NIght in the Woods (PS4) was a game I've been anticipating for a few years now. Images I'd seen of the game in development showed an art style which was right up my street and as gameplay footage started to come out I got more excited for it. I played a bit of Lost Constellation, a free demo of sorts which was a precursor to the game itself and this tempered my excitement a bit. It looked lovely but I wasn't blown away with the game itself. With my expectations lowered though I was absolutely blown away with what a strong game that Night in the Woods is. A bit of context straight off the bat, I tend to read books that deal with a lot of talking and the mundane nature of suburban America, authors like Jonathan Franzen and Paul Auster. This game takes on a lot of these issues and is brave enough to have a protagonist (Mae) who is honest in her creation. She's unlikeable a lot of the time, her actions seemingly selfish. Especially toward her parents, who like every character in the game perfectly balance humour and a serious tone. There was one scene between mother and daughter late on which was particularly harrowing when a few revelations came out. I stepped back from the game an realised than it had subtly building to this moment, as I'd been messing around hanging out with my old school friends and making mischief there was a bigger, sadder story being told and it was right in front of me. To go back to what the game is, it's a platformer with a lot of dialogue, interspersed with some choices but the bigger choice is what you do each day. Or more specifically who you hang out with each day out of the small group of characters Mae calls friends. This choice is all the harder as each of this small group again are written so wonderfully. I tried to balance things out between Gregg (a rebellious fox) Bea (a goth alligator) and less time with Angus (a quiet bear, who's also Gregg's boyfriend). The things done vary from smashing up lightbulbs, building robots and hacking water fountains. The game gates the story in such a way that I could only hang out with one character each day so the idea that another play-through would give me another bunch of dialogue and stuff to do is really enticing. Things move along toward a few key moments where the story reveals more, leading to a few set pieces I assume have to be completed, an embarrassing party and an alternative to Halloween. These moments reminded me how fragile all the characters are, I took such care picking the lines for the Halloween play, not because I wanted a high score or an achievement but because it actually seemed to mean something to Bea. Her story was the most harrowing to me, and the revelation of the life she's leading toward the end was especially painful but then in a moment of genius this is broken up with joyful little dancing mini game (along with even more charming dialogue).
The other element of the game is a lot of the nights, would at bedtime lead to a dream sequence which was a bit more surreal. This was when the game is most stylish, beautifully combining illustration, lighting an music. A few of these moments went on a bit too long for me but the issue I tended to have was that I wanted to return to the next day and see where the game would take me next (in the confines of a small town). The meaning of these sequences became apparent as the game wore on but weren't too forced. The games deal with a lot of big issues, death, cancer, suburban decay, depression, the economy, god and it never feels pretentious or preachy. The choice of designing the game like a Richard Scarry book gone wrong is key to this, had the game presented a lot of these subject matters through a more realistic eye it may well have fallen short. Everything builds toward a conclusion, a mystery runs throughout the game and I was concerned that it would suddenly be forced to the forefront of everything I was doing. The conclusion of it though was satisfying and had the slightest hint of The Wicker Man which is always going to be good in my book.
By the end of the game I knew everything I wanted to know about Mae and could understand every one of her decisions, however harsh they seemed. I was worried as I always am that it wouldn't nail the ending, that it would go on a beat too long and wrap up one issue that I felt should be left unspoken, possibly the biggest in the game. I needn't worry though because like everything in this game its timed to perfection and left me feeling like everything will be okay. Maybe.
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