Night in the Woods

The first thing I noticed about Night in the Woods is how natural and real the dialogue felt. When the friends bantered with each other, when you make awkward small talk with someone you half remember from high school. Later when arguing with the mum about dropping out of college, I thought “Wow, this feels too real”, like, I was actually feeling the hurt in that room.

So, for starters, great dialogue. Reminded me of Juno or some other hip indie film. Oh, right, so what's the story about? Well, you play as Mae, a 20 year old who has just dropped out of college and come home to live with her parents again. You spend some time catching up with old friends and...

For a while there I actually thought that might be the extent of the game. I thought maybe this was going to just be a “hang out with old friends” simulator. And I was actually okay with that, because the dialogue is so good. But there is a plot, and that's all I'll tell you about it. Because this game deserves not to be spoiled.

This game does a pretty good job of dealing with themes of growing up, the loss of youth, disillusionment, that sort of thing. A couple of flaws: the middle and ending seem a bit short compared to the build up. Also, there is a period near the end where you can only walk really slowly, which I think was intended to feel dramatic but mostly left me frustrated. And I think maybe it tried to juggle with one too many issues by the end, and kinda fumbles it. Not sure I can explain that better without spoiling things.

But, the game is still very good. If I was to give it a rating (I'm not good with ratings) I'd give it at least a 4/5 stars. Pick it up on sale if you like quirky indie films and you can tolerate a slow start.