The Forest Cathedral Explores Man-Made Horrors This Fall

Have you ever read Rachel Carson's 1962 book Silent Spring? The Forest Cathedral is an ambitious attempt to adapt that book to video games, and it's coming this fall


Published: August 3, 2022 8:00 AM /

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A butterfly resting on a hand in The Forest Cathedral

Horror thriller The Forest Cathedral has a release window. Developer Brian Wilson's ambitious game, based on the 1962 non-fiction book Silent Spring, is coming to PC and Xbox Series X|S this fall. It's all about the man-made horrors of pesticides and their effect on the environment.

What is The Forest Cathedral all about?

Forests are fertile ground for horror, whether it's the survivalist nightmares of Sons of the Forest (which you'll have to wait a little longer to play) or the Stephen King-esque pulp of Alan Wake. Now, you can add The Forest Cathedral, an ambitious psychological thriller from developer Brian Wilson (no, not that one), to that list. Wilson's game is a puzzler in which you must complete complementary sequences of 2D and 3D puzzles in order to discover the horrifying effects of man-made pesticides on the island around you. If you want to get a feel for the supremely unsettling atmosphere of The Forest Cathedral, check out the new release window trailer, which serves as a kind of mood board for what you can expect from the game.

So The Forest Cathedral is based on a book?

Yep. The book on which The Forest Cathedral is based, Silent Spring, was originally published in 1962. It's a non-fiction story that tells of the harmful effect pesticides have on the environment. The book also accuses the chemical industry of deliberately spreading misinformation and covering up the deleterious effect of its products. The Forest Cathedral will explore those same themes through a lens of 2D puzzle-platformer gameplay and 3D exploration, all shot through with a decidedly unsettling and unnerving tone. If you're a fan of the rather successful Firewatch or Jonathan Blow's serene puzzler The Witness, then The Forest Cathedral looks very much like it'll be up your street, albeit with more spooky atmosphere than you might be used to.

A shot of one of the 2D puzzles in The Forest Cathedral
Silent Spring probably didn't contain 2D puzzles, but The Forest Cathedral does.

The Forest Cathedral launches for PC and Xbox Series X|S later this year. You can wishlist it on Steam right now if you'd like to keep abreast of its progress as it nears launch. We don't have a specific release date for The Forest Cathedral yet, but we'll likely learn more about the project in the coming months, so be sure to stay tuned to TechRaptor for more on this game.

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Joe has been writing for TechRaptor for five years, and in those five years has learned a lot about the gaming industry and its foibles. He’s originally an… More about Joseph