Through the Woods

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A mother goes into the Norwegian forest to find her missing son.

Platforms: PC, PlayStation, Xbox
Stores: Steam, GOG
Price: Paid
Rated: Mostly Positive on Steam (71% of 1,686 reviews); 3.6 of 5 on the PlayStation Store (568 ratings); Metacritic 63 (PC); OpenCritic 68 top critic average
Length: about 2.5 hours
Players: 1
Made by: Antagonist
Released: 2016

Get it on Steam GOG PlayStation Store (PS4)Xbox (One, plays on Series X|S)

What frightens A mother searches a night forest on Norway's western shore for her missing son. Creatures from Norse myth and folk tales roam the woods and can kill her, light and darkness deceive, and the grim stories she finds along the way do much of the frightening.
Content: blood, violence, strong language, a missing child.

Through the Woods is a third-person Norse horror adventure by Antagonist, set in a forest on the western shores of Norway. You play Karen, a mother searching the woods at night for her missing son Espen, while her narration retells what happened and creatures from Norwegian folk tales roam the dark.

About Through the Woods

Through the Woods is a third-person horror adventure by Antagonist, a small studio founded in Oslo in 2014, published by Fulqrum Publishing. It came out on PC in October 2016 and on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 in May 2018; the Xbox store lists it for Xbox Series X|S as well.

It tells the story of Karen and her son Espen, who live in a cabin in the Norwegian woods and whose relationship is already strained when the game opens. When Espen disappears, Karen forces herself into the forest for the sole purpose of finding him. Through reactive narration you hear her retell the events around his disappearance while you play her path in real time.

The forest lies on the western shores of Norway and draws heavily on Norse mythology, Norwegian folk tales, art and nature. The makers wanted to capture the forest as they saw it as children, with all the fear and mystery of roaming it alone. Light and darkness make places deceptive, and in the dark the sound design becomes a core mechanic.

Play is simple: you walk, crouch, run and interact with things. The woods are not entirely linear, and stepping off the main path turns up collectibles, scenes of death and decay, and written tales of kidnappers and creatures. Some of those creatures hunt you, and they can kill you. The TrueAchievements review found the enemy encounters easy to get past and said the real scares come from the stories you read, backed by sparse music and noises such as rustling trees and distant cries.

HowLongToBeat puts the main story at about two and a half hours. Critics were split: it holds a 68 top critic average on OpenCritic and 63 on Metacritic, and the Steam reviews are Mostly Positive. It suits players who like story-led folklore horror with one character alone at night, and who can forgive rough animation for grim Norwegian tales.

How to play Through the Woods

Buy it on Steam or GOG for Windows, on the PlayStation Store for PS4 or on the Xbox store for Xbox One and Series X|S.
Follow Karen into the forest in third person as she searches for her son.
Listen to her narration, which retells what happened around his disappearance.
Walk, crouch, run and interact with what you find; use your light and your ears to find the way.
When a creature comes for you, get away from it: you cannot fight back.

Screenshots

Through the Woods screenshot: a woman with a flashlight in a moonlit forest while a huge creature with one glowing orange eye lurks behind the rocks

Through the Woods screenshot: a figure with a flashlight at night faces a wooden bridge and a standing stone carved with glowing runes and the name Thursvik

Through the Woods screenshot: a woman with a flashlight faces a pale cloaked figure outside a wooden cabin in a dark forest clearing

Through the Woods screenshot: a figure in a beanie and backpack holds out a flashlight toward a wooden cabin burning in a pine forest at night

Through the Woods screenshot: a child in a knitted hat by a tree at night, facing a huge moss-covered creature with a glowing orange eye

Through the Woods screenshot: the mother walks a wooden boardwalk through the night forest holding a torch with a pink-red flame, a cabin behind her

Through the Woods screenshot: a woman with a flashlight faces a large carved wooden door with a beast-face emblem set into a rock wall

Tips

Play with headphones: the store says sound becomes a core mechanic in the dark of the forest.
Step off the main path: the woods are not entirely linear, and the written tales and collectibles are found there.
Light and dark can deceive you; look again before you trust what you see.
If you hunt achievements, some ask you to be killed by each enemy type, so a death is not wasted.

Questions

How long is Through the Woods?

HowLongToBeat puts the main story at about 2.5 hours and everything at about 4.5 hours. The TrueAchievements reviewer took roughly three hours.

Is Through the Woods scary?

It is tense rather than relentless. There are creatures that can kill you and a few good scares, but reviewers found the grim folk tales you read in the woods more unsettling than the enemies.

Is Through the Woods on PlayStation and Xbox?

Yes. It is on the PlayStation Store for PS4 and on the Xbox store for Xbox One, listed for Xbox Series X|S too, as well as Steam and GOG on PC.

What is Through the Woods about?

A mother, Karen, searching a Norwegian forest for her missing son Espen, in a story drawn from Norse mythology and Norwegian folk tales.

Who made Through the Woods?

Antagonist, a small independent studio in Oslo, Norway. Fulqrum Publishing publishes it.