Watching her struggle to articulate her problems and awkwardly dodge questions about college is hard-especially if you’ve ever been in a similar position.
Sometimes things are lighthearted, like sneaking into an abandoned grocery store just for the fun of it, but there are also serious talks about past mistakes or what exactly Mae is doing with her life. This is when a lot of the bigger-and stranger-events take place. Many days end with a choice of activity, like going to the mall with one childhood friend or "doing crimes" with another. It’s understated worldbuilding that enhances the impact of the main story-especially through a better connection to Mae, her friends, and Possum Springs as a whole. This structure manages to feel aimless without being purposeless every day is similar but not the same, and there’s always something new to learn about a neighbor or a dry remark from Mae to make the same few sights feel different each time. For most of the game, you take things day by day, and that slow drip of information bolsters the development of Mae and her friends. You’ll spend most of your time exploring Possum Springs through light platforming and optional interactions with the same few people you want to talk to, broken up by lighthearted, simple mini-games. These interactions both offset and highlight the mysterious elements of Possum Springs, a balance Night in the Woods masterfully strikes throughout the entire story. You can talk to an old teacher (who likes Mae despite her awful behavior) and an elderly neighbor (who considers Mae a horrible nuisance), and it feels very real, like any small talk in your hometown-just with Mae’s distinct brand of snark. There's enough small-town curiosity in those short, early interactions to be intriguing, but there are plenty of awkward moments that keep Mae’s homecoming feeling ordinary. A few people allude to something awful Mae did in the past, while others talk about a kid from her high school who has gone missing. She’s an angsty troublemaker with a bit of a rap sheet and a sharp tongue, and you spend her first few days back kicking around town and catching up with people, including her high school friends Bea and Gregg.
Night in the Woods follows 20-year-old Mae Borowski-who happens to be a cat-after she drops out of college in the beginning of fall and returns to her tiny hometown of Possum Springs. Its witty writing and character development keep its crushing existential themes grounded, making Night in the Woods one of the most evocative games I’ve played in a long time. From the quiet melancholy of doing nothing on a rainy day to the emotional vacuum of severe depression, I felt deeply, sometimes too deeply, while wandering through the cartoon-animal version of a small Midwestern town. Both intensely personal and widely relatable, Night in the Woods doesn’t just tell a story-it gracefully captures complex, often unpleasant feelings and experiences.
0 kommentar(er)
