Foregone is one of the rare games that I fell for during its early access period, and there’s no denying that its full release—which coincides with a release onto the Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Playstation 4 consoles—is an even greater game. There’s no better way of describing Foregone than calling it a Dead Cells-inspired action platformer that eschews roguelite elements in favor of hand-crafted levels and checkpoints. It is, for better or worse (depending on your viewpoint), a game suited to those of us who have become exhausted by the randomization and permadeath features many indie developers have been using as a crutch over the past half-decade or so. Obviously, that means that Foregone is quite a bit shorter than games that send you to the beginning after every death because returning to a checkpoint with all of your equipment is a much less significant penalty to overcome, but that allows it to be a much more focused experience. My only complaint is that the story isn’t as interesting as I expected.

Foregone‘s story isn’t bad so much as it’s predictable and structured in an awkward way

Back when Foregone was in early access, it made sense for its intro to set up a conflict that was merely window dressing instead of something you felt like you were actively participating in. I assumed that the details would be filled in later on. Instead, this is a more intimate story about the main character, with the war and the relevant factions never being developed much. Since you spend most of your time wandering around cathedrals, sewers, and other indoor areas, you don’t get much of a look at what the world is like. Almost every character wants to murder you, too, so you’re not going to be having lengthy conversations that reveal lots of details. The story is fine, but only in a “the writing isn’t the point of the game” way.

Foregone is best if you treat it like an old-school sidescroller: the world is what it is, and it’s best to accept that and move on because the main character isn’t even given a name. That makes the attempt at giving her a story of loss and regret all the stranger, though; solid voice acting and reminiscing about the world’s state and past mistakes don’t scream “this stuff doesn’t matter.” It’s almost like Foregone can’t make up its mind about how much it wants to emphasize its writing.

I never felt more confused about all of this than I did at the end, especially when a late-game twist (which many will see coming from a mile away) culminated in a post-final boss choice about how to resolve things. By that point, I had learned some token details about the city of Calagan and the heroine’s relation to it, but the lack of buildup made the choice completely arbitrary. I figured that I’d try one option and then reload a save to try out the other one, but Foregone auto-saved after the credits, and the final boss was nowhere to be found. Forcing players to play through the entire game to see the results of its one choice isn’t ideal. I didn’t bother. 5-6 hours is too long to play for one short cutscene.

The main character commenting on things as you wander around is admittedly charming. I found myself wishing for more of that sort of thing. Foregone‘s other method of revealing information to you is to stick a glowing book in the middle of a level and wait for you to read it, and that’s a clumsy enough approach before you take into account how little information these actually provide. Even once you have the context required to understand what’s happening in these entries, they fill out microscopic amounts of detail while leaving huge chunks of the lore unexplored.

Hacking and slashing at increasingly competent groups of enemies is weirdly relaxing

Anyone who’s played Dead Cells will feel right at home with Foregone. Both are absurdly fluid action-platformers with flashy, well-weighted combat, levels with hidden secrets and door switches, and fast vertical momentum that contrasts with the main character’s inability to jump as high as the characters in most platformers. Your movement speed in Foregone is a little slower (and less slippery, which I very much appreciated), but the general feel is much the same. Of course, the biggest difference is the absence of roguelite features; in lieu of permadeath, Foregone automatically saves when you reach a portal to the outpost that serves as your base. These work similarly to soulslike games—if you die, you drop your money and return to the outpost, where you can either choose to have half of it retrieved (at the cost of the other half) or trek to the place of your death to obtain the full amount yourself. From the outpost, you can teleport to any portal you’ve discovered, which is helpful when looking for secret areas you missed.

I died once while playing the full-release version of Foregone, which was very strange considering that I had died dozens of times back in early access when it only had half of the content. And that death only came after being caught between a mess of enemies, some of which were armed with machine guns that took me out in seconds.

At first, I suspected that the difficulty had been nerfed, but I seemed to be doing roughly the same amount of damage to opponents and receiving the same amount in return. Being able to steamroll obstacles that once seemed unfair is the mark of a well-balanced game. That having been said, I’m confident that the equipment enemies drop has been tweaked since Foregone‘s early days to ensure that you get something usable without having to grind through mobs of enemies.

Foregone‘s equipment is one of its more recommendable elements. There are only a handful of different weapons, and I don’t know that I ever saw a piece of armor that wasn’t differentiated solely by its stats and bonuses, but new stuff drops frequently enough that you’ll always have something to sell/change by the time you reach the next portal. Money can be spent on upgrades, with the rarity of the equipment determining how many times it can have its stats boosted, and there’s a second currency that you can spend on perks and character bonuses. I played through an earlier version of Foregone using the fast-but-weak daggers and all-rounder sword, but this time, I opted for something slower and more powerful that eventually got paired with a shotgun. There’s nothing quite like dashing behind a group of troublesome enemies and taking them all out in 2-3 swings.

Familiarity is used by Foregone as a weapon with which to orchestrate your downfall. New enemies take a while to show up and are slowly added in one at a time so that you can become comfortable with them, but toward the end, every enemy type is replaced by a corrupted variant that forces you to fight your muscle memory. Machine-gunners who were previously locked into place are suddenly capable of changing the angle of their shot while firing. Snipers suddenly fire multiple bullets. Turrets can turn around rather than allowing you to sneak up on them from behind. Even the game’s four “main” boss fights (there are actually something like 7 of them once you count minibosses) have harder variants with new moves.

Foregone has a very strong art style that can make it difficult to see what’s happening

Like Dead Cells and Donkey Kong Country before it, Foregone‘s art consists of 3D objects that have been turned into sprite art, allowing for some of the smoothest sprite animations you’ll ever see. The playable character—who needs a name to make referring to her easier—also emits a certain amount of light that’s impeded by the level geometry, which can cause some interesting lighting effects when you’re wandering through tight passages. The art’s downside is that it can become downright unintelligible when you jump down into a mob of blue glowing enemies and everyone starts attacking each other. When I died, I didn’t even realize that I was taking damage because so much was happening on the screen at the time.

I feel guilty about Foregone‘s music not standing out to me. What’s there is quite good, but a combination of the entire soundtrack being stylistically similar and playing at a significantly lower volume than the sound effects that overwhelm it causes it to be forgettable. In a vacuum, though, there are plenty of things to like. It wields horns, choir, and strings with the gravitas of Baldur’s Gate 2 at times, and there’s at least one track that reminds me of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night‘s lovely soundtrack. It’s the default volume and lack of variety that cause the music to fall short, basically.

Story: 2/3 Gameplay: 2.5/3 Visuals: 1.5/2 Music: 1/2 ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ – 7/10
*Click here and scroll to the bottom for a detailed explanation of what these numbers mean

*An Epic Games Store key was provided for this Foregone review. It took me 5 hours and 45 minutes to beat, defeating every enemy I saw and only dying one time to some enemies I hadn’t faced before.

Foregone review (PC) – Stabbing and slashing with one caveat first appeared on Killa Penguin