Beacon Pines is a cosy yet creepy story rich adventure game with branching paths told directly from a fairytale style story book. You are carried through this journey by a narrator who tells the story to you as they flick through the pages displayed before moving into isometric scenes where you take control of the character. The story follows Luka, a 12-year-old boy living with his gran at the start of summer.
Gameplay is kept minimal to go well with the story focused format, mainly consisting of movement through scenes where prompts will appear to start a conversation with other characters or to give you more information on set pieces and scenery.
At its core, Beacon Pines is a multiple choice based story, but this is introduced nicely with a unique mechanic called charms. Charms are little tokens that you can collect and view in your backpack throughout the game. They are based on different emotions, behaviours, actions or descriptions such as shame, weep, fight and crooked. These charms are used at what the game calls turning points where you can choose one of the available charms, which each takes the story down a different branch.
However, these charms aren’t just given to you from the beginning, and they have to be discovered throughout the game. This can either be by finding it in a scene when interacting with something, for example rummaging through piles of rubbish for a ‘Junk’ charm, or experiencing the charm being displayed or mentioned in a conversation, for example receiving the ‘malice’ charm when someone acts malicious.
Therefore, your branching paths are sometimes limited in the choices you make because you haven’t yet unlocked the charms you need. This forces you to explore the game further, such as going down other routes that you didn’t choose previously or exploring the environment further for more hidden charms.
There are a number of mini-games to interact with as you journey, from a fishing game, to serving customers in the diner, and throwing props at targets. The minigames are often based on using charms to determine a new outcome much like the story whether it be to depict the type of bait for fishing or the ingredients for a meal at the diner. These mini-games mix up the content throughout and can be revisited after the story has unfolded to use new charms.
Beacon Pines is a well put together adventure following the main character Luka as he navigates some serious life topics such as the loss of loved ones in a town still recovering from a tragedy they would prefer to forget.
The main plot of the story is Luka and his friends investigating a handful of bizarre mysteries hidden just under the surface of this perfect looking town. The appearance from the beginning is quite deceiving because it does really feel like a children’s book, however it does start to show more creepy elements that wouldn’t be out of place in a horror game. Some of these moments fit in really well and build tension due to the drastic difference to the cute and cuddle appearance of the characters and scenery just prior.
The story also shows a lot of the characters throughout in great depth as they are dealing with their own problems. A lot of these side characters are used to discuss big topics such as navigating relationships and bullying, where over time you see the point of view of everyone involved. These interactions throughout the game aren’t even big parts to the overarching plot but provide some of the most intriguing little conversations, and I think that comes down to how real and innately human they feel.
When serious conversations take place in video games and media they can often feel forced and overbearing, but in Beacon Pines they feel ingrained well into the narrative roots, and build upon the fictional world that has been built here. Whether this is because they are few of the only aspects of the real world in this fairytale style storybook setting or because the writing is just so well done that it feels like the right time for these serious matters to come up with phenomenal pacing.
The soundtrack works in perfect harmony with the writing and timing of the story. Although the entire story kept me immersed throughout with the great writing, I think this also came down to the brilliant use of the score, which would really drive home the emotional scenes and moments.
The character conversations are narrated with soft animal noises that match the tone and sounds of the inspiration for the character. As this was only a small indie game, I do think that this was a smarter choice than trying to get voice lines recorded for the whole game, where if not done well could quite easily ruin the immersion or tension when it’s most important. On the other hand, the narrator does an incredible job from the cute fairytale-like introduction to building the atmosphere around creepy moments.
Beacon Pines is a beautiful story combining the very best of cute and creepy themes which stay interesting throughout. It is a very original and unique experience, with the only drawbacks being that I wish there were more mini-games to break up the story more often and just more of this well written world in general.
This particular story is perfectly sized but, with the world they have built here, it would be incredible to get more games that continue the story of Luka and his friends. Even if they don’t continue the Beacon Pines world, I am very excited to see what we get from these devs in the future, as they have shown a clear passion for well written and original games.