The cult survival horror series that made you fear the treeline is back—but this time, Forest 3 is leaving Earth behind and leaning hard into sci‑fi mystery.
Endnight Games, the studio behind The Forest and Sons of the Forest, officially announced Forest 3 during The Game Awards 2025 with a moody, cryptic trailer that has fans dissecting every frame already.
A New Kind of Forest: From Cannibal Island to Alien World
In the reveal trailer, we don’t start in a crashed airliner or a snowy island. Instead, we see a
spaceship‑bound character, apparently on a return trip to Earth, before everything goes sideways.
The character is suddenly
pulled through a portal or wormhole and then
crash‑lands on a disturbing alien planet, packed with bizarre fauna and twisted, humanoid creatures. This is a sharp tonal pivot from the grounded forested hellscapes of the first two games, but it still feels unmistakably Endnight: hostile wilderness, body horror, and the sense that you are always being watched.
Game Informer describes the planet as filled with “strange creatures” and even a “vaguely human‑like abomination,” reinforcing that the series’ trademark
mutant horror is far from gone—just transplanted to an entirely new ecosystem.
What We Know So Far (And What We Don’t)
Here’s what’s confirmed right now:
-
Developer: Endnight Games, creators of
The Forest and
Sons of the Forest-
Title: Forest 3-
Reveal: World premiere at
The Game Awards 2025 via an announcement trailer
-
Platforms: Not yet announced-
Release window: Not announced—no date, no year, just “it exists”
Gematsu notes that Endnight has
not shared any details on platforms or timing, only confirming the project and unveiling the trailer. That’s in line with how secretive the studio was early on with
Sons of the Forest.
The Economic Times’ coverage of The Game Awards lists
Forest 3 alongside other major reveals like
Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic and the next
Diablo 4 expansion, underscoring the game’s status as one of the show’s headline announcements.
First Look: Tone, Themes, and Fan Theories
Even with under two minutes of footage, fans are already building theories.
On the
Sons of the Forest Steam community, players are connecting
Forest 3 to the
“golden cube” dimension and sci‑fi twist at the end of
Sons of the Forest’s story. One popular theory is that
Forest 3 may take place on
“the other side” of that mysterious dimension, which could explain the alien planet and interdimensional portal imagery.
Players are also obsessing over returning details like
Crunchy Wunchies—the in‑universe cereal brand—which appears again, prompting speculation about what it actually is in the lore and why it keeps showing up across worlds.
In other words, Endnight isn’t just changing the backdrop; it looks like it’s
doubling down on the meta‑mystery that tied together
The Forest and
Sons of the Forest.
Visuals and Tech: Survival Horror With a Bigger Canvas
The announcement trailer shown at The Game Awards and reuploaded by outlets like IGN and creators such as xGarbett highlights:
- Dense, atmospheric
alien landscapes instead of familiar North American forests
- High‑fidelity lighting and creature designs that push the body‑horror angle even further
- A cinematic style that feels more
story‑driven than the original
The Forest reveal ever did
Some YouTube compilation channels have labeled
Forest 3 as part of a wave of “ultra realistic” next‑gen showcases from the show, grouping it alongside Unreal Engine 5 titles and other visually ambitious projects, underscoring the perception that this is a
high‑end, modern survival horror experience.
Gematsu explicitly notes that platforms are still unannounced, but given that
Sons of the Forest launched on PC first and later headed toward consoles, it’s reasonable—though not yet confirmed—that Endnight is developing with high‑power hardware in mind.
Why This Reveal Matters for Survival Horror
Endnight has quietly built one of the most
influential survival horror templates in modern gaming: open‑world crafting plus terrifying enemy AI and emergent chaos. Both
The Forest and
Sons of the Forest earned strong word‑of‑mouth for their blend of
co‑op survival and psychological dread, even when they launched with rough edges.
By catapulting the series into
full‑on sci‑fi, Endnight is doing a few bold things:
-
Breaking the formula: It avoids becoming “more of the same” forest‑island setup and shakes up expectations.
-
Expanding the lore: It pays off the weirder, interdimensional hints from
Sons of the Forest instead of treating them as one‑off twists.
-
Competing in a new arena: It positions
Forest 3 not just against indie survival games, but alongside big, high‑concept sci‑fi horror titles.
For fans, the trailer answers one big question—
Is there a third game?—and replaces it with a dozen new ones:
How does this tie back to Timmy? Is Earth still part of the story? Is co‑op returning? None of that is confirmed yet.
What to Watch Next
Until Endnight breaks its silence with a deeper gameplay reveal or a dev blog, here’s what to keep an eye on:
-
Official channels: Endnight’s site, social feeds, and future dev updates for confirmation of platforms, co‑op, and release window.
-
Follow‑up events: Summer showcases, Gamescom, or next year’s Game Awards are prime spots for a longer gameplay trailer.
-
Community sleuthing: Expect the
The Forest and
Sons of the Forest communities to continue unpacking every frame, especially any connections to the cube dimension and recurring in‑world brands.
If Endnight sticks to its pattern,
Forest 3 will likely evolve in public, with early footage giving way to more polished survival systems and story clues over time. For now, the takeaway is simple:
the next Forest isn’t just scarier—it’s stranger, bigger, and no longer bound to Earth.
Sources
1. Forest 3 announced
2. Endnight Debuts Forest 3
3. The Game Awards 2025 - Official Announcement Trailer
4. Forest 3 Announced - General Discussions
5. Forest 3 - Ungkapkan Trailer The Game Awards 2025
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7. The Forest 3 New Gameplay Reveal Trailer
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