Eternity RPC Board
10-14-2018, 06:23 PM
Title: Night In The Woods
Official Site: http://www.nightinthewoods.com/
Developer: Infinite Fall, Finji
Initial Release Date:
Genre: horror, indie, platformer, story-rich
Price: $19.99
![[Image: DCBB1882A560EB277B5DAA8BA1E8B81BE935BBE7]](https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/956344776550342914/DCBB1882A560EB277B5DAA8BA1E8B81BE935BBE7/)
Per the official site:
"College dropout Mae Borowski returns home to the crumbling former mining town of Possum Springs seeking to resume her aimless former life and reconnect with the friends she left behind. But things aren't the same. Home seems different now and her friends have grown and changed. Leaves are falling and the wind is growing colder. Strange things are happening as the light fades.
"And there's something in the woods."
I loved all 11-ish hours I put into this game, and it's probably the most popular game I've reviewed thus far, so anyone who reads this is probably going to already have at least some idea of what it's about. But I'm going to do it, anyway, so strap in.
![[Image: B6CFA9C7C8FE3DE07090A5A8ADFD62DB8F0EED80]](https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/956344776550349057/B6CFA9C7C8FE3DE07090A5A8ADFD62DB8F0EED80/)
Although it's officially classified as a "horror game", and though I'd certainly agree that there are some terrifying moments and creepy atmospheric aspects to the game, I wouldn't say that "horror" should be the primary designation that NITW receives. Much, much more than just a horror game, NITW is an introspective dive into the minds of the citizenry of a crumbling Mid-Appalachian town - most of you Americans will know the type: Opioid epidemic, decent-paying jobs shutting down operations or leaving for bigger cities and being replaced by quickie marts (if they're replaced at all), gentrification of working-class neighborhoods, a lack of enough good wholesome fun opportunities for the kiddoes opening the gate for them to dabble in drugs and crimes. That sort of town. And that exploration is horrifying, but in a way that's much more tangible, much more real than zombies and vampires.
As the official game description implies, we follow young Mae Borowski after an unknown Bad Thing happens to her at college. Hoping to regain some sense of normalcy in her life, she returns home to live with her mom and dad and to reconnect with her high school friends. But her dad has had to take on a new underpaying job where he gets no respect from management. Her friends are working overtime just to be able to afford rent and food and barely have the time to hang out with her. One of her friends has even gone missing, and his parents have posted flyers around the town in hopes of finding him. Small businesses are shutting down every day. The town's religious folk (which is basically everyone) are grumbling about hard times ahead.
Not having found the stability that she was hoping by returning home, things slowly begin to turn sour for Mae, and for me, that was the most insidious and creepy part of the game.
And when she begins seeing ghosts in the woods and talking to God in her dreams, it's difficult to know whether it's all real or all in her head.
![[Image: 4F07561013FEE8A3BA192EC0FFCE4C1F18B706DE]](https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/956344776550372963/4F07561013FEE8A3BA192EC0FFCE4C1F18B706DE/)
God is a cat, of course.
Pros: NITW is what I want out of a game: psychological horror with deep exploration of well-rounded characters that are multifaceted enough to remind me of people I really know in a setting that hits a little too close to home. Mae's naivete and downright childishness after having come home from college where she was able to put off growing up (while her parents paid for it all) is grating initially when in contrast to her friends who have had to mature quickly due to life circumstances, but as you learn more about Mae and her issues and motivations, as well as those of her friends, it all makes sense and is really well done. I loved NITW's graphics. Just everything about them from the color palettes to the use of darkness and light to the texture that everything kind of has. Ugh, so good. The sound track was also great.
As always, with games with dialogue choices that influence the outcome of the storyline, this one definitely has replay value. I am aware that there are some parts of this game that can only be unlocked on multiple play-throughs.
Cons: I don't have a ton of complaints about this one because, again, NITW is what I want out of a game. There were a few little "side-quest" type things that didn't have really any pay-off other than Steam Achievements.
Again, as with Kentucky Route 0, there were some issues of "indie for the sake of being indie", but it definitely was not as bad as KR0, and I feel a lot of it in the case of NITW could be excused by the fact that the main characters in the story were a bunch of young Millennial who were actually kind of just indie kids. The loading screens were kind of long, I guess? I mean, I just don't play a lot of games with loading screens, so maybe I have no clue what a standard length is.
![[Image: 72F9576D5D023FA6E54BC3161458F283982221E2]](https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/956344776550369296/72F9576D5D023FA6E54BC3161458F283982221E2/)
My Overall Saljective™ Rating: 9/10. I think it's already been stated five ways that I love this game, so I'm not going to bang on about it anymore. I absolutely do not want a sequel to this game because NITW is perfectly self-contained. However, if IF and Finji made another game in a similar style to this one, I would be all over it.
Official Site: http://www.nightinthewoods.com/
Developer: Infinite Fall, Finji
Initial Release Date:
Genre: horror, indie, platformer, story-rich
Price: $19.99
Per the official site:
"College dropout Mae Borowski returns home to the crumbling former mining town of Possum Springs seeking to resume her aimless former life and reconnect with the friends she left behind. But things aren't the same. Home seems different now and her friends have grown and changed. Leaves are falling and the wind is growing colder. Strange things are happening as the light fades.
"And there's something in the woods."
I loved all 11-ish hours I put into this game, and it's probably the most popular game I've reviewed thus far, so anyone who reads this is probably going to already have at least some idea of what it's about. But I'm going to do it, anyway, so strap in.
Although it's officially classified as a "horror game", and though I'd certainly agree that there are some terrifying moments and creepy atmospheric aspects to the game, I wouldn't say that "horror" should be the primary designation that NITW receives. Much, much more than just a horror game, NITW is an introspective dive into the minds of the citizenry of a crumbling Mid-Appalachian town - most of you Americans will know the type: Opioid epidemic, decent-paying jobs shutting down operations or leaving for bigger cities and being replaced by quickie marts (if they're replaced at all), gentrification of working-class neighborhoods, a lack of enough good wholesome fun opportunities for the kiddoes opening the gate for them to dabble in drugs and crimes. That sort of town. And that exploration is horrifying, but in a way that's much more tangible, much more real than zombies and vampires.
As the official game description implies, we follow young Mae Borowski after an unknown Bad Thing happens to her at college. Hoping to regain some sense of normalcy in her life, she returns home to live with her mom and dad and to reconnect with her high school friends. But her dad has had to take on a new underpaying job where he gets no respect from management. Her friends are working overtime just to be able to afford rent and food and barely have the time to hang out with her. One of her friends has even gone missing, and his parents have posted flyers around the town in hopes of finding him. Small businesses are shutting down every day. The town's religious folk (which is basically everyone) are grumbling about hard times ahead.
Not having found the stability that she was hoping by returning home, things slowly begin to turn sour for Mae, and for me, that was the most insidious and creepy part of the game.
Spoiler:
God is a cat, of course.
Pros: NITW is what I want out of a game: psychological horror with deep exploration of well-rounded characters that are multifaceted enough to remind me of people I really know in a setting that hits a little too close to home. Mae's naivete and downright childishness after having come home from college where she was able to put off growing up (while her parents paid for it all) is grating initially when in contrast to her friends who have had to mature quickly due to life circumstances, but as you learn more about Mae and her issues and motivations, as well as those of her friends, it all makes sense and is really well done. I loved NITW's graphics. Just everything about them from the color palettes to the use of darkness and light to the texture that everything kind of has. Ugh, so good. The sound track was also great.
Spoiler:
Cons: I don't have a ton of complaints about this one because, again, NITW is what I want out of a game. There were a few little "side-quest" type things that didn't have really any pay-off other than Steam Achievements.
Spoiler:
My Overall Saljective™ Rating: 9/10. I think it's already been stated five ways that I love this game, so I'm not going to bang on about it anymore. I absolutely do not want a sequel to this game because NITW is perfectly self-contained. However, if IF and Finji made another game in a similar style to this one, I would be all over it.