Ever Forward

About

Ever Forward is a single player casual puzzle game with a mystery theme. It was developed by patheagames and was released on May 28, 2020. It received very positive reviews from players.

ADD FULL GAME TO YOUR WISHLISThttps://store.steampowered.com/app/1220370/Ever_Forward/ About the Game The prologue for Ever Forward is a free, standalone program that will give players a glimpse into the mysterious world of a young girl on an arduous journey. This prologue features the beginning of her story, and 8 adventure puzzles with a charming and unique aesthetic that will leave you captiv…

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Play Modes

Single-Player

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90%

Audience ScoreBased on 111 reviews

story19 positive mentions

grinding3 negative mentions

Beautiful and immersive art style with smooth transitions and appealing character and environment design.
Challenging, clever, and well-designed puzzles that require thoughtful problem-solving and experimentation.
Engaging, emotional, and intriguing story with a promising narrative that adds depth to the gameplay.

The game is very short, with some players completing the prologue/demo in about an hour; content length may not justify the price for some.
Performance issues including frame drops, stuttering, and poor optimization, especially on lower-end PCs.
Controls can be clunky and unresponsive at times, causing frustration in sections that require precision and timing.

story
43 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
44%
49%
7%
The story is generally described as interesting, emotional, and well-integrated with the puzzles, often told through brief animations and flashbacks from the protagonist's perspective. However, some users find it disjointed, slow-paced, or unengaging, with occasional issues in delivery and timing of story segments. Overall, it appeals to players who enjoy narrative-driven puzzle games, though opinions on its depth and impact vary.
- “The story segments you are shown after each puzzle is completed are emotional, from the perspective of the girl you play as, and is relatable while also slowly showing us what is going on in the world/story.”
- “Very clever, beautiful and challenging game with a touching story.”
- “Ultimately, the positives outweigh the negatives for me and I think a bit of time and patience is an absolutely reasonable price to pay for the ultimate satisfaction of solving these puzzles and getting to know more of Maya's story.”
- “The negatives are that firstly the last puzzle is way too difficult; I had to look up a guide because I didn't even know you could fit through the side, and secondly the story is really, really boring and I wasn't hooked at all.”
- “I'm not sure if the story was the biggest part of this game or not but I love a good story and I like to hear stories because they are interesting to me, but this story however is not good at all.”
- “There's apparently also some kind of story thing in there, but it too feels disjointed and there's no investment whatsoever in this 'Maya' character, let alone care about whether she solves all of these puzzles or not.”
graphics
30 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
67%
23%
10%
The game features a beautiful and distinctive art style with impressive and aesthetically pleasing graphics, often drawing comparisons to titles like Rime and Sea of Solitude. While visuals are widely praised for their design and atmosphere, some users note issues with optimization and performance on lower-end hardware. Overall, the graphics significantly contribute to the game's charm and immersive experience.
- “Really, the graphics are amazing, sound as well from what I remember.”
- “I've been playing for about an hour and a half and from the start I've been blown away by the world design and graphics.”
- “I absolutely love the art style in this game.”
- “Graphics are very beautiful but poorly optimized, which, combined with slow and wonky controls, is a big downturn.”
- “Pretty but pretty rough on the graphics card though.”
- “I almost bought this game right away for the looks and aesthetics, but I am glad I tried the demo first because I don't actually want to play the game.”
gameplay
17 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
41%
41%
18%
The gameplay offers a mix of simple to highly challenging puzzles that encourage creative problem-solving and build on previous lessons, appealing to both casual and hardcore players. While some find the mechanics clunky and certain puzzles frustrating or unintuitive, many appreciate the logical, intriguing puzzle design that complements the game's mysterious lore. Overall, the gameplay shows strong potential despite occasional bugs and difficulty spikes.
- “From the gameplay to the lore, this game is for casual and hardcore gamers alike.”
- “The gameplay is interesting and forces me to think outside the box to come up with solutions, and I like how new puzzles build on what I've learned from previous ones.”
- “Logical, intuitive, yet challenging - puzzle mechanics all show tremendous potential for the imminent main game.”
- “I started playing the demo and while I am impressed by the graphics and how good the game looks, the gameplay gets boring pretty quickly, at least that was my experience.”
- “Difficulty of gameplay: puzzles range from easy to oh dear lord shoot me now.”
- “Also the last puzzle is rather frustrating because the immediate thing you think of (throwing) doesn't work and the actual solution mechanic was only ever shown to you once and it's super easy to miss.”
music
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
40%
30%
30%
The music in the game is generally praised for complementing the atmosphere and enhancing immersion with its calm and beautiful soundtrack. However, some players experience issues with the music cutting off unexpectedly or being too quiet, which can detract from the overall experience.
- “The music matches the atmosphere nicely and makes the game immersive.”
- “Good background music complements the challenging puzzles and beautiful story.”
- “The music is beautiful, enhancing the overall experience alongside the good graphics.”
- “Sometimes the music just cuts off randomly and it ruins the experience, for example the water sound effects at the start of the game and the music that plays when you clear an area and the red thing goes away.”
- “Game was very quiet for me, couldn't really hear the music or anything, so hope that gets better because the sound can really make a game like this for me.”
- “Soundtrack: It’s there, I guess.”
emotional
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game delivers a heartfelt and relatable emotional experience through its touching story told from the protagonist's perspective, complemented by a heartwarming atmosphere, beautiful art, and evocative music. The emotional narrative unfolds gradually with each puzzle, adding depth and mystery that enhance the overall impact.
- “Very clever, beautiful, and challenging game with a touching story.”
- “The story segments you are shown after each puzzle is completed are emotional, from the perspective of the girl you play as, and are relatable while also slowly revealing what is going on in the world/story.”
- “Challenging puzzles and beautiful story, good background music, and heartwarming art style.”
grinding
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Grinding in the game is characterized by repetitive and tedious puzzles that become frustrating over time, detracting from the overall experience. While the hub world offers a pleasant environment, the puzzle mechanics feel monotonous and grind-heavy, diminishing player enjoyment.
- “Like other reviews say the game is beautiful and music nice, but the puzzles are tedious and annoying as hell to the point it ruins the game.”
- “The beach hub world is there and nice to wander around in, but the puzzle worlds are tedious, the same, merely trying to use the three puzzle elements in different ways.”
- “Slowly these degrade from interesting to merely tedious exercises in frustrations as you try to figure out the one way to not die.”
atmosphere
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's atmosphere is praised for its heartwarming and slightly mysterious tone, enhanced by fitting music that creates an immersive experience. Combined with well-designed graphics and smooth controls, it offers a great ambiance that complements its challenging yet accessible puzzles.
- “The graphics and the gameplay (puzzles) are perfectly fine and are actually very good; the controls work flawlessly. The music matches the atmosphere nicely and makes it immersive.”
- “Great atmosphere with challenging yet simple puzzles.”
- “You want puzzles with a heartwarming atmosphere and a little bit of mystery along with them?”
stability
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game demonstrates solid stability, with no major glitches or issues reported. Controls are satisfactory, and any minor glitches are intentional for gameplay purposes.
optimization
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
50%
The game is generally well optimized, running smoothly on lower-end hardware like an AMD A6 processor, though some users report occasional performance issues with framerate dropping below expectations for recommended specs.
- “Aside from that, the graphics are pretty good and the game is pretty well optimized considering that my laptop only has an AMD-A6 processor.”
- “Nice and simple puzzle game, my only complaint is related to performance issues; the framerate is a bit too low for the recommended specs, in my opinion.”