“Night in the Woods” is an indie game from 2017 that stole my heart within minutes of watching gameplay. From the score to the design of the game and the dialogue, there’s so much to this game that it’s difficult for me to put it into proper words.
To be honest, I didn’t expect to be so enamored by it: usually I can’t sit down and watch games like this without getting hardcore distracted and flipping tabs and missing everything.
Fortunately, the atmosphere and general aesthetic of the game kept me grounded to the screen. Witnessing the protagonist Mae Borowski arrive home to Possum Springs and the journey back home was an adventure in itself; even as a tutorial for the controls, it wasn’t boring, far from it. Witty one-liners from Mae along the way and a quick task to complete keep it fresh and fun, something that never feels like it’s possible in games from my perspective.
While the main storyline is all kinds of fun, this is also the type of game that pays for you to pay attention. For me, I found secrets I didn’t see any YouTubers that were playing it at the time find.
There was a parade duck hidden away in an apartment building, an adventure to an old field with Mae’s mother, a walk with a friend named Angus and much more. Truly discovering the game in one run is difficult, which makes the whole setup even better: there are dialogue choices and the player has the opportunity to choose which of Mae’s other two friends, an over-enthusiastic fox named Gregg (who is dating Angus) and a smoking alligator named Bea.
Depending on who Mae spends more of her time with, different minigames and scenes will open up. The replayability for this game is amazing and has kept me in a vice grip when it comes to replaying it whenever I’m not getting dragged along emotionally by Nier: Automata (but that’s for another article).
For me, “Night in the Woods” is an unforgettable experience. The narrative is beautiful and the characters and world feel realistic with the depictions of mental illness (such as dissociation and depression) and how a small town is slowly collapsing on itself due to outside factors.
The realism in a game where all the characters are anthropomorphic animals is a feat in itself as, while still comedic at times, the character designs aren’t used for joke fodder. Relationships feel organic and well done and all the emotions that come with the journey of Mae trying to readjust back at Possum Springs after leaving college hit all the nails on the head.
“Night in the Woods” holds the crown for my favorite indie title of 2017. All the tears I shed over it were not wasted and the enjoyment along with the pain that came from finishing it several times still sticks with me.
Even now, the words of the tagline still resonate: “At the end of everything, hold onto anything.”
Erika Brandenburg
Staff Writer
