And You Thought This Was Just for Kids…!
Sure, the characters are all anthropomorphic animal people, your main protagonists are middle school age children, and the voiced-over narrator sounds like a very reassuring motherly figure who’s trying her very hardest not to trigger someone’s mental disorders, but…!
PARENTAL ADVISORY:
...the characters like to use everyone’s favorite four letter words, you get to see a dead body tossed into a dumpster (NOT a spoiler, it’s one of the scenes in the trailers), and the whole underlying conspiracy is about an evil corporation’s experiments gone wrong (also alluded to in the game’s description).
...
Thankfully, the writing in this game is SUPERB; it’s been AGES since the last time a game actually managed to get me to care about the plot or characters, and the sentimentality in it seems sincere, too.
This’s a narrative adventure game, that controls a lot like any other point-and-click game, but you can also use a controller if you prefer having a console-feel to the action.
If talking to NPCs, reading text and dialogue, and following the plot are your favorite things to do in a game, this game is for YOU!
The Choose-Your-Own-Adventure aspect to it is also done very well; you can return to any pivotal moment in the story at will, to make a different choice.
Your different choices are earned by exploring your surroundings, and have to be found before you can use them; if you’re missing a choice, you’ll have to go back and explore better, but if you click any everything that you conceivably can in any given area, you shouldn’t end up missing out on anything; I didn’t.
It’s not a long game, but when all’s said and done, you’ll feel like you’ve done a lot!
Finished this over 10 hours over the course of 2 evenings (100%, as far as I can tell; unfortunately the achievements aren’t - as of currently - incorporated into the GoG release).
If Night in the Woods (also recommended) was punk rock, Beacon Pines is like its distant classical/orchestral cousin.