I got this from the recent Humble Choice, it's not what I bought the bundle for (that was True Colours) but it's definitely what's made it worth it.

Beacon Pines comes across as a simple visual novel with a cute art style and an interesting premise, however, it also has a really cool mechanic where you can use 'charms' to change how the story plays out.

The charms act as words that can change what should be a dead end into a whole new story branch, it's not as in-depth as something a triple-A studio could make but I think that's to its benefit as although it has this cool new mechanic it also has the comforting feel of an indie visual novel.

I highly recommend this to anyone who even remotely enjoys a visual novel, actually just to anyone who enjoys a well-written story. It's that good.

This game is currently in the Humble Choice for February 2024, this is part of my coverage of the bundle. If you are interested in the game and it's before March 5th, 2024, consider picking up the game as part of the current monthly bundle.

A unique take on the Mad Libs of old.

Beacon Pines was a surprise for me when I first played this. The main mechanic of the game is that players can take Charms, essentially words that they discover by exploring the world, and then use them to fill in the blanks at junctions in the story.

This sounds simple, but the main goal is to explore different branches of the story to take the narrative in different directions and then return to the branching point and try different words. The story is well written and there’s a lot of charm in the game, as well as a great mystery at the center. While I’ve only seen half of it previously, I need to go back and play this whole game.

At the same time, this game has a very narrative focus on storytelling and world-building but still requires players to go through the world searching for the words to use. Also, the game can feel repetitive at times, and admittedly the game does a good job avoiding that, but going back into the story means having to see some of the same content a second or third time.

Pick this up if you want an interesting or unique narrative experience. I can’t think of many games like this, because this does something fresh and new. The story here is extremely compelling and the mysteries are ones that players will feel a need to unravel and see what’s going on.

If you enjoyed this review or want to know what I think of other games in the bundle, check out the full review on or subscribe to my Youtube channel: https://youtu.be/hVGME-pBU7g

This game is a gorgeous visual novel with really likeable characters and a fun mystery to unravel, I wanted to get to the end so badly I played it all in one sitting.

However, I do wish that the main gimmick of the game, the branching storylines, had more substance. It's the main draw of the game, and I was hoping there would be a lot more secrets to find, or more deviations in the timelines. Unfortunately, it essentially boils down to you going through two main timelines, and switching back and forth between them once you can't go any further in the one you're currently going through. I was hoping it would be more of a puzzle, but it was almost strictly linear.

But, it's still a good time nonetheless.

Fun game, works great on the Steam Deck. The story isn't super original or deep, but it did have some unexpected twists. The main gimmick of it being a play on "choose your own adventure" books was kind of cool, but ultimately it never really got past "find a charm to get a shitty bonus ending". Pretty much all you get are two timelines, which might not seem like a lot, but it's not really a bad thing. On top of them being fleshed out well enough, the game does a very good job with how it gives pieces of information about the overarching plot to the player (for example something in one timeline happens that doesn't make sense, but then something happens in the other that explains it). It also helps that the characters are quite likeable and the game itself is rather straightforward - it's pretty much just a visual novel. So yeah, the game is a pretty relaxing experience overall.

Beacon Pines is just a lovely and charming game. The art is gorgeous, with lots of expressive characters and detailed & colorful backgrounds. The narrator offers a decent framing device, along with the branching path gimmick lending some interesting interactivity to the storytelling. The story itself has engaging characters, a digestible mystery with some fun plot twists, and a satisfying conclusion. This is just the kind of thing that's up my alley and it certainly made me nostalgic for my childhood of reading Hardy Boys books.

I had fun with this game for sure. The story is good, the gameplay is fun and interesting and some of the endings are very impactful!

I have no complaints but this particular story didn't quite grab me the same way as other choices matter story based games do.

I still enjoyed it and the art is so cute.

Beacon Pines a modo de resumen es una visual novel que mezcla algunos referentes como pueden ser Stranger Things, Night in the Woods, Oxenfree... Todo con un arte mas colorido y un tono mas relajado y calido, casi de cuento o serie infantil.

En el juego tomamos dos roles, uno como un lector de un libro junto a otra figura que hace las veces de narradora contruyendo juntos una historia, y a Luka, un joven de 12 años que tras perder a su padre cuando era joven y la desaparicion de su madre años despues se ha quedado solo y con muchas preguntas sobre lo que sucede.

La idea base es que generalmente controlaremos a Luka y nos moveremos por su pueblo , Beacon Pines, hablando y interactuando con el entorno y sus gentes, avanzando en la trama y de vez en cuando obteniendo lo que el juego llama ''Charms'', unas palabras clave que nos serviran de cara a usarlas como ese lector que encarnamos para ciertos momentos donde tendremos que decidir a donde va la historia, generando varias ramas de un arbol y avanzando por ellas, muy similar a varias visual novels.

El tono mola mucho, la historia de misterio esta bastante bien, los personajes estan genial y todo eso consigue general algunos momentos bastante emocionales, todo de una forma muy amable y ligera.

Si te apetece algo narrativo y ligero tanto de gameplay como de tono, esta es muy buena opcion.

It's like reading a Three Investigators book. A well-crafted mystery but on its own, you won't remember much of it. It's well-rounded, but a bit too round. A good cast of characters, a semi-intriguing mystery with a few nice twists, good art, digestible dialogue, and meta-storytelling including the branching narrative gimmick... It almost pains me to mechanically list all these features as if I'm trying to describe the features of an accounting software, but there's not much thematic depth to it, maybe because it has so much breadth: memories, dead and missing parents, issues with your parents, issues between your parents, issues between friends, environmentalism and power, but they're merely means to advance the plot.

I wanted to write about a comparison with Carto, the predictable heart-to-heart conversations between children and the story branching, but I don't feel strongly enough about it. This is a rather fun story, but it won't change your life. Apart from making you a furry (which I approve of).

I received Beacon Pines through my purchase with the Humble Bundle, and though I had seen it on my Playstation+ subscription + Gamepass quite a bit, I had never given it a try. Something about the art style always threw me off.

Yesterday I finally tried it, and was instantly hooked. Beacon Pines is a story about a mysterious town with a well-kept secret and a 12 year old boy named Luca who gets himself involved in it. It sports a variety of timelines for the player to jump and back forth from, making different choices along the way to avoid tragedy. Beacon Pines is not only unique in it's presentation and gameplay, it's also intriguing and has a fun cast of characters.

The only complaint I have is that near the end it drags on for quite a while only to end rather abruptly, as such the 3.5 instead of 4 stars. I definitely recommend giving Beacon Pines a try if you're into mystery games or just into games that try to do something unique.

Cuki játéknak néz ki, de elég hamar egy rejtély- olykor horrorba megy át a játék. Egyedi történetmesélésével szép lassan áll össze neked a kép, hogy mi is történik a városban, kiben lehet megbízni, kiben nem, ki mit, miért csinál. A játék főbb gyökere az az, hogy olykor az összeszedett kártyákkal döntened kell egy elágazási ponton, viszont vissza lehet menni az előző döntésekhez, bármelyik eddig elért elágazási ponthoz, hogy az összes lehetséges végkimenetelt megtapasztaljuk, mielőtt elérjük a boldog befejezést. Az, hogy a befejezéseken keresztül mesél a játék, szerintem remek megoldás. A játék végére szerintem már belezavarodott a történet írója is, néha nem lehet érteni most miért történt úgy valami, ahogy, de lehet csak én vagyok hülye.
+ A játék zenéje és a mesélője is remek

Sights & Sounds
- The quality of the art in this game is frankly amazing. Each screen of the town looks like a well-done oil painting. Although I'm not the biggest fan of the character designs (maybe just a tick too cutesy for me), I can recognize the amount of work and effort that went into them. They're so expressive and full of life
- The soundtrack is a nice mix of soulful pianos and acoustic guitars playing songs in minor keys for the sad or hopeful parts. The tracks for the tenser moments contain a lot of percussion and synth
- Most of the game features a narrator whose performance is good, but I think she sounds a little too cheerful in some moments that don't call for it. It was a little jarring to experience a riveting scene in which the inner workings of a conspiracy are being figured out when a perky Midwestern mom decides to chime it

Story & Vibes
- That last bullet point should clue you in that all is not as idyllic and serene as it initially seems in Beacon Pines
- You play as a 12 year old little deer named Luka, whose father has passed away and whose mother has been missing for six months. He's now living with his grandmother, who has come to care for him in his parents' absence. Luka's obviously going through a lot for such a young kid and just wants to enjoy a summer of getting up to mischief with his best friend, a bobcat named Rolo
- Things start going off the rails pretty quickly. Luka and Rolo go to investigate some strange lights at what is supposed to be an abandoned fertilizer factory at the end of town, but what they find there kicks off the discovery of a conspiracy full of intrigue, fraud, and murder
- However, it isn't all tense. Beacon Pines has some incredibly soulful moments that run the gamut from heartwarming to heartbreaking. It's just nice to play a game that makes you feel something, you know?
- The vibes are those of a YA novel. Beacon Pines feels like a book I would have read as a kid

Playability & Replayability
- The central conceit of Beacon Pines involves the narrator/author trying out different potential narrative arcs for the story of the town, focusing on Luka's perspective
- As you make your way through the story, you'll eventually come upon different "charms". Charms are key words that you can insert at pivotal points in the story to change the narrative path you're currently headed down. Sometimes, you'll have multiple charms to choose from. Other times, you may find yourself railroaded into a certain path since you only have one appropriate charm
- You can pause the game and return to a narrative choice at any point. This is important since you will sometimes have to follow a narrative path for several chapters before finding a charm necessary for making the correct choice in a decision that took place much earlier in the story
- The end result is a compelling mystery adventure game with an interesting set of narrative branches. If you want to understand the full plot and see some of the funnier and more absurd scenes, you'll need to head down every path and try out every charm you can
- Because I explored the whole game on my first playthrough, it'll be a while before I feel like a replay. It's a good story, so I may be back some years down the road

Overall Impressions & Performance
- I was a little unwilling to pull this off my backlog initially. I've been playing a lot of adventure games lately and I wasn't totally onboard with the character designs. But in the end, I was quite pleased and surprised by Beacon Pines
- The game ran perfectly on the Steam Deck

Final Verdict
- 8.5/10. Just an all-around good game with loads of polish. Great mystery, great characters, and great presentation all blend together to make Beacon Pines a game I'd be happy to recommend to anyone who loves short, story-first titles

An interesting little experience. It is essentially a choose your own adventure book, but made into a video game. There are a few branching paths, but only one "ideal" ending. It is cool to see how things can play out, or even get additional story or context to this world on alternate paths, even though they end bad for the characters. The game tries to ensure that you visit all paths before the "correct" path by having you collect words that can be changed out for pivotal scenes. Most of the story based words are found in various points along all the paths you can take, which makes you feel good about going down a doomed path, since you earn something for it. The story felt very 80s sci-fi, with some mystery and conspiracy to uncover. Short little fun game.