Night in the Woods Review (fire64)
This review was a long time coming for me, and even now I'm not entirely sure how I can express what this game did for me when I purchased it back in 2017. You'd think with 6 years to think about it I'd be able to properly articulate my thoughts but when it comes to this game, I don't know I guess it hurts too much. So I'll just have to try, I have to write something about a game this impactful on my life.
When Night in the Woods came out in February of 2017 I truly had no idea, it wasn't something that was really on my radar at the time and I didn't actually pick it up until about June of that same year, most likely on sale and definitely because I was drawn in by the art and music on the store page. So no, this wasn't a game I had been following and hyped for, this wasn't a game I thought I wanted, but it turned out to be exactly what I needed at the time.
When I picked this game up I was just a sophomore in college going through an existential crisis about what I really wanted to do with my life and my studies, I was a mechanical engineering student and, to say the least, I was struggling. I had chosen that academic path only for a few reasons, I was decent enough at Physics, Math and Chemistry in high school, I was led to believe by my parents, my teachers, and some of my peers that it was a good career choice that would make me financially secure, and finally, like most kids, I wanted to be an Astronaut. That wasn't really working out, and half way through that year I realized it was never what I wanted to do and I was really thinking about calling it quits, throwing in the towel and simply giving up on it all, I thought I was failure. The only thing keeping me going were my friends, my partner, and my very slow realization that I wanted to be a photographer and an artist. But I couldn't decide between simply giving up, or taking the risk of changing academic paths and throwing away two whole already paid for years of school and adding an additional two to the future, I was scared and unsure.
When I started playing Night in the Woods it was another means of escaping reality and the choices I was facing, just another game with a cutesy art style and some soothing music that I could use to distract myself. So, I was surprised when the story began to play out and it was revealed that the main character, Mae, was a 20 something year old who just dropped out of college after only 3 semesters because the pressure of it all was weighing down on their shoulders and their own emotional issues were causing turmoil in their academic life. When I met Mae I didn't just see another character in a video game, I saw a reflection of myself. Not 1:1 of course, but they were just close enough to allow myself to be placed in their shoes, in their head, and in their story.
I could go on and on about it, but nobody needs my entire life story on a steam review and all it really comes down to is this; I connected with a character in a video game so much that at the end of it all I decided to make what turned out to be one of the best decisions of my entire life, and I couldn't be more grateful.
The game play, the artwork, the music, the characters, and the writing, all of it is amazing, even if the story loses a bit of focus at the end. It's a game that I would recommend to everyone and anyone, but those aren't the reasons I love Night in the Woods, and "just anyone" isn't who I want to recommend this game to in this review. If, like me back in 2017, you're in your late teens/early twenties, you're struggling in life, whether it be your higher academics, emotional issues, or something else entirely, you're looking for an escape that might actually help you, you're looking for a character you can latch onto and a story you can relate to, even learn from, then I highly recommend you play Night in the Woods. It might not have the same effect on you that it did on me, but at the end of the day you'll have played through an incredible experience that I hope you'll love either way.
This wasn't just a game for me, this was a life preserver that was tossed my way at a time when I was drowning. It might be dramatic to say but this game helped to save me from that, and I will always hold it near and dear to me. Please give it a shot and I promise that at the very least you'll take something away from it.