Beacon Pines

This is very much so a visual novel, which usually bore me but certain games overcome this by providing creative ways of telling a story. Beacon Pines pulls this off by telling the story through a top-down, hand-drawn adventure, letting you speak and with interact with things as you please, rather than just having an endless flood of dialogue and character portraits. But it also has a unique trick up its sleeve, the story is told from the perspective of a seemingly sentient book who tells you upfront that the story hasn't been written yet and that you will have a part to play. As you speak with and interact with things, you will acquire "charms", which are certain words accompanied by a little portrait. At certain points in the story, you can use these words to fill in blank spaces that change the outcome and send you down different paths. You can turn the book pages back and redo them again using new charms you find in other various paths. Mechanically, it's not very deep but it's a really effective means of telling a story! You could hit a bad end, then go back and try another route and have knowledge about certain things you wouldn't otherwise have had! And it's just really endearing how the book is as desperate for a satisfactory ending as you are. And definitely, you'll love these characters and want to see their individual arcs though, they're all written in such a genuine way, a lot of distinct personalities accompanied by some beautiful and sometimes haunting visuals and music. I cried multiple times, too.

Heya, here's my Review for Beacon Pines. One of the best indie games I've played in the last few years, and completely unexpected for me. I thought it had more of a childish target, but definitely not! SPOILER AHEAD — For whoever finished it, or Devs ... [spoiler] Solomon's Reveal moment was... Absolute Cinema. Me and my BF were shocked. [/spoiler] ... LOVED IT ! [b] ~ DIFFICULTY ~ [/b] 🔲 My 90 year old grandma could play it ✅ Easy 🔲 Normal 🔲 Hard 🔲 Dark Souls 🔲 Understanding Dark Souls' story [b] ~ GRAPHICS ~ [/b] 🔲 MS Paint 🔲 Bad 🔲 Meh 🔲 Graphics don't matter in this game 🔲 Good (nothing special) ✅ Beautiful 🔲 Masterpiece [b] ~ MUSIC ~ [/b] 🔲 Bad 🔲 Not special ✅ Good > (small note - I wish there was an SFX setting. SFX audio is way higher than the rest and can't be adjusted!) 🔲 Beautiful 🔲 N/A (almost SFX only) [b] ~ AUDIENCE ~ [/b] 🔲 Kids > (not suggested as the choices done in-game can be "hard" to follow-up at times) ✅ Teens ✅ Adults [b] ~ STORY ~ [/b] 🔲 Not important in this kind of games 🔲 Bad 🔲 Text or Audio floating around 🔲 Average 🔲 Good ✅ Lovely > (with great cliff hangers!) [b] ~ PRICE ~ [/b] 🔲 Free 🔲 Cheap ✅ Acceptable price 🔲 Could be cheaper 🔲 Overpriced 🔲 Complete waste of money [b] ~ REQUIREMENTS ~ [/b] ✅ You can run it on a microwave 🔲 Average 🔲 High end 🔲 NASA computer 🔲 (Steam Deck Unsupported) 🔲 (Steam Deck Playable) ✅ (Steam Deck Optimized) [b] ~ LENGTH ~ [/b] 🔲 Very Short (0 - 4 hours) ✅ Short (4 - 10 hours) 🔲 Average (10-30 hours) 🔲 Long (30-50 hours) (if you go for everything in the game) 🔲 Extremely long (50-100+ hours) 🔲 No ending 🔲 N/A (Early Access still in active development!) [b] ~ FUN ~ [/b] 🔲 I'd rather watch paint dry 🔲 Hard to enjoy 🔲 Repetitive 🔲 Actually pretty amusing 🔲 The kind of fun you'll remember ✅ Ride of your life > (gameplay and story wise) [b] ~ REPLAYABILITY ~ [/b] 🔲 It's a one-time experience ✅ Only for achievements 🔲 If you wait a few months/years 🔲 Definitely 🔲 Infinitely replayable [b] ~ ACHIEVEMENTS ~ [/b] ✅ Yes 🔲 No ✅ Achievable through main gameplay ✅ Achievable through side quests ✅ Achievable through [i] quirky [/i] gameplay [b] ~ BUGS ~ [/b] ✅ Never heard of 🔲 Minor bugs 🔲 Can get annoying 🔲 ARK: Survival Evolved 🔲 The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs [b] ~ WORTH BUYING ~ [/b] 🔲 No 🔲 Wait for sale ✅ Yes 🔲 (Gifted)

I recently finished Beacon Pines and, overall, I'm really satisfied with it. It’s an interesting mix of a visual novel and an adventure game in the vein of Pentiment. You play as a young boy who, along with his friends, tries to unravel the mysteries of a small town and figure out what the heck is actually going on. I really love the comparison that it’s "Winnie-the-Pooh meets Twin Peaks." It’s simultaneously a cozy adventure that feels like a children's fairy tale, while periodically dipping into some pretty dark, mature themes and adult conversations. The art style looks great, it takes about 4 hours to beat, and it plays perfectly on the Steam Deck. But there is one important caveat I need to mention (and I'm not even sure if this counts as a spoiler): [spoiler]the game desperately tries to puff out its chest and appear non-linear by showing off, let's just say, certain mechanics of a branching narrative. Don't fall for it. This is a strictly linear story-driven adventure, so don't expect deeply crafted variations on the level of Pentiment.[/spoiler] Also, the closer you get to the finale, the more obvious it becomes that the writers are no Josh Sawyer or Sam Lake. The tension builds and the stakes get higher, but the final payoff and conclusions aren't nearly as impactful as they could have been. However, this is a small game from a tiny indie studio, and for a team of that size, it's a genuinely fantastic project. It is a joy to play from start to finish and still delivers a satisfying finale. 8/10