Beacon Pines Review (Xbox One)

STAFF REVIEW of Beacon Pines (Xbox One)

Thursday, September 29, 2022.
by Peggy Doyle

Hiding Spot’s Beacon Pines is a combination of a third person walking simulator and visual novel with some very mild puzzle elements. This may seem like you’d have a simple and boring game on your hands, but in truth, the game is something otherworldly in terms of its storytelling and capacity to engage. At the start of the game, the developers make it clear that, despite its cute and colourful atheistic, this is not a child’s game. This is so true as one of the first scenes you get is the main character Luka sitting graveside and talking to his dead father. As someone who has recently lost my father, this was an unexpected turn of events and surely changed how I approached the whole story.

Luka is a relatively happy-go-lucky little deer, despite having a dead father and a mother who has recently disappeared, effectively making him an orphan. His grandmother has moved in and become his primary caregiver. He spends most of his time with his best friend, Rolo, and the pair are planning how to spend their summer holidays. This involves a lot of time at their tree house (dubbed Mission Control). Rolo is a good friend and takes it as his personal mission to keep Luka occupied and distracted. Their plans involve relaxing, exploring and dodging chores for the most part.

Beacon Pines has a sort of 'Stranger Things' vibe in the beginning; cute small town, something sinister lurking in the shadows. The anthropomorphic characters and beautiful artistry lull you into a sense of safety and then you’re hit with a dark underbelly of what is really happening in Beacon Pines. The town is reminiscent of any small town that you may have grown up in (like me), visited or seen on TV or in movies. Generic small town X. The typical main street with a library, pharmacy and Town Hall. The town square with a large fountain and stalls selling things. Even a small area being set up for the end of summer fair. None of these things seem exceptional, or out of the ordinary, until you start uncovering how they all intertwine in the overall story.

The town used to be thriving until an accident at a fertilizer plant changed everything. When the town fell on tough times, many people moved on to greener pastures, while others stayed to tough it out in their home. A large company has since come to town and is helping rebuild the town to its former glory. Luka and Rolo are always keenly aware that their town is kept afloat from this mysterious company. When Rolo discovers some strange things going on in an area of the town that should have been abandoned, he and Luka start chasing a story full of twists and turns, deceit and intrigue. It’s story full of conspiracy theories and secrets about the past and future of the town.

While you are playing as Luka, you are also the person reading the story. There is a duality in play where you play two parts of the game. The story in Beacon Pines is literally being read from an open book and plays out in a ‘choose your own adventure’ book style. Hopefully you had those books and know to what I am referring. Basically, you will follow along with the story and you’ll get to a point where you have to make a choice. Once you make this choice your story will branch. If you end up dying, you can backtrack and see what would happen if you had chosen differently. In Beacon Pines, your choices are determined by what ‘charms’ you choose to fill in the blanks. You will uncover these charms while exploring, learning, talking to and interacting with others.

The first decision you make in the game is telling your grandmother if you will ‘hide’, ‘chill’ or ‘ponder’ when hanging out with Rolo. This is a simple choice in that it doesn’t really affect the story other than Gran's dialogue. As the story progresses your choices will matter, often taking you to a dead end in the story and the narrator (impeccably voiced by Kirsten Mize) telling you something along the lines of ‘that’s not right’, ‘that’s not how the story should end’, etc. When you hit one of these story endings, you can simply open your book and go back to any ‘checkpoint’, a memory made when you had to pick a charm card to choose. This means there are a variety of ways the story plays out, and I can’t really dive into it too much without hitting spoiler territory.

Suffice to say though, the story wasn’t what I was expecting, the good guys and bad guys blurred and even when I changed my charm choice, the story didn’t always follow a direction I anticipated. Sometimes you are given only one word choice to use in a situation, and it doesn’t seem to fit, so you know you have to find the right charm to go back and change the story. When looking for charms in the world, explore but don’t waste time. If you follow the storyline and Luka’s inquisitive nature, you’ll eventually find them all. Some of the story branches are short, like the first one where the boys are trespassing and Rolo gets kidnapped, The End. Other choices may become multiple chapters in their own right. All of this is to say that mechanically, I found Beacon Pines to be a triumph in the way it told the story. There seems to have been a clear beginning and end in mind to the original story, but the way you got there felt like watching the writers at a storyboard going through all their options on how to travel between the two points.

All of the characters in Beacon Pines are different anthropomorphic animals. Luka is a deer, Rolo a Tabby cat, other characters are bats, dogs, and racoons etc. While they are all animals, they never lose a human touch and it’s easy to identify the human qualities in each. The writing is so well done in combining what may seems like stereotypical qualities of each animal into the character creation. Luka is a shy and curious deer whereas Rolo a tough and brave cat. The rich and influential family are all sleek looking animals, like Heiress Valentine, the long-haired Afghan hound. The mayor is a kind looking dog. The town eccentric is a racoon and all the ‘lackies’ for the big corporation are an entire group of red pandas. Beck is a black cat who strives to be uncaring and aloof, but ultimately just wants a home and friends to which she belongs. You get to learn more about each character as you play through the various branches of your story tree. No character acts exactly the same way once you backtrack and change your charms used.

Luka and Rolo may just be school kids, but this doesn’t make or keep them safe in the story. This quickly becomes apparent, and you stop trusting everyone in the town. My mind was running scenarios like I was watching a movie trying to figure out what was about to happen, only to realize I never really got it right. While the tension is amped up in the game, there is a vein of humour that carries throughout. The banter between characters made me laugh at times and this kept the game charming during the time I spent with it. The story covers a lot of ground, and as you get near the end I found I had to focus on what version I was playing as I started to mix some details up. I think if you stopped playing for any amount of time, you could find yourself lost and forgetting where you were. I played through the game in one sitting and even then, found myself questioning aspects of which branch I was currently in.

Since you are the one controlling the story, you know things from alternative timelines that Luka simply doesn’t. I would have loved to have seen that explored a little more. Perhaps a timeline where you had to put Luka and Rolo in danger to complete a task, despite knowing the outcomes bound to happen. Maybe that is simply me looking to find faults in this surprisingly captivating game. I really came to care about Luka, his friends and the town. I became invested in how the story played out. I was rooting for the good guys and angry at the bad guys, but then there were times that the narrative switched slightly, and it wasn’t exactly clear who the baddies were anymore. While there were very few happy endings in Beacon Pines, the journey to get to any of the endings was a treat.

As much as I loved the story, I must talk about the soundtrack for Beacon Pines. Written, produced, and recorded by Matt Meyer, this reached a level that I’ve not experienced in many games before. Certainly not in a game within this genre from my memory. Often soundtracks for indie games are hit or miss. They can be simply ‘there’ or can be so beautiful that I might listen to them while working. Neither explains how I felt about the Beacon Pines soundtrack. It was its own entity, yet I can’t imagine really listening to it outside of the game. It was perfect for this game. When you first arrive at Luka’s home, the music can only really be described as ‘cozy’. Piano notes made you feel comfortable and safe at home. Synth music, as well as jazz, fill in the soundtrack as long pieces of music change as the story does. Whether a fearful scene, or a heist, talking to friends or catching fish. Everything felt like it mattered. The music was intentional and beautiful.

Also relating to sound was the purposeful choice to only have the narrator voice acted. Kirsten Mize was able to convey joy, sorrow, regret, elation etc, all without interacting with any other characters. Think of your favourite storyteller from your childhood. The parent, grandparent, teacher or even LeVar Burton from Reading Rainbow. There is something magical when a person reading a story can capture your imagination and hold your attention. Filler sound effects make up the rest of the ‘dialogue’ from characters. Attention was given to this as well. The speed, tone and pacing of each character was distinct and also goes to what I was talking about earlier with the animals keeping stereotypical traits. Rolo, for example was a boisterous, loud, charismatic character, while Luka was more subdued with softer melodic tones. Dawn, the young bat (and wannabe reporter) had a higher pitched and quick paced chirping quality when she spoke. While you could play Beacon Pines with the sound off, you would be missing a lot without hearing the tonal changes in my opinion.

The artwork by Ilse Harting is stunning. Environments, interiors, and even random items on the ground all have such attention to detail that it can’t be overlooked. Often visual novels do the ‘big picture’ well, but there was nothing skimped on here.

Beacon Pines is a simple game. There is nothing earth shattering in its gameplay mechanics. It’s full of cute animals, a mystery in a small town and is a chill story game to just sit and lose yourself in. I loved ‘choose your own adventure’ books as a child and something about this game has captured my attention in a way that I haven’t experienced in some time. It may not be for everyone, but I would highly recommend this charming ‘cozy horror’ game to anyone, especially as we draw nearer to Halloween.

**Beacon Pines was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X**

Overall: 8.6 / 10
Gameplay: 8.0 / 10
Visuals: 9.0 / 10
Sound: 9.0 / 10

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STAFF REVIEW of Beacon Pines (Xbox One)

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