Forspoken

Flanked by two officers, Alfre Holland shuffles into the courtroom, cuffs around her wrists and a chip the size of Rockefeller Plaza on her shoulder. In front of her sits a high-school diploma next to her arrest and prosecution record – a rather clumsy shorthand for squandered potential.

You could say it’s a fitting metaphor for Forspoken itself; certainly, its list of flaws is easily as long as Frey’s rap sheet. But just as the scene ends with an act of clemency on the judge’s part, it would be unwise to overlook the evident strengths of an open-world action game that’s at its best when it refuses to follow the rules.

Not that such leniency was forthcoming prior to Forspoken’s release, as Luminous Productions’ game became – largely thanks to some out-of-context clips and ill-judged marketing beats – an Internet punching bag. Within the game, though, all that stuff about doing magic and killing jacked-up beasts comes off as endearingly goofy: why wouldn’t this disaffected New Yorker celebrate her newfound superhuman abilities? And if the mildly antagonistic relationship between Frey and Cuff, the golden vambrace that grants her these powers, grows slightly wearisome, the frequency of these incidental exchanges can be dialled back from the options menu.

Either way, these moments of odd-couple comedy are welcome respite from the more serious business to which Frey must attend. With the land of Athia blighted by a phenomenon Frey names the Break, she must face off against the Tantas – four once-benevolent magic users transformed into tyrants by the miasma (to which, conveniently, Frey is immune). After defeating each, she gains a battery of new spells to add to her repertoire: most of these are used in combat, but others factor into her ‘magic parkour’ skills – triggered by holding the Circle button – which let her explore this sprawling space with greater ease.