[PAX East 2016] Night in the Woods Preview

I’ve been captivated by Infinite Fall’s Night in the Woods since observing it on a monitor at E3 2015. The stylish art direction and moody, slightly supernatural tone were enough to hook me, so I jumped at the opportunity to finally check it out in person.

What I played started simple enough. You wake up in your bed with a nasty hangover from some hard living the night before. Simple inanity follows; you chat with your mom, have the option of meeting up with various friends and exploring the town before heading down to band practice.

In my travels I spoke with any of the town’s inhabitants I came across, all of which had some very real and very human things to say, despite being a bunch of animals wearing clothes. One of the townsfolk told me about his path to sobriety and the therapist he was working with, another went on about how the job market has gone to shit and he’s without work, while others simply went on about the monotony of life in a small town. They’re relatable stories, but not ones that you see in video games often, which was refreshing.

Much of my time with the PAX East demo focused on giving a thorough introduction to the town of Possum Springs and the myriad of characters within. It worked well for what it was, and the writing was sharp and fresh enough to do a good job at establishing all of the town’s characters, as well as establishing existing relationships and giving a thorough backstory through lengthy conversations and context clues. The front half of the demo was chock full of these types of experiences, pulling me further and further in and getting me emotionally invested in characters I had no knowledge of an hour prior.

Unfortunately, following a half hour of world-building, I was thrown into a barren shopping mall and forced to wander around and examine the environment aimlessly until it became clear what to do. The transition between the two segments was a bit jarring, but once I came to appreciate what the game was doing, I warmed up to it.

At first glance, the early portion of Night in the Woods is about Mae, the 20-something protagonist who drops out of college and returns to her backwater hometown and has to readjust to the mundane routine of life back home.

On further thought and inspection, though, it comes off as more of a story about leaving and coming back to the most familiar place there is, the place you called home, and realizing that while you were gone, the world continued to spin and move on without you. The landscape has changed, people have evolved, businesses shudder and new ones rise in their place, and everything is the same, albeit completely different. There’s an underlying sense of sadness to the whole thing, and one that I am all too familiar with. It harkens back to the old trope about how once left, you can never truly go home again.

It’s a harsh and deeply affecting theme that I never expected from what is essentially a 2D adventure game in 2016.

Narrative aside, Night in the Woods is an absolute joy to observe. The flat, cartoony art direction is gorgeous and well executed, and the characters are animated in a way that feels well thought out and cared for. Leaves and brush are blowing in the wind on a fall evening and displacing when you run through them, and changing character orientation actually has a solid animation as you turn heel. Everything feels like it was crafted with purpose, and Mae has a sense of heft and momentum that I really appreciate.

While not perfect, gameplay is simple, with standard light platforming and puzzle elements and the occasional minigame thrown in. In my hour with the game I had to play a Rock Band-style minigame during the gang’s band practice, which worked well enough for what it was, simple as it was, as well as a simple activity where I needed to shoplift a belt buckle from a Hot Topic analog. Nothing to write home about, but as mentioned above, it works to break up the monotony of running around and talking to people.

I know I barely scratched the surface of Night in the Woods, as it apparently delves more into Mae developing some sort of paranormal abilities and getting involved in a spooky mystery in the nearby woods, which sounds interesting enough. That being said, with what little I did get to experience, I’m more than happy to get back on board again this fall to see how deep the rabbit hole goes.