Through the Woods

7/10

Writing a review for this game is difficult, to say the least. I very much adore the Idea behind this game, but the execution is very clumsy. Everything taken from Norse Mythology is very well done and - to my understanding - very faithful to it's source! But it's all wrapped up in a story-driven journey through the perspective of an incredibly superficial, unlikeable and outright detestable protagonist who faces no actual consequences besides superficial levels of guilt for her despicable actions by the end. By the end of the game, it's incredibly difficult to sympathize with the Mother (which I believe was the intent!) but the lack of satisfying repercussions makes her story feel shallow. The gameplay regarding many of the Nordic entities we encounter ranges from tedious to fun but incredibly easy. Their models are very nice and I appreciate the atmosphere of the game. The environments can be difficult to understand and navigate in a way that harms it's intended gameplay. Some paths just loop around to each other, which may discourage from exploration, yet a variety of achievements and additional Lore WANT you to explore! It can be very difficult to tell which areas are …

giving up, it's too janky, too arbitrarily hard, there's a mechanic were some wolves don't like fire, so you have to get a torch and can wave it...but that doesn't seem to work right...not clear what you're supposed to do and the game doesn't help... doesn't seem like it's that long either, got over half the ach in 2.2hrs...and i don't feel like i care for the boy i'm supposed to be saving as the mother...cause i hardly know him at all, he's in it for like 5-10m... there's lots of ach for how you die...i don't like games where it's supposed to be so hard you die loads of times... i have 14 ach, 4 of em were for "killed by X", a 5th is "killed 10 times"... given how short it is, hardly any ppl got to were i'm at, only 20% got the most recent killed by ach i got...

x-- 6/10 --x Very rough game. Could have been a lot better if a few things were fixed. The overall tension and atmosphere is amazing, and the sound design is VERY good. However the little annoyances keep the scares away, IMO. - Voice actor for the child is not the best - A few visual defects here and there - Story is not the best, however the lore is really good - Atrocious visual quality dips (water is completely flat, texture for humans looks unnatural, etc)

I really enjoyed this one. A good balance of exploration, with a few danger areas - which were comfortably achieveable without destroying my will to game. The Norse tales are interesting too. The ending is very much not what I hopped for. But i understand it for the story telling pov.

"Through the woods" is an interesting and suitably creepy game. Not a great, "must play" game but definitely worthy of respect for what started out as a school project (or so the comments in the credits say). If so then I admire his/her/their creativity and it is enjoyable from that aspect. "Through the Woods" is a slow burn horror that relies on the unknown and surrounding environment to set its mood. The story/theme is set in Nordic lore and is an interesting take on aspects of it. So no, Thor or Odin or anything. I don't normally get scared nor fall for jump scares in horror movies or games, but a couple of the creatures I encountered game me goosebumps and the chills when they killed me. The game uses the darkness and limited ambient lights, sounds and screams of the MC, and the unknown to create the horror in the player's mind. "Through the Woods" is more of a walking simulator so the creature encounters are very few, but are enough to accomplish the goal of scaring the player. The audio and visuals are average, as well as the dialogue/script. The plot is fairly good though. I make it sound like I didn't like the game, but I did. Just horror style g…