Through the Woods

 Xbox One
Through the Woods Image
Metascore
66

Mixed or average reviews - based on 7 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
7.0

Mixed or average reviews- based on 4 Ratings

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  • Summary: Set on the coast of Norway, Through the Woods tells the story of the extremes a mother would go to in order to save her child. The narrative begins with the mother, Karen, who is being interrogated regarding the mysterious disappearance of her son. Gameplay starts as she recounts theSet on the coast of Norway, Through the Woods tells the story of the extremes a mother would go to in order to save her child. The narrative begins with the mother, Karen, who is being interrogated regarding the mysterious disappearance of her son. Gameplay starts as she recounts the terrible events surrounding this tragedy.… Expand

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Through the Woods - Official Xbox One and PS4 Launch Trailer

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 7
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 7
  3. Negative: 0 out of 7
  1. Official Xbox Magazine UK
    Jun 23, 2018
    70
    A dark and textured tale of love, loss, and lore that's unfortunately over a bit too soon. [July 2018, p.80]
    All this publication's reviews
  2. TheXboxHub
    May 17, 2018
    70
    Will you like Through The Woods? Well, I love indie games that have a strong voice and really unusual tales to tell. Through the Woods has all of this and much, much, more with a brilliant, unusual story that is fun to be part of. It doesn’t shy away from the dark and tricky storylines which is brave, and should be admired.
  3. Generación Xbox
    Jun 25, 2018
    68
    Through the Woods has a good atmosphere and mythological environments and offers an interesting experience, but has performance problems and is poorly adaptable.
  4. MondoXbox
    May 27, 2018
    67
    The interesting premise of a nordic horror adventure ends up being partially ruined by a poor technical production and a boring and too linear gameplay.
  5. Xbox Tavern
    May 4, 2018
    63
    Through the Woods isn’t nearly as scary as it is suggested to be, however, it does provide a tense and uneasy atmosphere nevertheless. This game serves a short story of recognition and understanding responsibility, though its simplified gameplay and lack of depth will certainly leave players wanting for more. That being said, it’s both interesting and detailed enough to warrant a recommendation.
  6. TrueAchievements
    May 14, 2018
    60
    Through The Woods is a horror game that delivers some good scares, just not really in the way that was intended. Enemy encounters are easy to overcome and at worst take just a bit of trial and error. The more effective scares come from the many stories you'll read as you span the woods of Norway looking for your son. Throw in some solid sound design, including an infrequent but effective soundtrack, and it's a game that's worth playing for horror fans, so long as you know it's not just some branches that are broken in these woods.
  7. XboxAddict
    Jun 6, 2018
    60
    Even though trailers may suggest a horror experience set in the lonely woods at night, it’s not exactly that. Its substory is its real strength, but is hidden behind hidden optional collectables littered throughout the woods. It does have a tense and eerie atmosphere, but lacks depth and interesting gameplay more than anything else.

User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 3
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 3
  3. Negative: 0 out of 3
  1. Xbox_Alive
    May 8, 2018
    7
    When you think of horror games you automatically think of zombies, well at least I do any way, and whilst I enjoy the zombie approach I can’tWhen you think of horror games you automatically think of zombies, well at least I do any way, and whilst I enjoy the zombie approach I can’t help but feel that they’ve been used far too much over the years. Thankfully Through the Woods has tried something different and despite it suffering with a few problems I found myself enjoying the Norse horror adventure quite a lot. Without a doubt the shining light in this game is its story and to say I was hooked throughout would be a massive understatement. I was anxious to see what would happen next and that’s a testament to how good the writing was. In my opinion the story would’ve been even better if the voice acting was on point throughout. Don’t get me wrong none of it is particularly bad I just felt it was lacking at times and that made it a bit hit and miss. In terms of the gameplay there isn’t a huge amount for you to sink your teeth into, but what’s here is pretty decent. I would however have liked to have encountered more enemies along the way because in my opinion the enemies you face are very interesting and have quite a bit of variety and facing more enemies would’ve also stopped the gameplay from getting a little repetetive, but this is only a small problem because the game doesn’t overstay its welcome. In fact I would go as far to say that the length of the game is perfect and whilst it isn’t the longest game ever there’s still more than enough here to satisfy your needs. One of the most important things in an horror game for me is the atmosphere it creates, and thankfully the atmosphere is fantastic. I genuinely did feel scared at times and when every little detail combines together they manage to create a number of different emotions. Sadly the immersion levels get affected somewhat due to the fiddly controls and these can be a problem at times, but thankfully I did end up forgetting about them in the end. Without a doubt the atmosphere is further enhanced by the visuals and sound design and they’ve done a good job here. Visually there are better games out there but I really liked the little details that were added and for me it did what it set out to do. The same can also be said about the sound design and despite the shaky voice acting every now and then the immersion levels are still very high. At the end of the day I would recommend Through the Woods to anybody that is a fan of horror adventures and I would’ve scored it even higher if it didn’t suffer with a few niggling problems every now and then. That being said it gets more right than it gets wrong and in the end it gets a thumbs up from me.… Expand
  2. SuperkenGaming
    May 10, 2018
    6
    Through the Woods
    The Room of Horror Games
    Through the Woods is a Horror adventure game set in Norway. You play as a woman named Karen.    Through the Woods
    The Room of Horror Games
    Through the Woods is a Horror adventure game set in Norway.
    You play as a woman named Karen. Your son Espen gets snatched up by a Viking man cause he doesn’t wanna listen to you about not going near the pier.. and you spend the rest of this 3hr game trying to rescue him.
    This game is ridiculous.
    This is the room of horror games in almost everyway.. from the voice acting to the delivery of the story..
    It tries so hard to deliver something serious and I was laughing so hard during the moments in the beginning and towards the end where the majority of the story is delivered…
    The middle sections of this game is a bit more mysterious.. I took it more serious as you’ll be finding your way through this woods full of Viking villages, dead bodies, old letters and passages to help you uncover the truth behind this mystery Viking man that stole your child from you.
    By the way.. you’re a pretty neglectful mom… there’s a part of you that’s probably happy he was kidnapped…
    and naturally the story telling tackles this as your mom instincts kick in..
    gameplay wise and atmosphere wise this game is pretty all over the place.. there are a few creepy moments… there are giants and wolves you’ll be dealing with, but I never felt the game was spooky or scary aside from getting startled seeing an enemy through the trees knowing somethings about to go down…
    leading to some thrilling chase sequences..
    but the game is mostly just finding the right path to go down and explore cabins along your way for more story..
    pe3rformance wise, no huge issues aside from getting stick in between a rock and a giants foot having to exit out of the game and come back in.. thankfully checkpoints are pretty frequent here.. and the audio in the final sequence was a bit staticky and choppy.. really hurting whats meant to be an impactful moment..
    but again thanks to the delivery and ridiculousness of this story I was laughing through most of it anyway…
    I enjoyed playing Through the Woods..
    But like the room.. I enjoyed it for unintended reasons…
    you can tell this game was made with a budget.. they tried..
    And I appreciate it.
    I give Through the Woods
    a 6/10    … Expand
  4. GBG_Jason
    May 7, 2018
    5
    When it comes to horror, the sound design is just as important as the visuals, if not more so. Sure, you can throw grotesque visuals orWhen it comes to horror, the sound design is just as important as the visuals, if not more so. Sure, you can throw grotesque visuals or creatures at the audience all you want, but to really bring out the tension you'll need to make them fear what they don't see. Knowing that, I was a bit disheartened when I launched Through the Woods, as the game was a bit broken and would not showcase the audio regardless of what I did. I managed to fix this after several hours of troubleshooting and a number of workarounds, but I had already played through the first few chapters of the game in complete silence. I restarted the game once resolving the issue and am glad I did, as the sound design is easily the best thing about the game. Throughout my playthrough, I was constantly checking behind me (as well as my own home as it sounded as if an intruder was inside of my house) due to the highly detailed, realistic sounds emanating from the title.

    The title starts out with a mother and son arriving at a remote home in the middle of the Norwegian wilderness. The narrative is voiced by the mother who is telling the story of her son's disappearance. Early on it is stated she loathes her son for the wedge he drove between her and her husband as well as their friends. At the risk of spoiling the story for you, it is not very original and has already been explored many times, such as in the game The Park and the film The Babadook. Through the Woods quickly picks up when the protagonist catches her son being carried away via a small boat by a man from the cabin's dock. She jumps headfirst into the lake to swim after them and arrives on a small island not far from the home.

    The new area is covered in dense fog and features old, dilapidated structures that appear to be ancient ruins of a long lost civilization. The structures and wilderness areas are highly detailed, well rendered, and on par with many indie horror titles on the market today. There are only mild Bethesda-ish glitches where items enter each other awkwardly. The same cannot be said about the character models which are stiff, poorly animated, and downright ugly. So much so, the mother appears to be more akin to a grandmother in appearance. The dialogue is equally terrible, as the voice actors all sound bored or disinterested, particularly the main characters.

    The gameplay is extremely basic, making the title more akin to a walking simulator that plays in a third person perspective. Your character can open doors, run, sneak, and turn on a flashlight, with most of the face buttons being unused. There are some collectibles to be found for those that wish to explore the world, and while most of these are not required, they do provide some chilling context to what is going on in the world around you. The bulk of the game revolves around you evading creatures that pursue you while making it from point A to point B.

    I wish I could comment on the overall appearance of the enemies you'll face, but I have yet to actually see any of them. Based off the scattered notes I came across, there are a few enemies taken from Norse folklore, but one of them decided it wouldn’t even make an appearance, leaving me feeling like Ian Malcolm from the original Jurassic Park before the chaos went down. Another of the beings decided it would cause my character to randomly stop mid-run, cause her to throw her flashlight across the way, and then die without explanation. At first, I thought this was one of the many glitches I encountered; however, after sneaking through on my fourth attempt I feel like this is how you are expected to pass the segment.

    Through the Woods could have used quite a bit more polish, as the glitches come regularly. Early in the game, the child that the mother is walking side by side with walked up an invisible staircase, where he eventually hit a wall and continued to walk in place until I reloaded a checkpoint. In another instance, the mother fell awkwardly off of a staircase causing her to get stuck in midair, again forcing me to reload the checkpoint. The game is also prone to freezing when transitioning between cut scenes and actual gameplay, causing my entire Xbox to freeze on more than one occasion. This would be slightly more forgivable if the checkpoint system was not simply atrocious, but the save points are so randomly scattered and can only be triggered once, progression becomes a bit of a chore early into the adventure. The saving grace is that the entire game can be completed in just a few short hours.

    With Through the Woods being light on content and littered with bugs, it is hard to recommend it in its current state. While the overall presentation shines through at times, the bugs and bare bones gameplay make it near unplayable and hardly worth the payoff that the story builds up to. I would recommend waiting until this is discounted heavily or offered for free from one of the many subscription services offered.    … Expand

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