The Forest (2018), a first-person open world-survival game from Endnight, launched out of a four-year stint on Steam Early Access last month. Starting today, The Forest has a few new badges on its Steam listing, including support for Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.

The inclusion of VR headset support, which is now free and available in beta, lets users plays the full single player game in VR, and replaces the game’s 2D heads-up display with a smart watch strapped to your arm. The Forest for VR, which currently doesn’t feature multiplayer support, also includes a full 3D inventory and 3D survival book, and the ability to interact with the world via motion controls.

The VR version includes full bow aiming, throwing flares by breaking the tops off them, lighting molotovs with your lighter, and chopping down trees.

Endnight says in a Steam forum update that beta users should “expect some bugs and technical issues. We’ll be updating this branch regularly.”

In single player mode, you step into the shoes of the sole survivor of a jet crash, marooned in a mysterious forest in the wilds of British Columbia. It’s not all flapjacks and maple syrup though, as the woods are filled with cannibalistic mutants out for blood, compelling you to explore and build defenses to survive. The Forest for PC also boasts multiplayer co-op so you can battle the elements (and cannibals) and explore the game’s massive terrain and vast subterranean labyrinths together.

The base game (Steam link) includes the ability to:

  • Chop down trees to build a camp, or start a fire to keep warm. Scavenge food to keep yourself from starving.
  • Build a small shelter or a large ocean side fortress. Lay traps and defences to keep a safe perimeter.
  • Explore and build during the day. Defend your base at night. Craft weapons and tools. Bunker down during the evening or bring the fight directly to the enemy.
  • Defend yourself against a clan of genetic mutant enemies that have beliefs, families, morals and that appear almost human.
  • Use stealth to evade enemies, or engage them directly with crude weapons built from sticks and stones.

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • VRgameDevGirl

    Omg! Can’t wait

  • Stefanos Georgiou

    when is it?

    • Justice Savarirayan

      It’s already out! You should be able to opt onto the beta by right clicking the game in steam, going to the “Beta” tab, and clicking “none” and change it to the VRBeta.

    • Courtney A Jeff

      Today on steam

    • Raphael

      It’s been delayed until May 2019. I will let you know next year when it hits…

  • Courtney A Jeff

    Thanks for this radical website about vr and this update about a update for the forest.Its really fun going into vr but real people in the real world is a big part of love and forgiveness.We share the same space,time,air and like soda but can’t stand that some of us have deep convictions of faith in Jesus while try to belittle us with hate and insults.

    • PJ

      Lay off the booze and drugs

      • Andrew McEvoy

        Not sure if its his style of posting yet or he actually believes what he says..

        • PJ

          Either way it made me sick

    • JesperL

      You have deep convictions of FAITH.
      I stick with deep conviction of knowledge!
      And VR is for entertainment, and not a replacement for real life, so take your peaching somewhere else!

    • Raphael

      “We share the same space,time,air and like soda but can’t stand that some of us have deep convictions of faith in Jesus” – we do indeed share the space, time, air but I ain’t sharing soda. And to be honest I’m not a big fan of chemical-laced fizzy drinks.

      I congratulate you for recognising that RoadToVR is really just a place for religious discussions. Most people read the title and are fooled into thinking “it’s about VR”. You’re clearly one of the smart ones.

      • HybridEnergy

        Maybe we should take it as a compliment that they think VR is a life changing religious experience. haha. A Sunday Mass VR simulator, you go to church in VR, now there is a million dollar idea.

        • Adrian Meyer

          You know I’m sure that would work. Milk the sheep in VR haha

    • HybridEnergy

      I may be an atheist myself but I don’t have a problem with people who have personal faith and a religion, specially Christianity these days that gets tons of hate from stupid SJW lefty communists but why get on the soup box about it on a VR forum is beyond me. This isn’t the place for it Courtney, go to church on Sunday.

    • ummm…

      if you were going to broach this subject, dont you think you could have done so more cleverly and without the disjointed syntax and grammar that makes you sound like a swamp preacher? Although you may surround yourself with God all day long, on the interent – as well in the larger world – many people do not share your spirituality. If anything, the jarring and seemingly tone deaf comment can only feed the beast that breeds conflict.

      Like, cool, you have faith. But wtf are you going on about, and why do you think that message, and how it is conveyed, is best served here – in this way – on this article? Anyway, live love and forgiveness for sure. And remember, dont judge. I hear that isn’t part of your job description.

  • Sandy Wich

    Keep on deliverin for me VR, keep on deliverin. <3

  • doug

    80,000 reviews, 92% positive, playtimes from 40 to 200 hours, for $20. Sounds like a winner.

    • PhyllisHGarcia

      Start earning monthly up to $10927 by working for Freddie Mac
      online okno.uk/r/38Dtn.

  • Meow Smith

    Kudos to the Forest devs i hope they don’t drop the ball leave the VR side of the game broken and incomplete like the Subnactica devs.

    • Andrew McEvoy

      Subnautica works great though?

      • Meow Smith

        It works to a degree but hasn’t had any support since it was added, people are still begging for them to fix the PDA being to close to peoples faces to this day.

        Its a great game i love it but they really don’t seem to care about the VR side of the game.

        • Raphael

          Subnautica devs never added motion controls either. I don’t wanna play a VR game with a crappy eggbox controller.

      • HybridEnergy

        Not if you want to play the way VR is supposed to played, with actual hands in the damn game and not a controller.

        • Andrew McEvoy

          I agree but how would that work with subnautica, when most of the game ypu are swimming underwater? Do the devs get rid of the swim animations or leave them in and when you stop swimming you get motion control of your hands suddenly? Thats a big redesign. Seems like a lot of work for the devs.

    • Juan Ritz

      Subnautica has been one of the best experiences I’ve ever had in VR.

      • Adrian Meyer

        Same here even with an Xbox controller it was the first full game I played in VR and it was amazing, could have been better. But still really enjoyed it.

  • PJ

    The VR update is a buggy playable blurry Beta right now, I’ve had a little fun, but it needs plenty of work..

    • Raphael

      Well that’s the idea behind calling it Beta work in progress. There used to be a time when people knew the difference between beta and gold.

      • ummm…

        there used to be a time when people didnt get charged, or pay, for betas………………………………….

        • Raphael

          Depends on the developer. I bought arma 3 beta years ago for greatly reduced price on steam. Not a sale…Bohemia dropped the price during beta phase. When the game went gold I didn’t have to pay anything extra.

          I have no issue helping a developer during development phase.

          I purchased project cars beta access for 12 euros and for several years they gave me investment returns. They paid me money. Actually they paid me from the time pcars launched until pcars 2 launched so that’s more than a few years.

          • ummm…

            They paid you to not call them anymore?

  • oompah

    There is so much horror in VR
    that children get put off
    Any mention of VR scares them
    I dunno for whom these VR developers
    are making the titles

    • Walextheone

      For whom? For thoose who like it :-p

      • Raphael

        Yes… Gonna take a wild guess and say for adults? I mean just a totally wild guess… Oh but what a selfish developer… how dare they make this foresty game for adults rather than children!!!!!

    • JesperL

      Agree, there is way too much horror in VR, and too little RTS :)

    • hugorune

      Fully agreed. VR could show such nice worlds, but they show horror, most of the time.

      • Raphael

        Your fully agreeing doesn’t make you right. In this case it just makes you dumb. There are plenty of non-horror VR games out there that are child safe.

        • ummm…

          dude……different preferences. they are allowed to state theirs. and if you beef is that they sound whiny, so do you.

          • Raphael

            Their preferences are fine. Persuading a horror game not to be a horror game is dumb.

        • hugorune

          Only very few in high quality.

    • Raphael

      They’re making the game for adults fool. There are many child safe games and ones with pretty scenery.

      Should we really just make games for children? Some of us like horror, some of us like scifi… some of us like scifi horror.

    • HybridEnergy

      You just need to search better. Put your kids in Henry, The lab, and experiences like that…There is plenty of stuff for kids. I have a young god daughter who loves all kinds of stuff on it , I obviously wouldn’t have her play The Forest, like Duh.

    • Adrian Meyer

      If anything more horror games are needed in my eyes, that’s what makes VR so brilliant. The sheer fear factor in horror games is brilliant.

  • hugorune

    Another gemstone, not available on PSVR. :(

    • Raphael

      Yeah… but what’s the percentage of PSVR that come to SteamVR?

      • Adrian Meyer

        Yeah still waiting for Resi…Damn you Sony/Capcom

        • Raphael

          Yup, exactly. I think I have only two sony PSVR games on PC: Battlezone and the rez infinite.

  • Raphael

    First released this in VR in the DK2 days. I played it briefly in VR back then but then they dropped support but with the promise it would return for 1.0. They’ve certainly kept their promise to support VR.

    I will buy the game today.

    There’s a hilarious vid of Lokey Games playing the pancake version but since he’s a VR user you can expect him to upload himself playing it in VR….

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlgTOFmxNBk&t=4s

    • ummm…

      this guy is as obnoxious as you………suspicious.

      • Raphael

        Agree. I’m 70 percent confident he isn’t me though. Perhaps ancestry check would be a good idea.

      • antonio mora

        lol

  • HybridEnergy

    This looks awesome and it has full hand tracking motion controller support, a must for me and why I stay away from Subnautica etc. I hear this has some performance issues though, but it is beta, so I will just wait a little bit…there is no early VR release discount anyway.

  • ummm…

    does running this make anyone elses computer sound like a plane taking off? 1080ti, case open – sounds like a wind tunnel.