Beacon Pines
Oct. 9th, 2025 09:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearBeacon Pines is a weird and interesting game - and, having just finished it, I'm not entirely sure what I think about it.
It's got a really cutesy vibe with a brightly coloured palette and adorable animal characters - but, once you get into the story, it's dark and twisted and creepy and very much not for kids.
And then there's the mechanics. You collect 'charms' by exploring and interacting with the other characters, which then give you different options you can pick from when you reach a turning point in the story.
But if and when things go awry, you can go back to any of the decision points and choose a different option.
So, the story gradually branches out in various directions as you play - so it's like you have the opportunity to try out all the different choices while you're playing the first time through, rather than having to start from the beginning each time to get all the endings.
It's clever and I like the writing a lot.
But it also has a lot of passive aspects, where you just watch things playing out without taking an active role, which is a bit frustrating at times (but much better managed than in some other games I've played).
It also kind of tricks you into thinking you have choices - because you actually end up taking every available choice through to its conclusion, which makes it linear, with no choices at all, if you look at it in a particular way...
But, overall, I really enjoyed it - I found myself thinking about it a lot even when I wasn't playing it and it had me reacting out loud quite a few times when I was playing it.
It took me six hours over five days, and it felt like a satisfying length and outcome for what it was.
It's got a really cutesy vibe with a brightly coloured palette and adorable animal characters - but, once you get into the story, it's dark and twisted and creepy and very much not for kids.
And then there's the mechanics. You collect 'charms' by exploring and interacting with the other characters, which then give you different options you can pick from when you reach a turning point in the story.
But if and when things go awry, you can go back to any of the decision points and choose a different option.
So, the story gradually branches out in various directions as you play - so it's like you have the opportunity to try out all the different choices while you're playing the first time through, rather than having to start from the beginning each time to get all the endings.
It's clever and I like the writing a lot.
But it also has a lot of passive aspects, where you just watch things playing out without taking an active role, which is a bit frustrating at times (but much better managed than in some other games I've played).
It also kind of tricks you into thinking you have choices - because you actually end up taking every available choice through to its conclusion, which makes it linear, with no choices at all, if you look at it in a particular way...
But, overall, I really enjoyed it - I found myself thinking about it a lot even when I wasn't playing it and it had me reacting out loud quite a few times when I was playing it.
It took me six hours over five days, and it felt like a satisfying length and outcome for what it was.
