Sons of the Forest to Leave Early Access and Launch v1.0 in February 2024

Sons of the Forest will officially leave Early Access and launch its v1.0 on February 22, 2024. Furthermore, X-Men and Quantum Break’s Shawn Ashmore will be joining the cast to voice Timmy as the team works to “expand his role in the game and story.”

Sons of the Forest developer Endnight Games shared the news on X/Twitter alongside thanking everyone who played the game in Early Access.

“Hey Everyone, Sons Of The Forest v1.0 will release Feb 22, 2024 with Shawn Ashmore voicing Timmy as we expand his role in the game and story,” Endnight Games wrote. “We thank everyone who has joined us in Early Access and are super excited for what we have in store for v1.0 and beyond.”

For those unfamiliar, Timmy LeBlanc is the son of Eric LeBlanc, the protagonist of The Forest who crashed with his father on the island where the game takes place and was quickly kidnapped. One of the main goals of the original game was to rescue Timmy. Without spoiling anything, Timmy is back in Sons of the Forest and obviously has a bigger part to play.

As for Shawn Ashmore, he is no stranger to video games as he has previously voiced Tim Breaker in Alan Wake 2, Conrad in The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan, and Jack Joyce in Quantum Break. And that’s in addition to him playing Bobby Drake/Iceman in the X-Men franchise, Lamplighter in The Boys, and more.

Sons of the Forest entered Early Access on February 23, 2023, and tasks players with finding a missing billionaire on a remote island that also happens to be home to cannibals and other horrific dangers. This sequel is once again an open-world survival horror simulator and can be played solo or with friends.

In our Sons of the Forest Early Access review, we said it is “already a strong survival crafter sequel that takes all the things The Forest did so well and does them a little bit better.”

“Exploring a huge, beautiful, deadly island through the changing seasons is a treat on its own,” IGN’s Leana Hafer added. “The new base building mechanics could entertain me for days without ever touching the main story. And to top it all off, we have smarter and more unsettling enemy behavior paired with thoughtfully improved combat. It’s already great, and it’s still in Early Access. With some healthy performance optimization and shining up of an impactful but sloppy ending, it could become incredible.”

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Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.