Night in the Woods

This game is a salute to the people who live in poor, forgotten, dying towns. It's about their humanity, their basic decency, their loves and hopes and fears and failures. More specifically, it's about being a lost and confused twenty-something, wanting to escape while wanting to go home, and struggling with depression.

It plays as text-heavy interactive fiction with a handful of mini-games. Emphasis on text-heavy. Don't play this if you don't enjoy reading a lot of dialog, as there's no voice acting. But if you're OK with that, you're in for a treat as it's all quite well written. The characters especially are so, so endearing. It's impossible not to play through it without wanting to be their friends forever. The design, well, you can see for yourself: it's all gorgeous and poignant 2D drawings and animation. The music is the last output from the talented Alec Holowka; not his best work, but it fits well here, even considering what was happening behind the scenes: he committed suicide just days after being fired from the project for allegations of abuse.

The other game elements are a bit of a mixed bag. The mini-games are all 100% optional. Really, you can skip them entirely. Some gamers might enjoy some of them. For example, I wasn't into the rhythm games, but I thoroughly enjoyed the top-down 2D action RPG. Unfortunately, the basic platforming structure of the main game is not optional and is poorly designed. Essentially, the most minimal playthrough of the game involves waking up each day and revisiting the same places you've been to before in order to read the new dialog. That becomes tedious after the first repetition.

My second criticism has to do with the storytelling. I'm ambivalent about how it all wraps up, though I think there are several ways of understanding the story, which is in itself a satisfying aspect of the conclusion. I'm less happy that some important story elements are easily missable as they are hidden behind arbitrary play decisions. After I finished the game I read about them online and realized that despite being thorough—or so I thought—I had missed a few illuminating clues that put the story in a new perspective. It didn't ruin the experience for me, but I did feel like I was cheated out of little bits of content for no good reason.

And, well, if I'm honest it could have been edited down quite a bit. It's too long and rambles too much, and I personally don't connect to its more spiritual-religious-ish undertones. To the devs' credit, there's nothing preachy about anything in this game. It presents a slice of some folk's life and it's your choice as to what to do with it.

In conclusion. Despite some clumsiness in its execution this is such a memorable, immersive, and touching game. It address important social topics, decidedly from a personal rather than a political perspective. I think it achieves what it sets out to do. For me it was an honor and a pleasure to have a small part in the characters' stories and relationships.