Just A Thought: Night In The Woods

Night In The Woods is a game that I didn’t know much about before playing. Its critical reception and intriguing art style, coupled with its themes surrounding mental health (as briefly mentioned in my previous post), was enough to pique my interests. There seems to be a common theme here… (I don’t only play depressing games, I swear). This Kickstarter success story launched on the Nintendo Switch earlier this year, so I decided to pick it up for the console and give it a go.

You play as Mae Borowski, a dysfunctional college drop-out who is moving back in with her parents in the fictional small town of Possum Springs. You spend your days reuniting with old friends, hating life, and committing petty crimes. You know, common delinquent activities. The main gameplay loop is simple, consisting of a day-night pattern in which you spend most of the day striking up conversations with townsfolk and exploring your hometown, leaving the afternoon and nights for hanging out with friends and taking part in story-related events. These usually consist of solving puzzles and participating in mini-games that progress the story, which can range from taking a shot at a carnival game during a local festival to playing the Bass in your former band’s jam sessions (the latter being a particular pain point for me; curse my hand-eye coordination).

Conversing with the locals is where you’ll spend a majority of your time, and luckily for us, that is where Night In The Woods is at its strongest. If you live by the “leave no stone unturned” creed as I do, you’re bound to find a reward nestled inside of any given NPC’s dialog tree. Some stand-outs for me include a former addict turned poet, and a group of city council members discussing the current affairs of the town.

Like many other narrative-driven games, you are given some control over how things play out, be it through dialog options during scripted events, or choosing how and where to spend your day.  My only real complaint is that a handful of situations you’ll encounter feel slightly stacked against you, where available options are either vaguely defined, or lead to outcomes you weren’t expecting. This could have been a narrative decision, given that Mae is not exactly known for her social skills, but that explanation would leave me slightly conflicted. I’m of the opinion that being confronted with an unresolvable conflict can sometimes work to a games credit, but I feel this implementation ends up producing frustration instead of tension. Luckily, these are few and far between and won’t ruin the overall experience.

Unfair dialog options were not the only grievance I came away with. Hiding beneath all of the goofy writing and the odd small-town-punk vibes is a surprisingly dark and macabre tale. Without giving too much away, the motives and actions behind the driving force of the narrative felt slightly out of place, given the backdrop that the player has come to know up until this point. Not to mention the speed at which the conflict comes to a head and is then resolved, which was jarring, to say the least. My theory is that the developers wanted to create an external manifestation of Mae’s internal struggles, but were unsure how to weave it into the overarching narrative successfully. While I think developer Infinite Fall ultimately achieves what it set out to do, it certainly felt like a majority of their effort was spent elsewhere.

As a final note, if you are going to pick this up for the Nintendo Switch as I did, I recommend playing solely in docked mode. I played the entire 8-hour campaign in handheld mode (my preferred way to play on the console) and was met with a noticeably slower experience as a result. It is by no means unplayable, but if you can play it docked, you’ll definitely be better off for it.

At its core, Night In The Woods is all about coming to terms with growing up. If you are looking for an engrossing epic, teeming with action and deep character progression, you won’t find it here. Instead, you’ll find a small story with a big heart, whose characters and setting all feel cohesive and engaging. Despite some relatively minor flaws and a final act that leaves a bit to be desired, Night In The Woods is worth a consideration for fans of the adventure game genre.