Many people have said that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery. To imitate something means that you enjoy it enough to mimic it in some way. Foregone seems like an imitation of Dead Cells at first, with the only difference being that it isn’t a Roguelike. However, if you dig a little deeper you’ll find that Foregone is a very different animal altogether.

Now, before we get into what Foregone is, let’s just poke at the elephant in the room for a second. Yes, the art style, enemies, and even the various ways of moving and navigating do seem very reminiscent of Dead Cells. However, imagine a developer taking Dead Cells’ art style and weaving it into an Action-RPG Metroidvania. That is Foregone at its core. The art style is actually where all similarities end.

In Foregone, you play an Arbiter, protector of the City of Calagan. Calagan is under siege by a relentless corruptive force called the Harrow. It is up to you to investigate the Harrow’s origins, along with trying to save the city from certain destruction.

As the Arbiter, you have a melee weapon and a gun. As you kill enemies, you get money, crystals, and you can get bullets for your gun. So, it requires tactical planning to make sure that you have bullets when you need them. Additionally, killing enemies also recharges your skills. At first, you get a dash skill and a skill that lets you heal (which doesn’t need to be recharged), but over time you gain other abilities.

You can only equip two abilities at once and each ability has a branching skill tree with two different “builds” you can use. By investing in one branch over the other, you can tailor your own unique playstyle. However, I do find that being limited to only the upgrades on one branch does limit you somewhat.

The arbiter also has an overarching skill tree that pertains to things like her health. The main skill tree also requires you to focus on one path on each branch, so being limited in such a way may encourage multiple playthroughs if you want to try a different playstyle. Gear is classified (much like Diablo) by rarity and has modifiers that can change how one weapon of the same type acts over another.

There are a variety of weapon types as well (both ranged and melee) for a variety of playstyle options. Different ranged weapons have different amounts of ammo and all types of gear (weapons, armor, etc) have different stats. This incentivizes you experimenting and trying things out. Combat is fast, smooth, and will definitely challenge you.

Foregone is a cool game. There’s a fair bit of depth to it, the enemies are interesting, the voice acting is great, and the progression systems (while limited) are deep enough to keep things fresh. However, there is one thing that people with smaller televisions may need to be aware of. When I started playing Foregone I was using a 40-inch television that I’ve had for a few years.

Shortly after I started the game though (a day or two later) we started having issues with it. So, my grandparents were kind enough to buy a new television that is a 43-inch. When I played the game on the 40 inch TV, I couldn’t see the health bar at all. In fact, I didn’t know there even was a health bar until I watched a YouTube video on the game.

On the 43-inch TV, the health bar and UI show up fine. The issue is, there aren’t any options to adjust aspect ratio, resolution, or adjust where the game displays. So, if you have a smaller TV it may not show up correctly. This may be adjusted in the future due to a patch, but I could see it being a deal-breaker for a lot of people.

Overall I think Foregone is a fun action game. It is different than a lot of other Action-RPG titles I’ve seen in recent years, and though it looks similar to Dead Cells, I don’t think anyone could really call it a ripoff. I was a bit skeptical when I started up the game based on screenshots and footage, but the developers at Big Blue Bubble have put a lot of love into this. It is definitely worth your time.

A PS4 Review Copy of Foregone was provided by Big Blue Bubble for this review.

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Foregone

$29.99 USD

9

Score

9.0/10

Pros

• Smooth Controls
• Gorgeous Visuals
• Fast, Responsive Combat

Cons

• Skill Customization is Limited
• No Way to Adjust Resolution/Aspect Ratio