night in the woods weird autumn edition gameplay

Maybe Mae is going through it a bit, so you make her sit on the kitchen bench and tell self-deprecating jokes to her mother, or you help her steal a pretzel just to see if she can get away with it. You feel that thrill reminiscent of school holidays, or blips of unemployment where everyone is busy with their lives except for you. There is a welcoming, explorative phase that feels like unbounded freedom you can decide who to talk to, how you talk to them, if you spend the day in the attic playing games or bass guitar or jumping around on power lines until you find friends to bug at their places of work. Initially, it’s interesting to find out who Mae is through her interactions with her parents, old pals, and random townsfolk. Night in the Woods is subtle and slow in its approach to this. Thanks to a mixture of frustrating dialogue options and mechanics, this game makes sure that you never feel like you are Mae, and this distance becomes wider as the game continues. The base assumption here is that people must think about themselves in order to understand others, and that to imagine you are them, you have to feel what they are feeling. The nature of many video games is that players can control an avatar, which encourages the experience of putting yourself in someone else’s shoes. I argue that, on top of all the wonderful little things the game achieves, unlike other narrative-driven games which validate our own personal experiences of mental illness, Night in the Woods forces players to empathise with people who are not them. Much of this can be condensed into how people feel about the character of Mae, and how far they’re willing to go as players to deal with her. It is especially prominent in discussions around video games and portrayals of mental illness, with both players and critics being divided on how effectively and carefully Night in the Woods has explored these themes. I often look back on it as a coming-of-age trojan horse that, when you allow it to burst open, ambushes you with themes around faith, community, class struggle, and agency.

The game is praised for its explorative nature, its exceptional dialogue system, and the combination of art style, soundtrack, and subtle game mechanics that give Possum Springs and its residents texture and authenticity.

The success of the game is reflected in its many positive reviews, and a cult following which sees fans creating memes, and collectively trying to solve unresolved mysteries that still weigh heavily over the town. Six years since being introduced to Mae Borowski, a punky college-dropout cat who returns to her hometown to find things have changed to find that life goes on in Possum Springs, despite the passing years. It has been six long years since Night in the Woods (NITW) was released.

Night in the woods weird autumn edition gameplay