Some reviewers and fans have expressed disappointment in Night in the Woods' seemingly sloppy ending, which does indeed seem garish and uninspired next to the game's relatable messages about friends, family, and the comfort of home. The cult members believe feeding the beast will bring prosperity back to Possum Springs, which has fallen into ruin specifically because, to paraphrase one of the cult members, the Government is more interested in giving handouts to immigrants than rewarding hard workers. Near the end of the game, we learn there is an actual cult throwing vagrants and punks into a bottomless pit that contains some manner of Lovecraftian horror seething in it. People are going missing, and Mae herself is having disjointed dreams about apocalypse and death. Mae's comfortable return gradually turns darker and colder as it becomes obvious there are some awful goings-on in the woods outside Possum Springs. Possum Springs' warm sunsets become tellingly dull and rainy later on. This is how the player connects to Mae, her buds, their histories, and their aspirations for the future. The story advances according to which friend you choose to hang out with.
Mae, a college dropout who's returned home to Possum Springs without explanation, wakes up every day (often at sunset – her lack of responsibility doesn't go unexplored in the game), and checks to see what her friends are up to. ( By the Snack Falcon's talons, there are STORY SPOILERS from this point on!)īizarre as it may sound, Night in the Woods' structure reminds me a lot of Persona 4, another game I'm currently playing through. Neither side comes out smelling like a rose, but Night in the Woods has a lot to say about the post-war generation's insistence on grabbing onto what it has, setting its heels, and budging for absolutely no-one – least of all the "spoiled, trophy-loving snowflakes" lined up to inherit the world. There's the crunch of fall leaves, the laughter of kids playing dumb, aimless games, the drip-drip of grungy hideouts favored by punk teens, and the subliminal worry that you're letting your parents down even when they assure you otherwise.īut Night in the Woods' most prominent, most relatable theme towers over the game like an eldritch horror rising over Possum Springs' mountains and shut-down mines: The endless cold war between Boomers and Millennials. Night in the Woods is wrapped around the inexorable deflation of America's small mining towns, but the game offers potent infusions of emotion and nostalgia anyone can relate to. Sure, I've visited dying towns, but I've never put down roots anywhere that's been mourned through a Dream Academy song. A few moved to Vancouver, a few to Montreal, and some even ventured a little farther north than the Golden Horseshoe (though they often come back when they discover property prices are still outrageous and winter sets in hard when you're no longer clasped to Lake Ontario's warming bosom). Most of the people I went to school with are still here and working decent jobs. I mean, if you're aiming to "make it" in Canada (that is, never needing to worry about where your next cup of Timmy's is coming from), Toronto is probably where you'll wind up, at least for a time. Still, I worried a little about not being able to relate to Infinite Fall's adventure game about Possum Springs, a coal mining town slowly settling down to die. Some content, such as this article, has been migrated to VG247 for posterity after USgamer's closure - but it has not been edited or further vetted by the VG247 team.įrom the minute I clapped eyes on Night in the Woods' Kickstarter trailer, I was hooked on Mae the kitty and her strange, shifting world. This article first appeared on USgamer, a partner publication of VG247.
0 kommentar(er)
