Beacon Pines - Review

Beacon Pines is a down on its luck little town. Summer has finally arrived but the days aren’t getting any less cold. A defunct family refuses to let go of the past whilst Perennial Harvest aims to change everything to make the future better. Not everything is as it seems, and Luka along with Rolo and Beck have to save the town from the incoming dangers.

Beacon Pines is a storybook style, change your narrative adventure game. Cute anthropomorphic characters live in the quaint little town of Beacon Pines. A town which was once saved and brought to great heights by the Valentine Fertiliser Co, which saw a complete collapse at the hands of the Foul Harvest. A season of completely inedible and dead crops, that still has lingering effects.

Beacon Pines approaches the mystery adventure narrative in a slightly different way. Through your interactions and choices, you’ll unlock charms. Charms are essential to solving the story, and helping the narrator get to a pleasing end. An interesting style of multi-narrative, diverging timeline choices certain Charms will unlock a different way to react at a turning point. A turning point being a choice that will result in a shift in the direction of the story.

Typically this meant either progress or a dead end. The gravity of these turning points only ever seems to truly matter on the second one, which creates the two distinct paths of story progress. Later choices seem more on terms with a dead end, a dead end based on natural unfavourable story conclusion, or progress towards the favourable outcome. Whilst I enjoy the back-and-forth nature of multiple timelines and choices, there was a clear miss in this situation at the level of progress that could be made. A storybook with a choose your own adventure nature can have so many different paths to success, rather than only one acceptable final path.

This isn’t to say that the design is bad. In fact, the progression is incredibly well paced. Things you personally learn in different storylines affect how you see a situation and guides you to conclusions that you may not naturally draw. It will often guide you to one pathway of thinking that is actually incorrect. The twist and turns of the narrative are quite well thought out. There is unfortunately one path that seems to have been designed to be a sort of explanation but feels unfinished.

You’ll meet a myriad of characters throughout the story. Most are incredibly well designed and fleshed out. Some of the lesser characters could have done with a bit more attention, particularly Lumi and Zariel, but for the most part all the characters are enjoyable and play their role. Unfortunately there is a character introduced in one storyline that exists only in the end section of that story path and is never explained or mentioned again. This character seems to have been designed to lend a greater understand of the different narrative outcomes and perhaps even a multiverse idea. Unfortunately besides the one interaction at the end of that path the character doesn’t turn up again or have any other influence besides being a conveyor of difficult to explain information. There was more potential in a lot of characters that seems missed.

What cannot be understated however, is the absolutely extraordinary work of Kirsten Mize as the narrator. Kirsten brings continual life, emotion and connection the story. There is nuance in every word, and her delivery brings an understanding of the gravity of the game without being overtly exaggerated. Biomutant showed us that a single voice in the form of a narrator can be very hit or miss. Beacon Pines is infinitely more enjoyable and emotional with Kirsten Mize’s voice. The frustrations of the unknown and sad endings are conveyed with the exact level of care needed. The voice-work here is one of the best I’ve experienced in a single voice story; and it easily sets a new standard as to the quality of what should be expected from people working with these emotive adventure games.

Visually Beacon Pines rides an interesting aesthetic. Whilst the models themselves aren’t overtly high definition, nor pixelated, they have a whimsicality to them that matches the overall design choice. Bouncy little cut-outs that fit the fixed image 2D storybook world there is a detail in the lack of. The world is simple often with a painted aesthetic to the edges. The portraits are almost more animated than the character models but every character is instantly recognisable in the world. The simplicity is perfect for the intention of the whimsical world being taunted and ruined by a dark underside. The implications of murder and death, secret dealings and danger. The innocence belies the truth.

It is important to note that Beacon Pines does have a few sections of interact gameplay. Most of which consist of throwing an environmental object at another part of the environment. Beyond these most of the gameplay is moving from scene to scene, interacting with characters and progressing the story. Beacon Pines is very much what it comes across as aesthetically, an interactive story. If you’re wanting more of the adventure game style with puzzles and item collection, you’ll be left disappointed. Beacon Pines is an adventure game in that way that you are exploring an adventure mystery. An interactive story is more accurate of a description of the gameplay loop with Beacon Pines. This is perfectly fine; particularly in a day and age where walking simulators are a dominant part of indie games. However, it is important to note that in terms of actual gameplay there is very little overall gaming.

Beacon Pines is a roughly five-hour long story, with twists and turns and whimsical characters. A simple gameplay loop allows for interacting with all the characters and exploring the world thoroughly. There was missed opportunities on expanding the overall story and going deeper with some of the more out there ideas such as timelines and turning points. A game in a loose sense of the word, Beacon Pines is a fantastic example of how interactive story should be done. A piece of work brought to a completely new life by the powerful work of the narrator, this is a quaint little gem that is definitely worth checking out.

The Score

8.0

Review code provided by Fellow Traveller

The Pros

+Fantastic work by Kirsten Mize

+Simple visual design the amplifies the dark story

+Great use of comedy and emotional storytelling

The Cons

-Hard to call it a “game”

-Missed opportunities with turning points and story tropes

-Some underdeveloped characters