPGs, MOBAs.
- I just wanted to relax, wander and enjoy.
- I found out about Future Unfolding.
- I stopped my Rocket League

9/10 must try if you feel the way I feel.

After completing the game:
- Since the game don't guide you much, you may feel lost when you get stuck in a world and don't know how to proceed. This can get frustrating. However, steam forum and online guide can help you get pass certain part of the game.
- My little OCD force me to trace out every possible path of the world too. If you enjoy exploring, this can be good. However, the game doesn't do too well in rewarding the player when they explore the world. You can just skip part of the world and finish the game.
- The length of the game is a bit too long and tiring imo. There are 9 worlds to explore, but each world feel too similar to the other world to make it enjoyable.
- The ending is debatable as well. It's carry 'deep meaning', together with what you've seen in the game, the ending kind of make sense. However, it's not a particular satisfying ending. There is no 'wow' or self reflection.

Overall, I enjoyed the game. I would only recommend this game to those who truly want to relax and wander. Beside that, this is not for those who enjoy solving puzzle, for those who want to have a sense of achievement.

If I have to give it a score, and if Trine 2 is 10/10 for me, this game should score:
7/10
(Nice game but have a few quirks that dampened the experience)

Thanks for reading my review.