Night in the Woods - disability and playability

 

    I have hEDS. All of my joints are always in pain, especially my hands. I also love video games. How does gaming work when your fingers slip out of place from time to time? Well, depends on the game. Thus, here is a review of Night in the Woods - and its playability for a disabled gamer with bad finger joints.

Title: Night in the Woods

Developer: Infinite Fall

Publisher: Finji
Platforms: PC (steam, epic, itch.io), PS4, Xbox one, Nintendo Switch, mobile

Controls: Keyboard or controller (I used keyboard)

Content Warnings: mentions of child abuse, alcohol, depression, anxiety, depersonalization

Playtime: 8-9 hours for one playthrough (impossible to see all content in one playthrough)

Pain level: 7 nightmare eyes out of 10

Worth it? Yes

Night in the Woods is a story-driven game about Mae Borowski, a cool young cat who drops out of college and moves back to her hometown. There she meets up with her mom and dad and her three childhood friends - Gregg the hyperactive deer (he looks like a fox but there's one line where he says he's a deer but who cares either way), Gregg's boyfriend Angus the gentle giant, and Bea the hard working and cynical crocodile. Mae spends her days exploring her childhood home, marveling over what has changed and what has not, and also avoiding talking to anyone about why she left school. She begins having strange dreams and things around town start to get weird...and it just gets weirder and weirder.

Gameplay is mostly running back and forth across the two-dimensional town and doing some platforming as Mae jumps up trees and walks across electric lines. You press a button to observe things or talk to people, sometimes getting dialogue choices and sometimes not. You can choose who to hang out with (Bea or Gregg) and where you want to explore, and these choices fill up Mae's journal with doodles and recountings of their adventures. You can also decide how much time you want to spend practicing your bass or trying to beat Demontower.

If you have pain in your hands I would recommend you don't worry about mastering the bass or beating Demontower.

Several times Mae joins the gang for band practice and you play a little rhythm mini game. There's no real consequence for fucking up a song (because I definitely did), but mastering it during band practice gets you an extra page in your journal. You can also practice your bass at Mae's home a few times a day. This minigame is actually pretty fun - the music is rad and it's not overly complicated. If you're striving for perfection, however... frantically jamming your fingers onto the keys over and over again isn't the best.

Demontower is another minigame that Mae can play on her laptop. It's a simple top-down arcade game where you have to fight enemies, find a key to the exit, fight a boss, and then move onto another level and do it all over again. At first it's a fun little jaunt, but it easily gets frustrating and merciless. There are nine levels total and two different possible endings. Because it's top-down, you're pressing four buttons to move as well as the two action buttons - and you have to be precise and quick. And you also die a lot so you have to do it over and over and over again. This one really fucked with my hands, so I let it go after level 6 and played the rest of the game with finger splints.

Aside from the two mini games, you typically only have to press four buttons - left, right, jump, and interact. It only becomes frustrating because of the size of the town and the need to constantly check each location to see who's there or what has changed. Or you mess up the platforming and have to walk all the way back to the mailbox to jump onto the tree to get onto the power lines... 

The controls really become an issue if you're any kind of completionist and want to see everything the game has to offer. It's actually impossible to see everything in only one playthrough - if you choose to hang out with Bea one night then you don't get to see what Gregg is up to until you play the game a second time. BUT the idea of replaying the running back and forth and the platforming makes me actually dread it - despite my desire to experience the story again. I plan to replay it and make different choices eventually, but it won't be for a long time.

Okay I admit, it also probably didn't help that I insisted on jumping everywhere and couldn't walk in a fucking straight line.

Night in the Woods could hugely benefit from a toggle run button rather than having to hold down the left and right keys. Alternatively, if you can comfortably hold a controller it might be easier to use the joystick. Since the controls aren't complicated, you don't need to worry about being able to press all the buttons on the controller so you can also modify your grip if you need to.

All of these things can be avoided simply by playing in small amounts. I very quickly became invested in the story and the characters (Bea is my fav) so I played it in only two sittings - do not do this. If you're like me and like to marathon games you should find ways of pacing yourself. Night in the Woods happens one day at a time, and it also has different acts that also make good rest points. If those don't work for you, set yourself a timer to pause, stretch, do something that doesn't involve your hands, etc.

To be honest I'm talking to myself here, please don't think I actually follow my advice and live a healthy lifestyle.

Yes, Night in the Woods was painful to play but it is playable and it is worth it. The characters are fascinating and full of depth and the story takes so many unexpected twists and turns. Not to mention the gorgeous music and art style. It's such a beautiful game and a beautiful experience that, fortunately, is playable for gamers with hand issues.

I also have the expensive urge to get every doodle from the journal tattooed on my body.

You can get Night in the Woods on itch.io (where I played it) for $19.99, or if you happened to get that racial justice bundle a few years ago you may already have it... It's also available on steam and Epic Games, as well as on consoles and ios devices.

Longest Night and Lost Constellation

There are two supplemental games that take place in the same universe that I do want to mention briefly. Both games are much shorter (Longest Night is like, ten minutes) and so much easier on the hands. These two do use the mouse as well as the keyboard, but they don't require precision or quick reaction time, and you don't even need to use the mouse and the keyboard at the same time. Both games are also free on itch.io and are a good way to try out the series and game mechanics, and they don't spoil anything in the main game.

I'm not the first disabled gamer to review this game! The Geeky Gimp did an excellent job of talking about the mental health side of the game and how it tackles depression and trauma.