I really wanted to love Night in The Woods. I loved the two supplement games. Surely this one would have been just as good, no? No... The pacing is way off. At first nothing happens for a very long time. Yes, you kinda soak in the atmosphere. Nice enough, I suppose. Soon it starts to drag on. Day after day, you develop a routine. You talk to people, but the choices don't feel meaningful. Very quickly the feeling sinks in: I'm not in a game, I'm in a visual novel. Choice is an illusion. After what feels like forever, things start happening, and I get happy that the game is starting... and then it ends. Just like that. Was the first 80% of the game just padding? Did they run out of money for the last 20%? The mechanics are not really present. This felt much more like Dear Esther, as opposed to any platformer. Yes, the third jump is higher. You sometimes use a baseball bat too, on inanimate objects. That's about it. Fine. Many things feel explained poorly or don't really lead to anything. Why does Mae get sick? And then recover suddenly? What are the dreams about? The pentagrams? Who is the Janitor? Nothing wrong with mystery, but when almost nothing is revealed the feeling of wonder turns into confusion and frustration. Am I watching Lost? The characters are distinct enough and fairly likeable. I feel like they could have benefited from voice acting, though that wouldn't have been cheap. The facial expressions are amazingly effective, I found. Good. Lost Constellation makes for a much better game. Things you do feel important, there is no meandering fruitlessly around for hours. There is magic and mystery all around you from the start. You even get to throw snowballs. Here the magic starts late in the game and ends very abruptly. Too close to the ground for most of the run, then flying too high until it suddenly crashes at the end, NITW sadly outstays its welcome. Maybe this would have made a better movie, or a TV series. A good novel. As a game it fails. :(
