This review contains spoilers
Everyone should play this game and follow Scott Benson on Twitter, best follow hands down. I think this was the first game I ever played with explicitly leftist values, and it was just so refreshing to see the values I hold portrayed so well in a game. There’s a GDC talk that Scott did, and in it he talks about how he doesn’t particularly believe in making games to convert people or argue with the other side, but he makes them for the type of people who already live in these shitty situations, and know how terrible it all is. Using the game as a way to say “Hey, you’re not alone, there are other people in the same struggle, and we can relate to each others struggles and experiences.” There’s something really beautiful in that approach to making games.
In this game you’re playing as Mae, a 20 year old college dropout returning to her small town rust belt home, which has been ravaged by capitalism and its residents are struggling economically to get by. At the same time as being a deeply political story it’s also a coming of age tale, of Mae just being kind of a disaster still trying to figure out her life as a 20 year old, and how all these problems of class, mental health, and just the general struggle of being a person and figuring out who you are collide. I love all of Mae’s friends. I love the story of Bea and how she had to grow up quickly to help her family, and was never afforded some of the privileges of her other friends. Gregg rulz ok. You don’t spend as much time with Angus as you can with the other two, but when you get an opportunity to hang out with him for a night towards the end, he delivers one of the most moving speeches about how and why he became an atheist, and it’s so, so good and refreshing to hear something like that in a game. To hear atheism portrayed in a positive light. To spoil one of the best quotes, and this is the most quotable game I’ve played: “I believe in a universe that doesn’t care, and people who do.” That is one of the most deeply human, kind, and compassionate things I’ve ever heard in a game.
To cap off my thoughts on this one, I’m gonna recommend this really well written piece by Trevor Strunk about Night in the Woods called The Monster at the End of Capitalism, but be warned that it will spoil huge parts of the game, so I’d definitely recommend playing it first. Here’s the link to that: https://mapleespionagelovesong.wordpress.com/.../the.../
In this game you’re playing as Mae, a 20 year old college dropout returning to her small town rust belt home, which has been ravaged by capitalism and its residents are struggling economically to get by. At the same time as being a deeply political story it’s also a coming of age tale, of Mae just being kind of a disaster still trying to figure out her life as a 20 year old, and how all these problems of class, mental health, and just the general struggle of being a person and figuring out who you are collide. I love all of Mae’s friends. I love the story of Bea and how she had to grow up quickly to help her family, and was never afforded some of the privileges of her other friends. Gregg rulz ok. You don’t spend as much time with Angus as you can with the other two, but when you get an opportunity to hang out with him for a night towards the end, he delivers one of the most moving speeches about how and why he became an atheist, and it’s so, so good and refreshing to hear something like that in a game. To hear atheism portrayed in a positive light. To spoil one of the best quotes, and this is the most quotable game I’ve played: “I believe in a universe that doesn’t care, and people who do.” That is one of the most deeply human, kind, and compassionate things I’ve ever heard in a game.
To cap off my thoughts on this one, I’m gonna recommend this really well written piece by Trevor Strunk about Night in the Woods called The Monster at the End of Capitalism, but be warned that it will spoil huge parts of the game, so I’d definitely recommend playing it first. Here’s the link to that: https://mapleespionagelovesong.wordpress.com/.../the.../
Pookiemookie
2 years ago