Night in the Woods: Weird Autumn Edition

Night In the Woods is most famous for its writing and for good reason. It provides one of the single most enthralling, intelligent explorations of the cruelty of capitalism, living with mental health disorders, survival and existential dread, and does so whilst being uneeringly charming, funny, powerful and offbeat. There's not much gameplay challenge that isn't optional, although even the web browser minigame built in to the game itself would be worthy of its own release. Other than that most of the gameplay is found in exploration, discussion and actually meaningful player choices. You literally can't experience everything in a single playthrough or maintain and nurture all of your relationships at once. The presentation, whilst unsophisticated graphically, is elegant, evocative and painstakingly animated to bring the world to life and the soundtrack could well be worth a paragraph of its own but suffice to say, this game is a masterpiece.

+ Interesting story with fun characters and some suprisingly mature themes. Sometimes weird/ambiguous and can be interpreted in several ways + Simple but effective art/music + Replayability value from many optional sidequests (impossible to see everything on the 1st playthrough) + It's like $12 on sale - Barebones gameplay (though that is to be expected), and a little too much repetitive walking around to get to all the characters/interactions. Overall would definetly recommend.

(Owned on Epic) I love my slow burn games, I love story driven experiences (when written well), I love games that make you reflect on your own life... This game, just missed the mark for me. Firstly, THIS IS NOT A PLATFORMER as it's sometimes alluded to. And as far as "point and click goes", there's not much puzzle solving going on. This game is more akin to a walking simulator (just in 2D), where you explore the world and meet various characters. So how is the story? For me, it was an exercise in boredom. I love complex stories of any genre, but this game just felt very ... hipstery. It's like a version of real life, but even more boring. "Mom and dad look older", "that guy I didn't know in highschool lost his job", etc. There is plenty of quippy and quirky attempts at humour, which just made me roll my eyes. I had to quit after the 2 hour mark or so. The story elements they later throw in to spice things up were too few, and just not interesting enough. So maybe I missed some major payoff later on, but I honestly don't care to commit myself to more curt dialogue. If you like that "I'm so special, so I act really mundanely, and am sarcastic about everything" type of writing, you'll enjoy this. Perhaps if you're in your late teens, this game will strike closer to home for you, as it has a very "young adult finding their place" feel, but the execution of this "slice of boring real life" storytelling was just not for me. Clearly many people liked it, so if this looks like your thing, give it a chance. Maybe I'm just playing this game at the wrong time in my life. I'm not a lonely early 20s person just who failed out of college, and is looking to find their place in a boring medium sized town. But if you find yourself bored after the first hour, it doesn't really get much better, so you may want to get a refund at that point.

Night in the Woods is a very compelling experience. The story, the atmosphere, the characters, and the sound, are all extremely well done. I highly enjoyed my time with much of the main story. Unfortunitely, many of the minigames were not up to snuff and impossible to practice unless you're willing to replay the game from start over and over. Some minigames appear once and never again. Maybe I would give the game an extra star if I didn't fail so often, but fail I did and my experience suffered immensely as a result. I'm glad I played this game from start to finish. However, I have no plan to ever do so again.

Okay this game is not for everyone. It will either speak to you or it won't. It isn't Halo or Elder Scrolls or even Kings Quest, but if you lose yourself in this game and fully immersive yourself in it then the game has high rewards. For anyone nostgilc for youth or young themselves and willing to listen to the beautifully written dialogue this game is a masterpiece. The gameplay is a blend of some many games. It's a platformer, it's an adventure game, it's an early 90s Dungeon Crawler, Its a shooting gallery, its Guitar Hero, all mixed into interactive comic book. While it may not seem like this game has loads of player agency to offer at first there are boatloads of mini-side quests to unlock if you commit yourself to exploring every corner of the town. The town itself lends to the beautiful surreal nature of the experience. A middle America mining town with a dark past and a darker secret, and its use of both garbage and classical musics just drawers the player deeper than one could ever imagine. The attention to detail such as the ability to disturb acorns, constantly be collecting by passing rodents or scatter leaves as you walk pulls the player into a world that feels so tacticle and familiar despite its in your face anthromoprhic trappings. I could write an endless essay on how awesome this game is, but its better to just experience it. It's worth every penny. As long as you have an open mind about gaming, and don't expect a fast paced horror experience, this game will be one of the best games you ever play. For me, it definitley has a spot on my top 20 of all time. It's just that good.