This is Frey's magical parkour that allows her to dash off at great speed, leap vast gaps, and flip around enemies. Whether the sheer amount of options offers welcome complexity or just overwhelms remains to be seen, but there's an arcane joy in whipping up spells and dishing out damage in a barrage of particles.įlow, however, is the game's key mechanic. These are split between offensive (right trigger) and support (left trigger).

Luminous Productions has promised that Frey will eventually have access to one hundred spells. Tutorials and cutscenes occur every few steps as gameplay and plot layers unravel a laughable stealth section practically played itself and I didn't have enough time to truly get to grips with the range of magic that will be available. There's certainly the promise of depth to the game's combat, but the early chapters I played through were a little too scripted.

The demo is a snapshot of the open world that provides more of a playground for Frey's abilities than the more linear preview build I played.) Here are seven things you need to know about Forspoken before heading in. (Having played the newly released demo at the weekend, I can confirm this is the case. The freedom to flip between its extensive collection of spells to deal elemental damage and exploit weaknesses. The freedom to fully customise Frey's abilities. The freedom to explore the wide open plains and crumbling ruins of Athia and complete its myriad side activities. I suspect that Forspoken will be at its best when it's most freeing. Yet after playing the game on PlayStation 5 at a recent preview event, I still have concerns about both its representation and its combat, despite its magical potential. There's a surprising dollop of comedy too among the occult grandeur.

Athia is an other-world full of wonder and mysticism and evil sorceresses, while protagonist Frey is given spectacular superhuman elemental powers.

Forspoken cuff