A warm, moving tale of alienation and redemption in the era of late stage capitalism.

While slow in patches when it deviates from its core strengths, or occasionally fiddly in its mini-games, the game is buoyed by its dialogue, warm and charming art style, and Holowka’s soundtrack, which keeps even the occasionally clunky platforming from feeling too tedious.

Quotation forthcoming.

Its ability to swerve from the amusing hijinks of its vibrant heroes into very real, and very serious subject matter without feeling forced or unnatural was a pleasant surprise that kept me invested in its character drama long after I’d said goodbye to Possum Springs for the first time. But just like Mae, I know I’ll be back soon.

Anthropomorphic animals of Night in the Woods are far more humane, honest and touching than human-like robots of many other games that try to tell a simple, down-to-earth story. [Issue#218, p.58]

Witty, smart and great to look at, there are many worse ways to spend your time than a Night in with Night in the Woods.

Night in the Woods is a charming game. I was fascinated by its general atmosphere, graphics and music, which I found amazing. It’s a good adventure overall, with very well written dialogue, but its bare mechanics made it relatively boring for me. The player doesn’t really have to do that much, remaining extremely passive. It’s interesting how the designers were able to deal with difficult themes such as depression, anxiety and child abuse in a very congenial way, without sounding too inane or obnoxious, but they did put a lot of accent on these aspects making the real plot marginal.