Timothy and the Mysterious Forest

Genre: Top-Down Stealth / Action-RPG

Players: 1

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Review:

Timothy and the Mysterious Forest is a Top-Down Stealth game with Action-RPG elements where players play the role of the titular child entering a dangerous forest to find a cure for his sick grandfather. This game was originally released on PC in 2019 and ported to PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch in 2021.

The presentation of this game is clearly designed to look like the original Game Boy release of The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, with 2D pixel art visuals in different shades of green doing a really great job of mimicking the style of art that’s in that game, and paired with a chiptune soundtrack that at the very least evokes the games of the classic Game Boy.

That’s a very strange choice for this game, however, because the gameplay has very little in common with Zelda. Players can lift pots, and must do some degree of exploring, but beyond that there’s little comparison between the two. Rather than fighting monsters and exploring the land, players must hide from the gaze of monsters, and while there are different paths to take, these paths offer very little in the way of exploration.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing, even if it makes the game’s art style an unusual choice. What is a bad thing is that this game fails at being an Action-RPG and it fails at being a Stealth game. In terms of Action-RPG, the lack of exploration makes this feel far less like any sort of grand adventure and more about just finding which path you’re supposed to take next. However, the real failing here is this game’s stealth, which has to be some of the worst I’ve ever seen in a Stealth game.

When it comes to Stealth, there are generally two rules to Stealth games that all the best games of the genre generally follow. Firstly, players need to be given multiple valid options to evade, dispatch, or hide from enemies. And secondly, the gameplay after being discovered should be just as fun and engaging as the gameplay of sneaking around. Timothy and the Mysterious Forest fails on both these counts.

Firstly, players are rarely given much in the way of options to evade enemies. There’s usually only one path, and the only way to succeed at remaining unseen is to move through that path when enemies aren’t looking your way. This makes for some pretty boring Stealth gameplay. However, even worse than that is what happens when you’re discovered – enemies naturally chase you, you have little ability to fight them off, and if they touch you even once, you die and must go back to the last save point, possibly multiple screens away.

It bears mention that these deaths come fast, frequently, and at times giving the player little chance to avoid them. Touched by an enemy? Dead, go back to the last save point. Missed one question in a trivia game? Dead, go back to the last save point. It is just so very easy to die in this game, and players will be doing a lot of it. That is, if they don’t give up and shut off the game in disgust.

I really like the presentation of Timothy and the Mysterious Forest, but I can’t help but feel like that presentation is a trap to lure in unwitting gamers hoping for a nice Zelda-esque experience. Do not be fooled – not only is this game nothing like Zelda, it’s nothing like fun, either. Instead, this is one of the worst Stealth games I have ever played. Don’t wander into this forest.

tl;dr – Timothy and the Mysterious Forest looks like an homage to The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening on the original Game Boy, but don’t be fooled. Not only is this a Stealth game that plays nothing like Zelda, but it’s one of the worst Stealth games I’ve ever had the misfortune to play, with players suffering deaths often and suddenly, and without anything resembling fun. Don’t fall for this nasty trick of a game.

Grade: D-

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2021 Game Awards:

Runner-Up: Worst Game

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