Fall of Porcupine Review (Hibernatix)
High hopes but no satisfying game.
I have played the predecessor Night in the Woods before and I still love it to this day, for anyone reading this and considering this game, go buy Night in the Woods instead, but to anyone still reading I will summarize the goods and the bads in the following section.
I will not focus on what the game is or its story for the most part.
The good:
- The Art styles
Fall of Porcupine has a distinct visual art style best resembled by the game "Night in the Woods" and this was the main reason for me to buy it as I hoped for it to be a worthy sequel.
-The main story
It is of a doctor in his residency years. The idea is catchy and not seen often in games before. It is interesting to show the different parts of the medical sector working together.
The Bad:
- The interactions with the characters:
There are not many dialogue choices and later in the game there are even viewers or none.
Most of the game is a story that you progress through without shaping the main character’s personality.
- The atmosphere
The game does not feel populated by people going on their daily routine and shops to visit and places to see. Most of the time you will travel from on location (most often your home) to another location ( most often the Hospital) but on your way only a hand full of NPC's will have dialogue options and nearly none of them will have you to decide what to say. Thos travel times feel long and take up a good chunk of the game, just walking. There are only view times where locations are harder to reach that will yield a benefit (having to climb a house to reach a Head or an NPC) but these events are always visible to the player and easy to reach making them nearly impossible to miss.
- The Consequences
No matter what you do or don't do, the story will progress at one pace and you cannot influence that or your relation to any of the NPC's. No minigame you fail or succeed in will have a lasting effect, not visiting locations daily will have just a bit of an impact on the small progression with the NPCs there.
- The Bugs
I encountered several game breaking bugs: - the fuse box that you had to activate was not interactable, some dialogue did not progress, the phone did not open, NPC'S having the same dialogue or non and several minor visual glitches.
- The Music
The music has a small but not interesting set of pieces, with the title screen music being the most prominent. I would have liked a whider variety of soundtracks.
- The End
The ending comes to shot and sudden and you are left with a feel of disbelief, you were not able to say goodbye to the characters you have meet and see the locations once again in a different light but a hart cut and a unscippable credit scene makes it really unpleasant
The game felt more like a stretched piece of gum that loses its flavor with each hour you play than the exiting story it could have been. I felt a lot of NPCs were not fully written out like the paramedics with whom you will have only really limited interaction possibilities.
I want to make a view comparison of the (NITW) Night in the Woods and explain what is missing in this game.
NITW had a lively city with lots of locations that you could visit and a lot of NPC'S at those locations. Each day their dialogue changed in a meaningful way and reflected your actions towards them, there were poems, story’s and friendships to be had, none of those are seen here (FOP). There were special cutsceens that you earn from having interacted often enough with on NPC and there where special events trigged by your action. Often these events were interactive and fun and so different. And don't forget about Deamon Tower.
The Soundtrack was amazing, and you can listen to it even when not playing NITW.
Fall of porcupine should have been the perfect sequel to NITW as previously you played a collage dropout dealing with the problems of going back to your hometown and in FOP you play a collage graduate who must deal with a bad life as well even though he reaches everything May (NITW min character) did not.
All of that is missing in Fall of porcupine and so much more. I am disappointed.