It's a game about thinking about what could've been, so naturally the ass inside me is going to take this review to reflect a bit on "what could've been" for this game, but I want to supplement that aggressive opener with the fact that the only reason I'm gonna bother being critical is because this is a pretty great game that you should absolutely check out if you like it when visual novels do cool things with the format.
Beacon Pines plays like a choose-your-own-adventure book, except it's mostly pretty linear. What this means is it successfully engages the reader in learning about the world in specific ways, then returns the viewer to points where some delicious dramatic irony can play out as the characters are put in different situations where them not knowing what some characters are hiding is part of the fun. The game does something pretty miraculous in somehow pulling this off without ever going through any scenes of groan-worthy "re-explaining" and maintains that tension largely until its final hour, something I struggle to name a single AAA game in recent memory bothering to put effort into despite constantly advertising themselves as "choices matter" with "immersive worlds". This is just a really cool way to tell a story and fill in background details while still having a central plot that moves along on its own. It's a game that ties this choice of presentation with themes of growing up, thinking about the conversations that could've been, things that could've played out differently if you just had a bit more knowledge of what was going on. If you couldn't tell, the art is also quite pretty, but the real showstopper has to be the soundtrack which I stopped to gawk at a few times.
However, as with a lot of indie games, I just can't help but wish there was more. I wish it went deeper into the body horror (a phrase I notice I've been saying more and more these days when evaluating media but I digress); I wish the game didn't tease so many text options then rarely ever give opportunities where they felt like you were really choosing something significant; I wish they had the courage to not resolve so many plot points in the epilogue; I wish they did more with the juxtaposition between storytelling and reality. It feels like a game I wanted to love, because at the pique of my interest it really excited me, but it ends things fizzling out on a bittersweet note right when things look like they might get more complicated. It accepts the unfortunate cliche of beating the villain by finding out what his plan was and having the story just end there.
Beacon Pines plays like a choose-your-own-adventure book, except it's mostly pretty linear. What this means is it successfully engages the reader in learning about the world in specific ways, then returns the viewer to points where some delicious dramatic irony can play out as the characters are put in different situations where them not knowing what some characters are hiding is part of the fun. The game does something pretty miraculous in somehow pulling this off without ever going through any scenes of groan-worthy "re-explaining" and maintains that tension largely until its final hour, something I struggle to name a single AAA game in recent memory bothering to put effort into despite constantly advertising themselves as "choices matter" with "immersive worlds". This is just a really cool way to tell a story and fill in background details while still having a central plot that moves along on its own. It's a game that ties this choice of presentation with themes of growing up, thinking about the conversations that could've been, things that could've played out differently if you just had a bit more knowledge of what was going on. If you couldn't tell, the art is also quite pretty, but the real showstopper has to be the soundtrack which I stopped to gawk at a few times.
However, as with a lot of indie games, I just can't help but wish there was more. I wish it went deeper into the body horror (a phrase I notice I've been saying more and more these days when evaluating media but I digress); I wish the game didn't tease so many text options then rarely ever give opportunities where they felt like you were really choosing something significant; I wish they had the courage to not resolve so many plot points in the epilogue; I wish they did more with the juxtaposition between storytelling and reality. It feels like a game I wanted to love, because at the pique of my interest it really excited me, but it ends things fizzling out on a bittersweet note right when things look like they might get more complicated. It accepts the unfortunate cliche of beating the villain by finding out what his plan was and having the story just end there.