Ever Forward

Playing as a young girl named Maya, Ever Forward takes you through a series of puzzles to tell one person's story within a global pandemic. Challenging, fun, and interesting, this adventure puzzle game is worth the playthrough.

Ever Forward could be a great addition to your PS5 (or PS4) library if Pathea Games is able to swiftly correct the performance issues. If not, I would suggest picking it up for PC instead. There is a lot of promise here and I really want to finish out Maya and Ann's tale. Preferably sooner than later.

A reasonably interesting narrative and some complex puzzles aren’t enough to raise Ever Forward out of mediocrity. The PS5 version comes with some new glitches which further spoil an experience that was already short and underwhelming when it originally released on PC. This one is for puzzle fans that have little else to play.

With its interesting mix of both naturalistic and harshly sparse aesthetics, a slowly-unfolding and somewhat sad story of a young girl and her very distracted mother, and unusual and stealthy puzzles Ever Forward does make an impression...

Ever Forward is a very beautiful and captivating game with a warm and touching story about the relationship between mother and daughter. Sadly, it's too short, and not without problems.

With some quite tricky puzzles, Ever Forward is a rather challenging puzzler. The luscious graphics and lovely soundtrack definitely help the experience, but I'd have liked a bit more game. The pacing is a touch on the slow side too, so not one for the impatient.

Ever Forward is a satisfying and pretty puzzle game, with a compelling narrative. However it suffers with being a bit too frustrating at times when the precision required is made difficult with clunky controls.

It's quite telling that Ever Forward's demo (released independently with the subtitle Prologue) isn't that much shorter than an actual full play-through. Despite the title's tense stealth sections, and fairly involved puzzle-solving, the fact of the matter is that the final product plays out like the tutorial to a much longer adventure that never starts. By the time Maya's story starts to breathe, and the core gameplay begins introducing complex and layered puzzles, the journey is more or less over. The atmosphere is commendable, as are the puzzles actually present, but the is sure to leave genre veterans disappointed, and newcomers desperate for some meat to chew on.

I really wanted to like Ever Forward. And, in some ways, I did. Its surreal beauty is mesmerizing, and its story is both tragic and heart-warming. But scenery and stories a puzzle game does not make. You’ve got to have puzzles for that to work out. Or, more specifically, good puzzles. And, while Ever Forward has the forward, I found it to be lacking in the latter. I’m not telling you not to get this game—because there is certainly enjoyment to be found within it—I’m just telling you to brace yourself several bouts of frustration if you do.

Ever Forward isn’t an easy road, but whatever you make of its final narrative revelation, it’s an engaging, rewarding journey that’s well worth taking. Just remember to stop scratching your head when you hit brain matter.