One comfort game that I always turn back to is Night in the Woods. I decided to do a review after playing it five times, so here is my Night in the Woods review! Night in the Woods is a game that focuses on real-life struggles and mental health.
Rating: T (sexual themes, violence, drug use)
Table of Contents
The Main Characters:
Mae Borowski
Mae is the protagonist of the game and the playable character. A 20-year-old college dropout, Mae returns to her Rust Belt hometown of Possum Springs. Possum Springs in reality would be located in western PA or somewhere in Appalachia.
Mae also suffers from mental health problems, with one instance being severe. She beat one of her peers almost to death in that episode and was shunned by the town. Mae drops out of college after spending two years in her dorm. It is later revealed she dropped out because she developed a depersonalization disorder, where everything she saw was “meaningless shapes”. Mae also plays bass in a band formed with her friends. Towards the end, she reveals her real name is Margaret.
Bea Santello
Bea (real name Beatrice) is a teal crocodile. Shehelps run the Ol’ Pickaxe, her parents’ hardware store. Bea is a heavy smoker, but is trying to quit. Bea seems to suffer from jealousy and anger towards Mae, particularly when she finds out Mae dropped out of college. During Bea’s senior year of high school, her mother passed away. Mrs. Santello’s death broke Bea’s father, and he became unable to work and run the shop. This left Bea with the responsibility to run her parents’ shop. Bea is resentful of Mae, primarily because Bea was unable to go to college due to her mother’s death.
Gregg Lee
Gregg is a fox who is also Mae’s best friend “since forever”. He has a boyfriend named Angus and works at the Snack Falcon in Town Center. Gregg used to be very mischievous-committing crimes with Mae and Casey before Mae moved away for college.
Gregg also suffers from undiagnosed bipolar depression. Sometimes he has “really up up days” and other times, he has “really down down days”. The hardest part for Gregg is that he cannot tell what day he is having until it is over. Gregg is also impulsive when he has an up day, including flapping his arms when he is excited. He and Angus have a plan of moving to Bright Harbor by spring. They feel like they don’t belong in Possum Springs because they are gay. By moving to Bright Harbor, they feel like they’re more accepted.
Angus Delaney
Angus is a big brown bear and Gregg’s boyfriend. He works at the Video Outpost Too. Angus’ parents abused him as a child, physically and mentally. He also mentions having a brother overseas in the Army. Angus is also good at fixing computers.
The Side Characters
Germ Warfare
Germ (real name Jeremy Warton) is an 18-year-old bird whose only problem is being “stuck” in Possum Springs. He can be found at the abandoned Food Donkey and often can be found at band practice watching Mae, Gregg, Angus, and Bea perform. A special cutscene occurs if you visit Germ on the 4th, 6th, and 8th days. In this cutscene, Germ will invite Mae back to his home, where he lives with his mother, father, and grandmother.
Candy Borowski
Mae’s mom! Mae talks to her every afternoon when she comes down before heading out into town. Candy tries to be understanding, but is a little misled, like every parent. Candy works as the receptionist/administrative assistant for the church. Mae and Candy have a major argument when Candy explodes at her daughter as to the reason why she dropped out, but makes up soon after. Candy also has a special cutscene when Mae visits her at the church every day and they go to a field called Jenny’s Field.
Stan Borowski
Stan is Mae’s dad and works at the Ham Panther as the butcher. He might not understand everything Mae is going through, but he tries to understand as well. A special cutscene occurs when you choose to hang out with Bea on the third friend event in Night in the Woods. Bea and Mae are making dinner for Bea’s father (and themselves), and they run across Stan in the meat department of the Ham Panther.
There are some side characters as well…
Selmers
Selmers, real name Selma Ann Forrester, is Mae’s neighbor who takes up poetry. Like Mae, she has a journal. A special cutscene occurs if you listen to all of Selmers’ poems. In this cutscene, Bea and Mae are leaving the local library when they come across the Poetry Club. Selmers is part of this club, as well as the fisherman from the tunnel. Bea and Mae are offered the opportunity to sit in and listen to the poems. Selmers’ poem is about burning the rich businesses in Silicon Valley.
Lori
Lori Meyers is a 14-year-old horror-obsessed high school student who can often be found on the roofs of Possum Springs in Night in the Woods. Talking to her every day will unlock two special cutscenes. In these cutscenes, Mae will go to Lori’s part of town (near the tracks). The first time, Lori will place a metal toy on the tracks and let the train run over it. The second time, Lori talks with Mae about her life.
Synopsis:
Night in the Woods is split up into four chapters: Home Again, Weird Autumn, The Long Fall, and The End of Everything.
In Night in the Woods, 20-year-old Mae Borowski catches the last bus home to Possum Springs, after having dropped out of college. However, after two years away, her hometown of Possum Springs has definitely changed. Most jobs have disappeared from Possum Springs. This has forced people to work out by the highway and move out to bigger cities with more opportunities.
Mae discovers that her best friend Casey Hartley has also left town. However, her old friends, Gregg, Bea, and Angus have remained. Gregg and Angus have plans to move away as well. Bea is angry and bitter at Mae’s decision to drop out of college. Mae’s life is made more difficult when she starts to have a couple of weird dreams. During these dreams, a platformer part where you have to find four musicians occurs. To end the game, you need to find all four musicians and go back to the starting point.
The story really picks up when Mae is out at a Halloween party and notices a town resident being kidnapped, hence the name of the game “Night in the Woods”. Following this incident, Mae’s dissociation worsens, to the point where she even dreams about a celestial being whom she refers to as “God”.
Mae rounds up Angus, Bea, and Gregg to help her solve the mystery of why people are being kidnapped, and they eventually discover there is a cult of former miners living in the old mine just outside of the town and they have been kidnapping people who they deem useless and feeding them to an entity named the Black Goat. She also discovers at this point that Casey has not left town, but was actually kidnapped by the cult and thrown into the hole to be fed to the Black Goat.
The game ends when the leader of the cult attempts to chase Mae and ends up losing his arm when Angus, Bea, and Gregg make the mineshaft elevator collapse, thus trapping the rest of the miner cult and effectively cutting them off from the outside world. Mae and the team attempt to return to their normal lives afterward.
The Review:
I have played Night in the Woods at least five times but only completed it twice. Mae is a comforting character for me. She is someone who doesn’t know what they want from life, and who is essentially wandering aimlessly. I feel the same way that Mae does sometimes. Sometimes life feels like it doesn’t have a meaning (when she says that everything was just “shapes”). The part that hits hardest is when Mae feels like everyone has grown up and they have left her behind. Night in the Woods is a poignant story that feels so real and raw.
in Night in the Woods, Gregg and Angus are saving money to move to Bright Harbor. Mae feels alienated by that, mainly because she doesn’t have a goal in life. Mae also feels alienated from Bea, her former friend, as Bea has been forced to grow up and run her family’s shop since her father had a mental breakdown after the death of her mother.
Night in the Woods also touches on mental health, something that very few games do. For example, they showcase Mae’s journal a lot. Journaling was “prescribed” by her doctor, Dr. Hank, as a remedy. She had a dissociation episode which led to her basically beating one of her peers almost to death. Due to this incident, the other townsfolk stayed away from her, and Mae’s parents went into considerable debt trying to smooth over the incident.
Overall, Night in the Woods touches on the topic of mental health very well. You can explore Mae’s mental health through her journal, and her interactions with the characters in the game. For example, towards the end of the game when she is resting in Angus and Gregg’s apartment, she will either tell Gregg or Bea (whoever has the higher friendship level) why she left college and why she almost beat one of her peers to death with a bat.
Overall rating: 9/10
I gave Night in the Woods a 9/10 because it touches on the topic of mental health very well without being too dismissive or too immersed. I’m taking away one point from Night in the Woods because there is no sequel and I feel like it ended too early. Night in the Woods also does the horror genre very well without having a single jumpscare. The addition of Pastor K was very nice as well.
There is my full Night in the Woods Review. Have you played it before?
You can read more of my game reviews here.
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I haven’t heard of this game before. I only tend to play only a couple of games, but this does sound interesting. You have shared a great well-written review. Thank you for sharing.
Lauren
Thank you for reading Lauren! x
I didn’t know that such a serious game existed. I thought you were narrating a series or a book at first. Also, I didn’t know that games could have a clear resolution. I’m glad mental health is no longer a taboo topic.
Thank you for reading Justin x