Night in the Woods (2017)

finished NitW the other day and it still sticks with me, largely in the context of other games i've played recently, chiefly rdr2. i think part of what i loved the most about NitW was that it placed me in the shoes of a character whose motivations often felt foreign to me (despite being highly relatable) and forced me to choose actions i was not really all that into, but did so in an incredibly believable way. In contrast to RDR2 that i've already described largely as a slog after chapter 3, it didn't take too long to "inhabit" the character of mae, to live her daily life, to explore everything out there and see things through even if i would have mostly done things much much differently.

likewise, the pacing and structure of the game really sells the idea of mae's life overall: days come and go, you have a couple of things you look forward to every few days, you hang out, you're largely aimless, you still go about things and just keep on carrying on. where rdr2's "life simulator" felt like it was pushing me to experience a certain rhythm of life undercut by a weird inevitability, NitW begins with a weird feeling and lets you drop into a sort of daily cadence to make sense of it all.

sort of incredibly, i felt a strong kinship with the surrounding cast. they're all fleshed out incredibly well, not just in explicit story, but in their self-consistent motivations and actions.

probably the one gripe i have with the switch release is that the loading screen goes for ilke a second and a half too long. it really cuts into the groove you sometimes hit. beyond that, great story that deeply explores motifs from Gone Home and Edith Finch but in a more playful and somewhat less contrived way. love both those games, but NitW is really on some other level even though it shares lots of dna with them.

I had a chance to spend a couple hours playing Night in the Woods last night. And it is already exceeding every expectation I had for it. It is wonderfully designed and thoroughly enjoyable. Although it's is a point and click adventure game at heart, it is also much more.

Set in the small home town the protagonist Mae, the game centers on her story as a recent college dropout. Beginning with a return to her home town of Possum Springs, to her family and her high school friends, Mae's story delves into themes such as local unemployment, crumbling industrial, civil and regional infrastructure, and the general malaise of a young woman not quite sure of her next move in life. The game is beautifully designed and animated, providing a softer edge to some of the main themes of the game.

Night in the Woods provides more than a simple point and click adventure, with the incorporation of mini-games that fit with the themes and actions of the game (mild spoilers ahead). One of the first is a Guitar Hero style rhythm game, as Mae picks up her base for a band practice with her friends for the first time since leaving home. Now I suck at Rhythm games, so I found it a bit difficult. Others might find it a breeze. Nonetheless, it was a fun and interesting way to incorporate story with game play mechanics (Update: it looks like Kotaku has a write up on the rhythm game).

Another mini game takes the form of a dungeon rogue-like on Mae's laptop called Demon Tower.

Last night I spent about an hour playing Night in the Woods proper. And then I spent at least another hour or more playing Demon Tower. You start on the first level, clearing out the floor, searching for a key, and fighting a level boss. I made it four or five levels before I forced myself to take a break for the evening. Demon Tower is very simple. You are limited to one attack, one dash (with cooldown) and nine units of health. As you progress in defeating level bosses you gain an extra unit of dash (you can see in the image above that I have five units of dash by my fourth or fifth level). However you also loose a unit of health, lowering the total overall number of times you can take a hit. Also as you progress, enemies gain additional attack abilities, from armor to the ability to fire multiple projectiles. The game clearly borrows from other games like Hyper Light Drifter, Titan Souls and so on. It'f fun and pretty addictive, and I can't wait to jump back in. All this, and it's merely a mini-game within the main game.

I am thoroughly enjoying Night in the Woods. There is an overarching storyline that is already intriguing and hints at a potential mystery to unravel. I am excited to see what the rest of the game has in store and what other mini-games await me as I continue. I feel pretty confident in saying, even this early into it, that this game is well worth picking up.