EVER FORWARD Demo Impressions for Steam

According to its Steam description, Ever Forward is an “adventure puzzle game” set to be released in July of this year by publisher and developer Pathea Games. So far, Pathea Games released a free demo of the game, which features instructions for how to play Ever Forward as well as the prologue to its storyline, onto the Steam  platform on May 28^th. The demo has received very positive reviews, receiving praise for both its game play and its story. The story is about a young girl who is navigating the puzzles of a world where the boundary between reality and fantasy is undefined. The demo seems to show that a promising combination of strategy puzzle-solving and intriguing story can be expected for the upcoming full game this July.

In the game, players will play a young girl named Maya, who has inexplicably (as of this demo) found herself in a world of shapes and trial and error pursuits. To get through the various stages of her environment, she must jump, climb, sneak, and move and place cube shaped objects. Placing and removing these cubes can have a variety of effects, such as creating or removing barriers and creating walkways. As you seek to progress her through this world, she encounters vigilant and threatening robots that you must avoid. Some of the patrolling robots have hearing sensors, but players can expect that robots with different and more challenging abilities will be encountered further into the game.  The design of Ever Forward plays on its imaginative and practical world combination. It has a very high-tech and futuristic feel to its scenery that I felt matched the developing storyline well.

The demo previews some of the helpful features to the puzzle-solving that I appreciated as a player. One feature that probably needs to be included in more strategy-driven adventure games is the ability to save wherever you please so that you can restart in a reasonable location when you mess up. This can mean alleviating some of the harshness of punishments for mistakes when you are far into a level. Obviously, this feature becomes increasingly helpful the harder and more complex that levels get. To accompany this feature, you can also restart to your save whenever you want. This means you can reset levels and put objects back in their original places without having to quit the game or restart the entire level. Whenever I wasn’t sure about a part of a puzzle, I simply saved up to the part I was sure about and kept restarting until I got the puzzle right. Other notable things about Ever Forward that the demo gave me insight to is that the mechanics are very simple, as usually the case with puzzle-solving games, and the instructions are very clear and helpful.

While the demo was good fun, players still have many things to look forward to in the final game. If you enjoy a challenge in your puzzle games, Ever Forward has a lot of room to add new and interesting obstacles to Maya’s fantasy world. The premise of the game makes the possibilities endless. Players can also look forward to the details and resolution to the story. The story offers a little mystery to its conflict, not to mention the mystery of Maya and her position in this world that the players are helping her navigate through. From the good reviews that the game is already getting, its debut in July will likely make it even more of a topic amongst indie and puzzle game lovers.

Check Out the Ever Forward Trailer:

Ever Forward will launch this summer on Steam for $14.99.  A free demo is available to play. The title will arrive on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch in late winter.

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