Some games feel so tied to a particular season that it just seems wrong not to play them every year. For instance, I’ve written before about how winter always draws me back to Sayonara Wild Hearts, and the colder months also make playing cozy games feel all the more… well, cozy. Between its falling leaves, the approach of Halloween, and shorter days bringing out melancholy feelings, autumn has a distinct vibe all its own that’s perfectly captured by one game coming to PlayStation Plus this week.
Night in the Woods captures all those elements of fall, from the joy of crunching dried-out leaves to sadness of sunlight fading, and so much more. As much as it is the perfect autumn game, it’s even more a game about trying to find a new direction for your life when you feel lost, the mixed feelings that reconnecting with old friends brings, and what it means to come home when the place you grew up no longer feels familiar.
Night in the Woods stars Mae, a depressed humanoid cat who just so happens to be one of the best video game protagonists ever. Mae is extremely relatable, but not in a way you necessarily want her to be. She’s made some big mistakes in life, knows she’ll make more, and doesn’t know what to do about that. She’s prone to lashing out at people who care about her even as she craves connection. She feels like a friend that most of us have had, and a person that a lot of us have been.
The game begins as Mae returns to her hometown of Possum Springs after dropping out of college in the midst of a mental breakdown. Back home, she goes to parties with friends, stargazes on roofs, and tries to find something to ground her in between band practice sessions.
For a long time, that’s what Night in the Woods is all about. There’s some very light platforming and a full dungeon crawler to play on Mae’s computer, but for the most part, Night of the Woods is just about following the story. It’s essentially a visual novel in that way, even though it looks more like a sidescrolling adventure game. The game is split up across multiple days, and during each one, you can choose which of your old friends to keep up with, while playing minigames covering everything from playing music to shoplifting.
If that’s all there was to Night in the Woods, it might still be a classic. Its story is funny and heartbreaking at the same time, and Possum Springs feels as real as any video game setting. It looks absolutely gorgeous, with hand-drawn art capturing all the multifaceted feelings of fall in a small Rust Belt town. But under the story of Mae’s volatile homecoming is something much more sinister and just as compelling.
There’s something deeply wrong with Possum Springs. Mae’s mental health takes a nosedive as she starts to have bizarre dreams and swears she sees mysterious hooded figures everywhere she goes. She’s convinced her missing friend has been kidnapped. While what’s really happening in Possum Springs is more extreme than what’s happening to similar towns in the real world, the story that unfolds is deeply recognizable to anyone who’s lived in the Rust Belt.
Possum Springs is suffering, its declining jobs for working class residents putting a strain on everyone and forcing the town to transform. In response, some members of the town have turned to extreme measures to keep their home afloat, even if it means some of the community’s less fortunate members have to suffer.
On its surface, Night in the Woods captures the feeling of fall perfectly, but it’s just as capable as capturing what it’s like to live in a small town that’s losing its soul, and to do that as an outsider who doesn’t fit in with what it’s becoming. It’s also a loving portrait of a group of friends who are funny and lovable despite their many failings, and how finding community with each other might be the only way for any of them to survive.
