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The Forest
Accessibility Report

16 Accessibility Features

Accessibility
Report

We've documented 16 accessibility features for The Forest, including Select Difficulty, Remap Buttons, Play Without Hearing, Audio Cues and Moderate Reading. Its accessibility is strongest in Controls and Getting Started but it also has features in Visual, Audio, Difficulty, Reading and Navigation to reduce unintended barriers.

This report is created with input from accessibility experts and the player community to help people find games that have the accessibility features they require. Once you have found potential games on the database, there are excellent specialist accessibility sites that offer in-depth reviews to guide your purchasing decisions.

The Forest is a survival horror game where you are the only passenger to live after a plane crash. You explore a mysterious forest to find food, shelter and safety but soon have to battle strange cannibalistic people.

External examiner, Rich Adams, first checked The Forest accessibility 2 years ago. It was re-examined by Rich Adams and updated 2 years ago.

Accessibility Notes

You can choose between 4 difficulty modes; Peaceful, Normal, Hard and Hard Survival. As you increase the difficulty, you take more damage more quickly and enemies become more hostile. In Peaceful mode, the game is free of cannibals and mutants, allowing you to focus purely on surviving the wilderness. Upon completing the game, you unlock a fifth difficulty setting: Creative, where there are no enemies, and you don't need resources to build. Once you have selected a difficulty initially, you cannot change it without restarting the game and losing all your data, so you should choose carefully.

When you want to save your progress, you need to go to one of several structures, such as a Log Cabin, a Temporary Shelter or a Tree House. Most of these you can craft using items you find in the game. Once you have got to one of these structures, you can select it and save the game.

Some actions, such as fighting mutants or cannibals, require you to be able to quickly move out of the way of incoming attacks or launch a counterattack. Some of them move rapidly, so you need to be on the lookout for where they are at all times or risk being caught unawares.

The text in the game is quite small and cannot be changed, and, as it is often overlaid directly over gameplay, in some instances it can blend in with the background, making it quite difficult to read.

The map is an item which you can find in a cave, which is also the same place you go after your first death, so it is relatively easy to get then. You need to get the map before you can continue on with your objectives or get new ones, and it starts blank but gets gradually filled in as you explore. It shows your location, objectives and some noteworthy geographical locations, but its style can make it a bit confusing to understand.

Although much of the game is quite bright, it is often quite low contrast, with lots of varying shades of green and brown. At nighttime and in caves, it becomes very dark and can be extremely difficult to navigate or see anything if you don't bring a light source. Alternatively, in the menu, you can change the colour profile in the Advanced Settings tab, which can help to brighten up the game. Some of the game's interactive elements can tend to blend in with the scenery. Although you cannot outline these interactive elements, many will have icons above them showing how you can use them, which has the similar effect of making them easier to identify.

Sound is used in the game to help you identify imminent attacks, and, especially if you have not previously identified the assailant, can give you an advance warning. As this information cannot be displayed visually, you are at a disadvantage if you can't hear these cues.

Game Details

Release Date: 30/05/2014

Price: 75% off

Out Now: PC and PS4

Content Rating: PEGI 18

Skill Rating: 14+ year-olds

Players: 1 (4 online)

Genres: Adventure, Simulation (Action, Fighting and Role-Play)

Accessibility: 16 features

Components: 3D First-Person, Day and Night and Open World

Developer: End Night Game (@EndNightGame)

Costs: Purchase cost

Controls

We've documented 7 accessibility features for Controls in The Forest which deal with how you control the game, different options for alternative inputs and whether you can remap these settings to suit your needs.

Gamepad

Can play with the following:

Multiple Buttons & Two Sticks: Can play with multiple buttons and two sticks.

Mouse And Keyboard

Can play with the following:

Mouse and Keys: Can play with mouse and multiple keys.

Remap Controls

Can customise the controls for the game as follows:

Remap Buttons: Can re-map all buttons so that you can use alternatives that better suit your play.

Remap Sticks: Can remap the stick controls to controller buttons for easier access of direction controls.

Remap Mouse and Keyboard: Can remap mouse and keyboard key bindings, on systems that support these controls.

Controller Vibration

Vibration Optional: Controller vibration not used in the game or you can disable it.

Sensitivity

You can adjust

Adjust Mouse/Stick/Touch Sensitivity: Adjust how sensitive touch/mouse/stick controls are.

Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Controls

If you want to play The Forest, but it doesn't offer the Controls accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Controls accessibility:

Difficulty

We've documented 1 accessibility feature for Difficulty in The Forest which deals with how you can adjust the challenge of play, and whether this is locked once chosen or can be adjusted as you play.

Difficulty Options

Select Difficulty: Select the level of difficulty from a range of presets. This not only offers a way to adjust the challenge of a game but enables you to do so without dealing with individual criteria.

Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Difficulty

If you want to play The Forest, but it doesn't offer the Difficulty accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Difficulty accessibility:

Getting Started

We've documented 2 accessibility features for Getting Started in The Forest which deal with what support is offered to get started with the game. This includes customising the experience when you first open the game via any onboarding processes it provides as well as tutorials and other assistance when you first start playing.

Assistance Getting Starting

These features aid your play of the game in terms of cognitive load on learning controls, dealing with pressure and coping with the environment and challenges.

Tutorials: There are helpful tutorials and instructions on how to play. Information is provided in a timely manner, with appropriate level of detail.

View Control Mapping: You can view a map of controls during play. This clearly displays the mappings of actions to buttons/keys/mouse/keyboard without having to leave the game. This includes games that always display buttons to press during play.

Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Getting Started

If you want to play The Forest, but it doesn't offer the Getting Started accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Getting Started accessibility:

Reading

We've documented 1 accessibility feature for Reading in The Forest which deals with how much reading or listening comprehension is required, how well the game provides visual and audible access to the text and whether subtitles and captions are a good fit for purpose.

Reading Level

How much reading is required to play the game's main path or story and how complex the language is. The presence of voiced characters doesn't reduce this requirement, as it's recorded as a separate datapoint.

Moderate Reading: Moderate reading required. The quantity and complexity of reading are at a level that a high school student (14-year-old) would appreciate.

Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Reading

If you want to play The Forest, but it doesn't offer the Reading accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Reading accessibility:

Navigation

We've documented 1 accessibility feature for Navigation in The Forest which deals with how the game provides guidance and assistance to navigate its worlds. These are only for games that have traversal and exploration in 2D and 3D spaces.

Head-Up Display

Game Map: View a map of the game world during play, with the landscape, points of interest and missions highlighted throughout the entire game. This enables the orientation of the player and the world, confirming a direction of movement and the location of destinations or points of exploration.

Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Navigation

If you want to play The Forest, but it doesn't offer the Navigation accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Navigation accessibility:

Visual

We've documented 2 accessibility features for Visual in The Forest which deal with how you can adjust the visuals to suit your needs, and offer additional information if you can't hear the game.

Audio Cues for Visual Events

Audio Cues for Visual Events: Audio is provided to indicate visual events. Game events or progress highlighted by visual icons, effects or animations are also accompanied by audio to signify that progress. This is useful for blind players.

Motion Sickness Friendly

Motion Sickness Friendly: Doesn't have 3D movement elements that may trigger motion sickness, like motion blur, depth of field and field-of-vision. Or includes the ability to disable motion blur, depth of field and field-of-vision effects.

Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Visual

If you want to play The Forest, but it doesn't offer the Visual accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Visual accessibility:

Audio

We've documented 2 accessibility features for Audio in The Forest which deal with how you can adjust the audio of the game and whether audio cues compensate for aspects of the game that are hard to see.

Adjustable Audio

Balance Audio Levels: Set music and game sound effects separately. This enables you to select your preference as well as ensure critical game sounds aren't obscured by other audio.

Play Without Hearing

Play Without Hearing: No audio cues are necessary to play the game well.

Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Audio

If you want to play The Forest, but it doesn't offer the Audio accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Audio accessibility:

Ghostwire Tokyo

Skyblock

Far Cry 6

Communication

We haven’t documented any accessibility features for Communication in The Forest which deal with how you can communicate with other players in the game and what options are available to customise and control this interaction. The following games are similar to The Forest, and offer accessibility features for Communication:

System Accessibility Settings

In addition to the accessibility features provided in the game, you can also use system-wide accessibility settings:

PC
Windows has extensive accessibility features. Some, like colour correction, work with games. Lots of accessibility software can be used with PC games, from voice recognition to input device emulators.

PlayStation 4
PlayStation 4 has a range of accessibility settings. Some are system only, some work in games (invert colours and button mapping).

Read more about system accessibility settings.

Accessibility Report supported by VSC Rating Board, PlayabilityInitiative and accessibility contributors Ben Kendall and Andy Robertson

Written by parents for parents, the database complements the in-depth discussion about video game addiction, violence, spending and online safety in the Taming Gaming book. We are an editorially independent, free resource without adverts that is supported by partnerships.