There is something magical about getting to tell a story and working for the ending it deserves. It's one of the things that made me love the Nier games, Life is Strange, Zero Escape, and Telltale, but even if there's not much resistance, earning an end is something that hits hard for me. Beacon Pines not only feels like you are working to earn the ending the story deserves, but that the story is desperately trying to get you there. In a strange way, it's a co-op experience between the player and the game.

This gorgeous game is a children's storybook come to life, and has some of the most heartfelt and real characters I've seen in a game, especially children. Child characters are notoriously hard to write, but Beacon Pines nails it and delivers a vibe akin to Stand By Me or IT as a group of kids in search of adventure get tangled up in something much more dire than they could realize. By advancing the story you collect words, and these words can be applied in other parts of the story to fill in the blanks and branch the story into several paths.

The narrator, Kirsten Mize, delivers probably one of my favorite voice performances in a video game ever. She is passionate, hopeful, scared, and brave all at once, and brings real weight to even the most trivial of events. I played this game with a friend and recorded that Let's Play for Youtube, which you can check out at https://youtube.com/gameluster ! We had an amazing time doing the voices for the characters and feeling real emotion through the screen.

The narrator needs your help, trapped in a spiral of bad endings that she simply CANNOT allow to be the end. Take the time to help her find the ending we all deserve. It's well worth the time.