Night in the Woods

Genre: Graphic Adventure

Players: 1

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Review:

Night in the Woods is a graphic adventure that, despite the name, for the most part isn’t horror-themed, and despite its cutesy exterior of anthropomorphized animals, the story being told is far from childish.

Night in the Woods has players playing Mae, a college dropout who returns to her hometown for a hefty dose of reality. Her folks clearly love her and accept her moving back home, but at the same time it’s clear that they don’t really expect much of her. Her friends are still hanging around, having moved on since she left and arguably becoming better, more responsible people while Mae has remained the same irresponsible person she was as a teenager. And everyone in town views Mae with suspicion and disgust after some mysterious incident she was involved with years ago.

Despite the ominous name and cartoony graphics, this game’s story is surprisingly down-to-Earth, at least at to start with. There are of course more… ahem, interesting things going on in the sleepy town (to say more would be telling), but largely the story’s focus is on Mae, the sort of person she is, and her growth, or lack thereof, as a person. And while the player makes choices and those choices definitely affect the story, for the most part this isn’t the sort of game you play through for any sort of gameplay challenge, but one you’re mostly just enjoying the story.

To that end, I should say that the writing here is absolutely phenomenal. Virtually every line in this game is clever and witty, to the point where I cannot fathom any group of 20-somethings in a small town being not only so deeply snarky, but having such razor-sharp wit. If there’s one thing that’ll push you to keep wanting to see more of this game, it’s the excellent writing.

On the other hand, if you’re looking for a more eventful story, you’ll have some waiting to do before things pick up. Quite a lot of the early parts of the story are just getting you to know the characters and the town, and since we’re talking about a sleepy town and a protagonist whose maturity is in arrested development, you might find yourself getting a bit impatient waiting for things to pick up.

On top of this, the game occasionally throws a puzzle at you with an unclear solution, or worse, forces you through the game’s substandard music-rhythm minigame. If you’re already getting impatient with the game, moments like these are what will test your resolve.

Still, when it comes to a genre that’s focused squarely on story, Night in the Woods delivers with a thoughtful, extremely well-written tale, and as long as you’re not bothered by the slow pacing or the frustrating distractions, if you enjoy games in this genre, you should find this game to be an excellent addition to your collection.

tl;dr – Night in the Woods is a graphic adventure game that’s slow-paced at first and has occasional frustrations, but it has a good story with strong characters and wonderful writing that keeps it compelling.

Grade: B-

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