After many years of this game being a part of my life I decided to write an honest review of it so, some spoilers ahead.
In terms of the gameplay, soundtrack, pacing, art style, etc. The game is pretty much faultless. It manages to romanticise a sleepy backwater western town despite all of its faults and does a beautiful job at bringing each character to life with each one having a different personality and backstory. The way that they are written really makes you empathise with their frustrations at being stuck in a nowhere place while it stagnates and falls to pieces. The way that the story is told is episodic so each experience is clearly defined and so much more memorable than if it were told in one continuous stream. I still find myself trying to find a clear balance between hanging out with Bea and hanging out with Gregg even though it is made to be impossible, I just don't want one to be more favoured than the other.
That being said, I find it a little unfortunate that Gregg's story doesn't seem to be quite as impactful as Bea's. Especially at the climax of the story on the sofa the night where it all kicks off. Bea's dialogue is, again, beautifully written. Bea offers a kind of honest insight to their relationship that really brings you closer to the character and at the end, you feel like you have made the better choice for Mae by rekindling this close friendship. While I understand this isn't the same energy or personality that Gregg brings to the table and by no means do I think that there should have been a mirrored dialogue in that moment. I do however, think you never quite have same connection with Gregg if you do choose his route.
I feel as though Gregg could have offered a different but equally deep insight into his relationship with Mae considering this is a game about developing relationships. It just felt like, by comparison, Gregg's conversation in this high tension moment was pretty flat and as though they haven't developed the same kind of relationship as Mae and Bea develop in Bea's route despite both being equally as emotionally charged. I think it's almost detrimental to the relationship you've built with Gregg and dismisses the fun you've had together as being just that and nothing else. It doesn't seem to fit with the rest of the coming of age narrative.
The only other aspect of this story that drags it down, I'd say, is simply the ending. The story does a fantastic job at building tension by balancing between reality and the supernatural without quite giving away what is truly happening. The problem is that it feels like it was building and building to a point where it ended up getting so tall that the story doesn't know what to do with itself and without the ending being as fantastic as it began promising it would be, it all kind of crumples in on itself. The ending felt like a long string of happenstance where all of the loose ends tie themselves together suddenly and the story just leaves you with a big ball of confusion you have to sit with while Mae narrates the epilogue. Because of this, the climb out of the well, which was supposed to be a triumphant moment of hope still feels almost uncanny after years of playing it. The story ends not like the closing of a book but a quick slam of a door and I still don't know what to think or feel about it.
