Being a 20 year old college dropout ain't fun…
Night In The Woods tells the story of Mae, a 20 year old college dropout who also happens to be a cat who has come back to her hometown of Possum Springs to live with her parents. The game is represented in beautiful 2D animation , giving the game a cutesy almost Pixar feel to it which is married by the fact that everyone in this game is an animal. Bears, crocodiles, rabbits, birds and everything in between. Curiously, there are domestic cats wandering around the town walking on all fours which raises the question are the characters human or animals? Whilst all the characters are visually represented as animals, they do speak, think and walk as humans . So the probable answer, is that they are anthropomorphic animals and are the representation of humans in the world of the game.
The town of Possums Springs on the surface, looks picturesque and dreamlike but underneath, lies a wealth of problems, struggles and a town left behind to decay and crumble. All of the inhabitants all have some form of struggle as a result of being stuck in a rustbelt former mining town. Mining work eventually dried up leaving the town to fall apart, sending it into economic decline. The shop windows Mae passes by, are run by struggling business owners or have closed down for good.
The main mechanic of the game is dialogue, conversations are the main and only way to advance the story. These conversations are the heart of the game, the writing is excellent at capturing the feel of being a 20 something, unsure of what to do with your life. Perhaps the greatest success of this game, are the supporting characters, whist all the town's inhabitants are full of life, the most fleshed out of the bunch are Mae’s three close friends:
Greg, a fast talking bipolar fox, with a penchant for crimes works in the Snack Falcon. At the start of the game he is Mae’s best friend. Greg’s boyfriend Angus, a quiet caring bear who works at a video store, who is often looked to for advice and is also a fiercely loyal friend. Then there’s Bea, a crocodile who was friends with Mae during school but hasn’t spoken to her since Mae went to college and now after her mother's death runs her father's hardware store, Ol Pickaxe by herself whilst also caring for her father and keeping a roof over their heads.
All four friends are in a band and one of the first of many mini games you'll encounter is band practice, which is basically Guitar Hero, but rather than a pale imitation of it, it feels fresh as the band play their own songs such as “Die Anywhere Else”, with which Mae either horribly or successfully plays along to on bass depending on the players skill level. The player can also access Maes laptop in her bedroom, which allows her to chat with her friends and play popular dungeon crawler Demontower a 2D roguelike complete with bosses at the end of each level, different enemy types and a secret ending. Surprisingly this game is quite addictive which just goes to show how much detail is put into the overall package. Weather changes ever so slightly each day, some days it's raining, the seasons change from Autumn to Winter to Spring. The game is split up into days, by the third or fourth day, a routine will start to form.
At Mae’s laptop, Greg, Angus and Bea will say where they will be for the day an you can decide who Mae hangs out with. If she chooses Greg, expect random bouts of theft and breaking the law. Greg’s encounters often involve fun mini games such as knife fights, stuffing tacos in each others mouths or smashing light bulbs. They reflect Greg’s constant hyperactive state going from one wild thing to the next. Choosing to hang out with Bea on the other hand, involves awkward car journeys, awkward visits to the supermarket, awkward family dinners with Bea and her father and after a heated conversation in Beas bedroom Mae shows her inexperience with the world. Unable to relate to Bea’s situation, she asks her why she can't just run away to which Bea snaps back at her saying she doesn't understand and never will. Mae cries and is dropped off at home, unaware of the consequences of her actions. Her personality, again depending on who you spend the most time with, is changed for the better. With Bea, Mae begins to realise she is emotionally immature so decides to change that. With Greg she realises he is just as messed up as everybody else and wants to help him.
This personality change is also fueled by Mae’s suspicion that something is very wrong with the town, after she witness a teenager being kidnapped by a robed man. Upon giving chase she believes he can phase through solid objects so dubs him the “ghost”. Enlisting her friends to help catch this suspected “ghost”, Bea helps her pin down three places in the town where supernatural things have happened, the graveyard, the nearby national park and the headquarters of the Possums Springs Historical Society. Your three friends accompany you to each location, Angus goes with you to the national park where whilst stargazing, he shares his history of abuse and neglect by his mother. This explains Angus’s current demeanor and personality and he briefly explains his love for cooking since his mother often locked him in the pantry for days on end with no food. After his touching story, the camera pans out to reveal a hooded figure, wearing the same clothes as the “ghost”is watching them. Angus and Mae sprint for the car and barley escape with their lives. Her friends still unconvinced, Greg and Mae visit an old manor turned headquarters for the Possum Springs Historical Society. After breaking in, they hear footsteps and quickly leave, Mae catches a quick glimpse of the “ghost”, (these three trips can be played in any order, this was just the way I experienced them). These two encounters lead to all four of them going into the woods to find a group of hooded men sacrificing a man to a hole. They are spotted and they run, Mae is shot at, then slips and falls down a cliff, landing unconscious on the ground. She wakes up and barely manages to make it home where she falls into a deep coma. After waking, she goes to her friends and has a conversation with either Gregg or Bea depending on who she has spent the most time with. She confesses the real reason she left college, she had trouble with jus seeing people as shapes and lines since childhood, which manifested itself in college. This drove her to depression and living in isolation. So she came home afraid to say the real reason until now. Whilst wounded Mae ventures out it into the woods and encounters the “ghost” who confronts her, she is saved by Greg who shoots him with a crossbow. Her friends show up and accompany her to solve the mystery once and for all.
To cut a long story short, they venture deep into the abandoned mine and find a cult of townsfolk who have been sacrificing residents to a hole named the “Black Goat”. The cult leader explains, that doing this will help restore the town to its former glory and allow it to prosper. Mae doesn't believe them and leaves, the cult leader tells them to forget what they have witnessed. Mae and company go back up the mine shaft but are attacked by a cult member who was shot by Greg, he grabs Mae but falls off the elevator causing a cave in, trapping the cultists down there. Mae and the group escape with the help of Germ, a local weird kid who lives nearby the mine. They meet some time after and admit that although their lives will continue for the better or worse they will enjoy their time together in the present. They forget about their problems and go to band practice.
The game is relatable to any 20 something who is unsure what to do with there life, to any person stuck in the town they grew up in while there friends moved away for better things, to anybody who lost touch with their childhood friends and wants to reconnect. It is through these interactions with townsfolk, friends and family, that the game finds its groove, normal conversations turn into bizarre stories, listening to poetry, searching through rubbish in flooded tunnels or befriending the weird kid that hangs out on a roof and makes homemade horror movies. All of these wacky and charming conversations makes up the wonderful, at times sad, but ultimately real world of Possum Springs.
