Damn, being a 20ish year old with no job or hope in life is quite relatable
i liked it! i feel like some of it isn't for me though, and i don't see myself coming back to this game to do gregg's side of things. i do, however, appreciate the messages and themes, and the atmosphere and design are top notch
Black Panther for midwesterners who will never be able to afford a house.
It's technically well-made, but I hated every single thing about it. Definitely not my kind of game.
I'm sorry but this art style will never get a sincere emotional reaction out of it, it totally undermines what they were trying to do. I'd be more forgiving if this game out in 2007, but in 2017 this "alternative-twee" aesthetic was already supremely tiresome and annoying.
ANGUS SWEEP!!!
This quote changed my life btw "This won't stop until I die. But when die, I want it to hurt. When my friends leave, when I have to let go when this entire town is wiped off the map, I want it to hurt. Bad. I want to lose. I want to get beaten up. I want to hold on until I'm thrown off and everything ends. And you know what? Until that happens, I want to hope again. And I want it to hurt. Because that means it meant something. It means I am something, at least... pretty amazing to be something... at least..."
This quote changed my life btw "This won't stop until I die. But when die, I want it to hurt. When my friends leave, when I have to let go when this entire town is wiped off the map, I want it to hurt. Bad. I want to lose. I want to get beaten up. I want to hold on until I'm thrown off and everything ends. And you know what? Until that happens, I want to hope again. And I want it to hurt. Because that means it meant something. It means I am something, at least... pretty amazing to be something... at least..."
I love this game to every direction of my heart, its beautiful. Rest in Peace, Alec Holowka.
game has a special place in my heart. 'Die Anywhere Else' has become something i write on bathroom stalls. i've written a six thousand word, unpublished Medium post about my trauma where i name my friends after the characters to keep them anonymous.
it's a game about eroding in a familiar place.
it's a game about eroding in a familiar place.
I love NITW! All the characters are super fleshed out and all have different views on Mae and her story. Mae is one of the greatest depictions of mental health issues I've seen in a game. And Gregg is a great depiction of learning disabilities! (´▽`♡)
This review contains spoilers
This game made me feel like I really was living as Mae. The way you go through all of her and her friends struggles and her everyday routine really makes you actually attached and connected to the people in Possum Springs. Its a great game with a lot of meaning behind it, especially for those that have just become adults or started college. It tackles the fear and struggles people face as they're growing up, the helplessness of change and mental health as a whole. Overall I really enjoyed it, definitely a new favorite.
The game about feeling lost in young adult hood. Explores depression, feeling lost and aimless, and things inevitably changing in life. Definitely feels very real, especially the dialogue, and touches the feelings. The game play is pretty slow pace, but I quite enjoyed it, being in the mood for something more chill.
Parfait pour la crise existentielle de la 20aine
never play this game in college, it WILL break you.
furry ai e tals
Well, a lot of this game’s intent went over my head. I can appreciate it for what it is in hindsight, but a lot of what impresses me the most evaded me on my first playthrough.
Its themes on mental health and capitalism are apparent yet the overal message is a little abstract. I’m fine with this, but it certainly impacted my first playthrough and made the ending fall kinda flat for me. Delving deeper (thinking more about the game and reading what some people have had to say about it), I really like what Night in the Woods has to say, and how it has to say it.
By far its greatest strength is its worldbuilding, and how its world is presented.. The game looks like I’m playing a children’s story book, which fits perfectly with Mae’s idealistic, forever-young view of her life. She seems to hallucinate as the changing views of her childhood friends and dying town contrast her own immature view of things. Childhood friends, who have matured more than Mae in her 2 years off to college, are navigating their feelings through their disparate, desperate situations. Greg can’t goof off as he wants to move to the big city with his boyfriend and Bea’s responsibilities continue to pile as her depressed father grows older. Possum Springs can no longer live up to its legacy as a mining town and opportunities are scarce.
It isn’t all bleak in Possum Springs, there are plenty of things to do and keep track of. Night in the Woods controls well enough and animates fluidly enough for a mechanically and tactilely fun game, despite its simple loop. There’s also enough varied content you can explore to find and miss out on day by day. I find that Mae’s gameplay of platforming across a makeshift jungle gym of telephone poles and rooftops; talking and listening to people; maybe partaking in some activity they’re doing, is fun! Specifically, jumping around the town like its a playground, with its storybook art-style, makes for a fascinating atmosphere, reflecting and adding to our understanding of Mae’s plight.
And yeah, perhaps some of the finer details went over my head, but Night in the Woods has a phenomenal atmosphere, one that is felt in its story, regardless of how deep you dive. Where its more abstract ideas fall by the wayside is towards the end of the game, which seems understated - and is! But this understated ending sat better in my mind with time. And certain moments that I felt led nowhere, I now see the point of.
Overall, I had a good time with Night in the Woods. I appreciate both its smaller moments and broad strokes. Its use of capitalism and religion in metaphors is a real strong point, even if I couldn’t immediately see what it was going for. And in hindsight, through a little bit of digging (I am not the smartest), I really do love how its themes come together in the end.
Its themes on mental health and capitalism are apparent yet the overal message is a little abstract. I’m fine with this, but it certainly impacted my first playthrough and made the ending fall kinda flat for me. Delving deeper (thinking more about the game and reading what some people have had to say about it), I really like what Night in the Woods has to say, and how it has to say it.
By far its greatest strength is its worldbuilding, and how its world is presented.. The game looks like I’m playing a children’s story book, which fits perfectly with Mae’s idealistic, forever-young view of her life. She seems to hallucinate as the changing views of her childhood friends and dying town contrast her own immature view of things. Childhood friends, who have matured more than Mae in her 2 years off to college, are navigating their feelings through their disparate, desperate situations. Greg can’t goof off as he wants to move to the big city with his boyfriend and Bea’s responsibilities continue to pile as her depressed father grows older. Possum Springs can no longer live up to its legacy as a mining town and opportunities are scarce.
It isn’t all bleak in Possum Springs, there are plenty of things to do and keep track of. Night in the Woods controls well enough and animates fluidly enough for a mechanically and tactilely fun game, despite its simple loop. There’s also enough varied content you can explore to find and miss out on day by day. I find that Mae’s gameplay of platforming across a makeshift jungle gym of telephone poles and rooftops; talking and listening to people; maybe partaking in some activity they’re doing, is fun! Specifically, jumping around the town like its a playground, with its storybook art-style, makes for a fascinating atmosphere, reflecting and adding to our understanding of Mae’s plight.
And yeah, perhaps some of the finer details went over my head, but Night in the Woods has a phenomenal atmosphere, one that is felt in its story, regardless of how deep you dive. Where its more abstract ideas fall by the wayside is towards the end of the game, which seems understated - and is! But this understated ending sat better in my mind with time. And certain moments that I felt led nowhere, I now see the point of.
Overall, I had a good time with Night in the Woods. I appreciate both its smaller moments and broad strokes. Its use of capitalism and religion in metaphors is a real strong point, even if I couldn’t immediately see what it was going for. And in hindsight, through a little bit of digging (I am not the smartest), I really do love how its themes come together in the end.
this shit is poptropica for gay furries
I loved the autumnal atmosphere in this game so much
The art style is very unique and charming and although the story is a little confusing, especially toward the end, all other aspects of the game make up for it
The art style is very unique and charming and although the story is a little confusing, especially toward the end, all other aspects of the game make up for it
A quality title, but not for me personally. Not a lot of meat on the bone in terms of gameplay, and the story is a little unclear in what it's trying to tell me. Seems like a veiled story about the disintegration of a bygone American mostly populated by factory towns and the workers there.
It’s pretty good and cozy. While also being terrifying suddenly.
this hit hard for no reason cause i was the irght age to understand this feeling
GS 30/1000 (3%)
I first bought this game back in 2022, played like 15 minutes of it, then dropped it without a second thought. I really like the artstyle of this game, it's themes and soundtrack, and i really want to finish this game, i just need to stop putting it off for no good reason.
Also, i'm well aware of the controversial background and history this game has with it's creators, and i WILL NOT BE TOUCHING THAT SUBJECT WITH A KILOMETER LONG POLE, SO DON'T EVEN BOTHER ASKING ME ABOUT IT.
Also, i'm well aware of the controversial background and history this game has with it's creators, and i WILL NOT BE TOUCHING THAT SUBJECT WITH A KILOMETER LONG POLE, SO DON'T EVEN BOTHER ASKING ME ABOUT IT.
This review contains spoilers
In the year I came back to my home town, my sister was born.
Most of the friends that I had forgot about me, and what seemed so familiar as a child was now alien. The bus route changed. A new McDonald's opened near my house, and a giant condominium blocked my childhood home's view of the ocean.
The sky was more grey than I remember.
This year I turn 20.
I'm every bit as directionless, confused and angry as I was seven years ago.
I think night in the woods struck a chord with me because of this. When I visit possum springs, it reminds me of when I was 12, in a place that was familiar and different. For me, it's hauntingly nostalgic, and reminded me of a time that I miss dearly.
---
Stuff I liked
---
The pit-a-pat of a pretty bad matte black cat's paws on the roof approaching a rat clad in a snug shrug is interrupted with intermittent grunts of effort.
The sound of everything, from the crunch of autumn leaves, the rubber-like twang of power lines, and sizzling of fresh pierogis.
The echoes of delinquent chatter reverberate throughout an abandoned subway. The scuttling of pets and other small rats (children) overlap with the sound of a sputtering engine of an ancient vehicle in desperate need of repair, a car and driver in no hurry to reach their destination. It's a small town after all.
The soundtrack is soft, the humming of the theramin and synth mimicking the whistle of a chilly autumn breeze. It feels like a lullaby. It's calm. Eerily so. But it feels comforting in its own silly, off-kilter way.
These noises go a long way to making you feel like you're there. It does wonders for the atmosphere of this unknown small town in the middle of nowhere. Historical possum springs. It feels cozy. It feels familiar.
Mae's dynamic demeanors are expressed in the smooth animations of actions and reactions to scenarios and inputs. Each character's body language tells you just enough about each person to know at least a little of what they're like.
The paper cutout feel of the art style makes the game feel homely. Like a children's book. The (smooth?) feeling of it's presentation matches it's wiggly and slick character animations.
It's easy on the eyes.
There's also something about the writing in Night in the woods that makes the world feel lived in. Dialogue feels like something me and my friends would say. An awkward slip of the tongue might inadvertently make another panic. Infuriating passive aggressive back and forths eventually explode into a heartbreaking argument. Poems by selmers. It feels real.
There's attention to detail in every offhanded comment. Fragments of stories of the town's inhabitants and escapades are drip fed to you via Mae's recollections and interactions with random objects in town, big events in the past alluded to throughout the game for you to figure out. Where everybody knows everyone. In possum springs, word gets around.
---
Mild Spoilers
---
Night in the woods is a game about mourning. It's about mourning a loved one, a childhood that left a long time ago, a town that used to thrive, now a shambling corpse of what it once was, a toxic cesspool of broken dreams. A black hole, sucking up all the ambitions its inhabitants had,and spitting them out the other side, listless. Hopeless. Tired. But in this town of nothing, empty town of no renown, people find solace and comfort with each other. There is love to be found, there are friends to be had, in a hopeless town where few can escape, where everything stays stagnant, frozen in time, while everything else changes. There's something about this game and it's themes that I find hopeful.
At the end of everything, hold on to anything.
There's one aspect of the story that really stuck with me, the feeling of needing to escape. Mae couldn't find her place in university. She felt so out of place, that she sacrificed everything her parents worked for to return home. Bea couldn't leave her borderline abusive household because how could she abandon her family? She couldn't go to college because she was poor, because she was dealt a horrible hand in life. Gregg and Angus are actively trying to escape possum springs to find a better life. It's everywhere, and it feels messy. In the transitory period of entering adulthood, I constantly feel like I need to get away from everything, that the weight of my responsibility as an adult is crushing me. Living is messy.
I'm the same age as Mae now. It's scary. But playing this game, feeling lost and confused, was comforting in a way. Maybe if you feel the same you'll like it too.
Most of the friends that I had forgot about me, and what seemed so familiar as a child was now alien. The bus route changed. A new McDonald's opened near my house, and a giant condominium blocked my childhood home's view of the ocean.
The sky was more grey than I remember.
This year I turn 20.
I'm every bit as directionless, confused and angry as I was seven years ago.
I think night in the woods struck a chord with me because of this. When I visit possum springs, it reminds me of when I was 12, in a place that was familiar and different. For me, it's hauntingly nostalgic, and reminded me of a time that I miss dearly.
---
Stuff I liked
---
The pit-a-pat of a pretty bad matte black cat's paws on the roof approaching a rat clad in a snug shrug is interrupted with intermittent grunts of effort.
The sound of everything, from the crunch of autumn leaves, the rubber-like twang of power lines, and sizzling of fresh pierogis.
The echoes of delinquent chatter reverberate throughout an abandoned subway. The scuttling of pets and other small rats (children) overlap with the sound of a sputtering engine of an ancient vehicle in desperate need of repair, a car and driver in no hurry to reach their destination. It's a small town after all.
The soundtrack is soft, the humming of the theramin and synth mimicking the whistle of a chilly autumn breeze. It feels like a lullaby. It's calm. Eerily so. But it feels comforting in its own silly, off-kilter way.
These noises go a long way to making you feel like you're there. It does wonders for the atmosphere of this unknown small town in the middle of nowhere. Historical possum springs. It feels cozy. It feels familiar.
Mae's dynamic demeanors are expressed in the smooth animations of actions and reactions to scenarios and inputs. Each character's body language tells you just enough about each person to know at least a little of what they're like.
The paper cutout feel of the art style makes the game feel homely. Like a children's book. The (smooth?) feeling of it's presentation matches it's wiggly and slick character animations.
It's easy on the eyes.
There's also something about the writing in Night in the woods that makes the world feel lived in. Dialogue feels like something me and my friends would say. An awkward slip of the tongue might inadvertently make another panic. Infuriating passive aggressive back and forths eventually explode into a heartbreaking argument. Poems by selmers. It feels real.
There's attention to detail in every offhanded comment. Fragments of stories of the town's inhabitants and escapades are drip fed to you via Mae's recollections and interactions with random objects in town, big events in the past alluded to throughout the game for you to figure out. Where everybody knows everyone. In possum springs, word gets around.
---
Mild Spoilers
---
Night in the woods is a game about mourning. It's about mourning a loved one, a childhood that left a long time ago, a town that used to thrive, now a shambling corpse of what it once was, a toxic cesspool of broken dreams. A black hole, sucking up all the ambitions its inhabitants had,and spitting them out the other side, listless. Hopeless. Tired. But in this town of nothing, empty town of no renown, people find solace and comfort with each other. There is love to be found, there are friends to be had, in a hopeless town where few can escape, where everything stays stagnant, frozen in time, while everything else changes. There's something about this game and it's themes that I find hopeful.
At the end of everything, hold on to anything.
There's one aspect of the story that really stuck with me, the feeling of needing to escape. Mae couldn't find her place in university. She felt so out of place, that she sacrificed everything her parents worked for to return home. Bea couldn't leave her borderline abusive household because how could she abandon her family? She couldn't go to college because she was poor, because she was dealt a horrible hand in life. Gregg and Angus are actively trying to escape possum springs to find a better life. It's everywhere, and it feels messy. In the transitory period of entering adulthood, I constantly feel like I need to get away from everything, that the weight of my responsibility as an adult is crushing me. Living is messy.
I'm the same age as Mae now. It's scary. But playing this game, feeling lost and confused, was comforting in a way. Maybe if you feel the same you'll like it too.
A lot of what this game has to say is done before, and it's execution may be pretty shallow in practice, and the gameplay may be nonexistent outside of like a handful of core moments, with the only other ones being in hangouts that let you pick between kinda sad story and TV static story but you get to play minigames (why not let you do both??)
Maybe it does do a shit job at illustrating that the town is a bit shitty with their strongest examples being "a cool restaurant shut down" and "theres birds in an abandoned spot" and "people dont like it when you climb on things but you do it anyways"
Maybe the strong visual identity of the game has minimal value other than looking kind of cool, with the dream segments meaning absolutely nothing but being kinda cool.
Maybe the world-building for the town is a bunch of vapid bullshit that was made up on the spot, and there's little thought into what goes on past what's directly shown to you.
Maybe Mae is a generic failure dropout protagonist and her strongest characteristics include being a bit eccentric and clingy to her childhood.
Maybe the 2 major side characters are cardboard cutouts that have their entire characters summed up in a description of their personality with "The disowned gay guy who hates the system but is really fun" and "The girl who is poor and sad"
Maybe the ending is terrible and uproots the interesting things the game was about to tell with some shitty supernatural garbage.
But I like this game, I like the things it tries to tell even if it's pretty shallow and doesn't say anything major, It resonates with me a lot, especially now just due to personal connections and me being a sucker for the art-style and music the game has, I was happier to have thought of all that could be going on in the town and the characters lives and how they'll turn out, than how disappointed I was when nothing gets explained and nobody gets developed.
I'm never going to play this game again though, because I would probably actually start to hate it, I played it so long ago, back in early 2018.
With the indie scene getting larger and larger, and hopefully with more people being interested in playing stuff that isn't dangled in front of them (seriously, either dig through obscure indies on steam, or even check out stuff on Itch!) I don't recommend this game, you'll probably find a thousand games that hit the notes that this game does but better, just lacking the elaborate production value to make a whole "thing" like NITW is, not that it really matters in the end.
Maybe it does do a shit job at illustrating that the town is a bit shitty with their strongest examples being "a cool restaurant shut down" and "theres birds in an abandoned spot" and "people dont like it when you climb on things but you do it anyways"
Maybe the strong visual identity of the game has minimal value other than looking kind of cool, with the dream segments meaning absolutely nothing but being kinda cool.
Maybe the world-building for the town is a bunch of vapid bullshit that was made up on the spot, and there's little thought into what goes on past what's directly shown to you.
Maybe Mae is a generic failure dropout protagonist and her strongest characteristics include being a bit eccentric and clingy to her childhood.
Maybe the 2 major side characters are cardboard cutouts that have their entire characters summed up in a description of their personality with "The disowned gay guy who hates the system but is really fun" and "The girl who is poor and sad"
Maybe the ending is terrible and uproots the interesting things the game was about to tell with some shitty supernatural garbage.
But I like this game, I like the things it tries to tell even if it's pretty shallow and doesn't say anything major, It resonates with me a lot, especially now just due to personal connections and me being a sucker for the art-style and music the game has, I was happier to have thought of all that could be going on in the town and the characters lives and how they'll turn out, than how disappointed I was when nothing gets explained and nobody gets developed.
I'm never going to play this game again though, because I would probably actually start to hate it, I played it so long ago, back in early 2018.
With the indie scene getting larger and larger, and hopefully with more people being interested in playing stuff that isn't dangled in front of them (seriously, either dig through obscure indies on steam, or even check out stuff on Itch!) I don't recommend this game, you'll probably find a thousand games that hit the notes that this game does but better, just lacking the elaborate production value to make a whole "thing" like NITW is, not that it really matters in the end.
I think I got soft-locked but from what I played it was amazing. One of the greatest protagonists ever with a killer soundtrack and original gameplay.
Cried while playing it, multiple times
boa história e personagens, além do estilo de arte
Yes I finished the game 3 times in one month leave me alone
Aw yeah, this one's going on the Formative Pieces of Rozita Media Board - I say with tears in my eyes and my DNA shifting as we speak
this one hits hard as someone growing and becoming an adult and it connects with me really well