Forspoken is the definition of a mediocre game. Far better than the previous live service hot garbage Square Enix has been pushing lately, such as Marvel's Avengers, but that's not saying much. $70 is laughably overpriced for a mostly bland and wasteful experience that offers little beyond whatever your definition of a mediocre game is.
The main character, Frey Holland, is poorly written and just really irritating. Her personality is essentially what you'd expect from a real life whiny teenage girl. Whiny, rude, stuck-up, and immature, it's especially repugnant if you know what she's dealing with in her hometown, New York. She literally mocks her companion Cuff for zero reason. But she constantly tries to crack these really unfunny jokes while swearing, during both the cutscenes and gameplay. It's as if the writers couldn't figure out how to make a character funny and likable that isn't Eric Cartman or Deadpool. For a 21 year old, she acts like a 12 year old. She looks like one, too. Some people have said she's why silent protagonists in games are better, I personally have to disagree with that. I prefer protagonists in games that talk, it gives them personality. Making them mute makes them self inserts and bland characters. I would just make Frey actually act like a 21 year old.
It's not the voice actresses fault, it's the horrendous writing. I'm all in for a witty and less serious story, but here, it just doesn't work. Also, the game loves to have it so you activate a cutscene after walking every so thirty feet, and it's especially irritating when they've could've just cut the gameplay and made clumped the cutscenes together for one large cutscene. I mainly play most games for the story, but I don't want a cutscene to be interrupted by gameplay and vice versa.
This is a game that could've been delayed for another year or so. It desperately could use some rework. The combat is fine, gameplay is also pretty solid, but man, the story and writing kills the entire experience. This game is wasted potential. Because the gameplay is sadly the only saving grace here, and I feel most of the development time went into that.
I feel critics were a bit too nice on this game, this game is definitely a 4/10. I wouldn't recommend this to a gamer even if it was only a dollar.