night in the woods can be reductively described as a narrative focused game with very light platformer elements that feels like an 80's spielberg movie if spielberg was a bisexual crust punk whose grandparents fought in the battle for blair mountain. i adore it and everything it is trying to do and how, like many of the games i've recently played, it never succumbs to doomerism and nhilism. it always states its belief that a better world is possible and that it is being robbed from us by leaders who are completely out of touch with what a community needs to survive, and even denying a community a dignified death. nitw tells us that the people we should surround ourselves with are the ones who also are willing to fight for a better world for all of us, and that we should take power in that. it's also a game that tries to instill the lesson into the player that they simply can't do everything, and that's alright. by its very design, you *will* miss out on certain things based on the choices you make, but the story dosen't drastically change, only the character moments do. and that's, in my opinon, a stronger system then the usual "%PERSON WILL REMEMBER THAT" systems that make a false promise to the player that Their Actions Have Consequences when really those choices usually only change a few voice lines and nothing else. the aesthetics of nitw are extremely charming and unique (at least they were in 2017!), with really fun character designs and animations and a fantastic soundtrack (though GOD do i wish there were some vocal covers with some growly Mark Lanegan sounding vocalist) that all empowers the narrative and characters, with a highlight being the bass playing minigames (that i am sadly terrible at) and some of the act 3 music becoming quasi-industrial at times. some minor critiques i had are mostly due to the use of the 2d side-scrolling perspective making traversal a little bit confusing at times, but you quickly get used to it and a single minor bug that happened on an underground boat that caused the sequence to repeat. in conclusion, nitw is highly recommended and also gregg rulz ok.

night in the woods can be reductively described as a narrative focused game with very light platformer elements that feels like an 80's spielberg movie if spielberg was a bisexual crust punk whose grandparents fought in the battle for blair mountain. i adore it and everything it is trying to do and how, like many of the games i've recently played, it never succumbs to doomerism and nhilism. it always states its belief that a better world is possible and that it is being robbed from us by leaders who are completely out of touch with what a community needs to survive, and even denying a community a dignified death. nitw tells us that the people we should surround ourselves with are the ones who also are willing to fight for a better world for all of us, and that we should take power in that. it's also a game that tries to instill the lesson into the player that they simply can't do everything, and that's alright. by its very design, you *will* miss out on certain things based on the choices you make, but the story dosen't drastically change, only the character moments do. and that's, in my opinon, a stronger system then the usual "%PERSON WILL REMEMBER THAT" systems that make a false promise to the player that Their Actions Have Consequences when really those choices usually only change a few voice lines and nothing else. the aesthetics of nitw are extremely charming and unique (at least they were in 2017!), with really fun character designs and animations and a fantastic soundtrack (though GOD do i wish there were some vocal covers with some growly Mark Lanegan sounding vocalist) that all empowers the narrative and characters, with a highlight being the bass playing minigames (that i am sadly terrible at) and some of the act 3 music becoming quasi-industrial at times. some minor critiques i had are mostly due to the use of the 2d side-scrolling perspective making traversal a little bit confusing at times, but you quickly get used to it and a single minor bug that happened on an underground boat that caused the sequence to repeat. in conclusion, nitw is highly recommended and also gregg rulz ok.