Boring & Wasted Potential

[ĐⱤ₳₲Ø₦₣ØӾ217]

I hate to say it... but this game feels boring. Believe me, I tried to like it. Tried really ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hard. But I'm gaslighting myself IRL to believe that this is some indie gem. Let's not lie to each other, and just admit the developer got stuck. That's what happened... The developer got stuck. They had all this lovely exposition and buildup... but then they didn't really do anything with it. They released the game, framed it as being sophisticated, and people ate it up. This game didn't commit fully to telling a story, and just ended up becoming filler.

Listen... I get it. The characters are wholesome, and this game has soul. BUT... it commited the worst crime in gaming - it became boring. You can never be boring. Being boring is the one thing a game cannot do... because even bad games, at least have some fun mechanics that you can squeeze some fun out of. But this game is such a slow burn that it just drags on, and on, and on. This is the ski lift of storytelling.... it builds up, and up, and up... and then has a 1 foot drop. Alien was a good slow burn, this is an example of a bad slow burn.

It breaks my heart to say it, but this is not good gameplay and not even good storytelling. It's a "mood" but you can do "mood" while still having an engaging story and interesting gameplay.

[AarkNoa]

Have you even finished the game? The story isn't boring at all.

[󠀡󠀡󠀡⁧⁧lis]

I don't think you quite understood the game, what it main message was and what thoughts and emotions it was supposed to envoke in you. Sure, the cult wasn't explored quite as much as it could have been (although in this respect knowing a little about American culture and rust belt states could help), the ending was pretty sudden (which actually in my opinon was the correct approach considering what the story tells), but i wouldn't say the game is not good. Like, people literaly wrote their thesis papers based on things portrayed in nitw story and characters. Perhaps you approached the game with different pre-existing idea of what it would be, and it led you to feel underwhelmed, Idk.

[GIRL]

The game requires a little understanding of the American Rust Belt and the history surrounding it to really set in. tl;dr is that the Rust Belt was an area with a huge booming mining industry at one point. It dried up, the rich up and left, and now you have towns all over it barely clinging on. Possum Springs is based on those kinds of towns.

The game plays off that idea a lot - things not lasting forever. It's not just the towns, it's the people, too. It's entire civilizations and their ways of life, it's the seasons, it's yourself throughout the years. Everything changes, and eventually everything ends.

If you can't really relate to any of that stuff or never had to cope with anxieties surrounding change, the game won't really resonate with you. It's also heavily seeped in small-town Americana, so if you're from a big city you likely won't "get it" either.

If you feel like there's no big, dramatic payoff, that's almost the point. Life just goes on. You can battle with a crazy cult of Boomer conservatives clinging to the hope of bringing their dying town back to life, but then life just... moves on. I think the game wants you to sit on that for a while. It'll probably "click" with you later in life, and you may look back on the game with nostalgia then. Or, you may not.

[ĐⱤ₳₲Ø₦₣ØӾ217]

Just finished the game. My opinion hasn't changed. It would have been much better if all the jogging, backtracking, and re-exploring sections were removed. The game would have benefited from being shorter and more linear without all the filler. I don't know what happened during development - but something happened during development.

[󠀡󠀡󠀡⁧⁧lis]

Some stories just aren't for everyone.

[burnincorpse]

the reason if went nowhere after the story is do to the dev killing themself after its release

[󠀡󠀡󠀡⁧⁧lis]

Originally posted by burnincorpse:

the reason if went nowhere after the story is do to the dev killing themself after its release

why are you the way you are?

[burnincorpse]

look it up one of the the devs behind the game killed themself its why there is no NITW 2
i watched jackseptikeye play i liked it want a follow up now i now why it never happened

[PaleoDreams]

I think you got the wrong take away, the cults and gods and things aren't explained because they don't matter, what does is the things like smashing light bulbs with your friends and taking care of rat babies in an abandoned parade float. As someone with PTSD, I don't look for answers that I'll never get, i just enjoy what I have.