With Sons of the Forest’s release getting closer, I decided to look back at the information we have gotten over the last year and make a list of interesting additions that Endnight’s previous survival game, The Forest, did not have.

1. Seasons

Let us start off with one that is very obvious but will most likely also have the most impact on the game, seasons. Endnight revealed that Sons of the Forest will have seasons. We do not know to what extent different seasons will impact this new island. What we do know is that the winter days will make farming and fishing for food impossible. This could extend to stick or berry bushes as well, making not only survival but building a bit more difficult. However, mutants will attack your base more often due to them having a lack of food as well, so at least you get delivered fresh meat more often.

The only other confirmed feature is during spring you can find salmon leaping up waterfalls for you to catch. Besides this nothing is confirmed yet, however, we can most likely expect the winters to become very cold to where you need to have a warm suit or stay near campfires. Summer and Fall’s impact on the island is still unknown.

2. Mutant companion

In multiple trailers, a friendly mutant was shown. How much this friendly mutant will hang around is unknown. From what the trailers showed you meet her during the story, she was shown during multiple scenes and seasons so she might hang around forever or at the very least until the story is finished. It does not look like she will help with building or getting supplies. However, she is shown holding 2 firearms and protecting your camp.

It will be interesting to see how this will play out in multiplayer. Will she listen or hang only to the host or whomever first interacted with her, or will there be multiple companions?

3. 3D printing

In Sons of the Forest, you will be able to collect resin to use in a 3D printer. This feature could unlock a lot of possibilities depending on how they decide to use it. Not much has been shown yet, but this could open up to a lot more crafting components and decorative items.

4. A new way of building

Building in Son of the Forest seems to be a lot more time consuming. How placing down regular walls and buildings will no doubt be similar, making spike walls or floors seem to need to be done separately and one by one, with an animation that comes with it. Making building a lot slower. Here is hoping it will not be as slow as it looks in the trailer.

5. More story and cutscenes

Even though The Forest has cutscenes, it seems like Sons of the Forest will get a more interesting intro cutscene and cutscenes during the game. Unlike the Forest, it only had an intro cutscene and like five ending cutscenes (If you count the number of times that got extended). We got to see a few of these cutscenes in the trailers, like what seems to be part of the intro cutscene and a cutscene set in what looks like a facility of sorts.

6. More guns

The Forest may have had a flintlock pistol you could craft but this is nothing compared to the arsenal of firearms you can obtain in Sons of the Forest! From a stun gun to a shotgun there seems to be a good variety of weapons to take down the mutants. Seeing how obtaining the flintlock pistol in the forest made every encounter really easy, I wonder how having all these guns will change the game. With all these new weapons there seems to be a hand full of new bigger mutants to use them on. Maybe they will be more resistant to getting shot, or bullets are going to be very hard to come by.

7. Smoother and more Animations

Something I noticed while watching the trailers for Sons of the Forest is that Endnight seems to have stepped up their animation game by a lot. From the way the mutants move around to the way, the player interacts with the world. Everything feels a lot more lively in Sons of the Forest.

What is your favorite new addition to Sons of the Forest?