Through the Woods

Through the Woods
Developer(s) Antagonist
Publisher(s) 1C Publishing EU
Director(s) Stian Willums
Designer(s) Eirik R. A. Hanssen, Ole Helland
Composer(s) Dan Wakefield
Engine Unity
Platform(s) Microsoft Windows
Release 27 October 2016
Genre(s) Horror Adventure
Mode(s) Single-player

Through the Woods is a third-person Norwegian horror adventure video game developed by the indie studio Antagonist and published by 1C Publishing EU. On 27 October 2016, the game was released for Microsoft Windows on Steam and GOG.com.[1][2]

Plot

In the western shore of Norway, a widowed woman named Karen lives in a cabin in the woods with her son Espen and it is implied that they have a somewhat estranged relationship since Karen does not really engage with Espen's various activities and rather want to work on her own projects and take naps in the majority of the day because she is working late.

However, despite Karen's warnings, Espen walks to an old ricked pier and suddenly disappears. Karen runs after and discovers that a mysterious old man who calls him self Old Erik, an old Norwegian name for the devil has kidnapped Espen and tries to swim after his old boat to a mysterious island where she sees that oddly the moon has been shattered. Karen is confronted and hunted by various dangerous creatures and monsters like trolls, Huldra and mythological talking wolves from the Norse mythology and Norwegian folk tales, sees old ruined villages where they have mostly vanished or left dead and the very few humans she meets is either insane by grief and trauma or commits suicide in front of her.

Eventually it is revealed that Karen has entered a forgotten time that had stopped after "The Great War" or Ragnarök. The great warrior Vidar was supposed to kill and destroy the World Eater known as Fenris thus stopping their world being destroyed. However, Vidar was too injured to do the killing blow, instead they make a pact: Leave Hodimir's holt, the last remaining place, alone and they will do anything.

Fenris agrees on the condition that he gets a child, sacrificed every odd number of years.

In the end, the island goes empty of children due to the dangers of the island like the monsters including diseases and starvation making the people go insane with grief and the trauma after the aftermath of the War. The man called "Old Erik" who reluctantly took the role to take the children to the giant maws of Fenris, learns that there is a way to travel across worlds and entering this world. But Fenris found out about it, and demanded more children more often or he would wake up and eat the rest of the world, and now that he knows about the world Karen and Espen came from, he will eat that one too.

It is also revealed that Karen accidentally hurt Espen which seemed to happen a few times before, causing her husband to file in for a divorce and take her son away from her but she made it look like that it was her husband who abused Espen. After the trial was done, her husband committed suicide much to Karen's eternal shame who only wanted to keep her son.

Finally, after several close calls, Karen finally catches up with Espen and Old Erik near at the mountainous jaws of Fenris but Espen has accepted that he needs to be sacrificed in order to delay the unavoidable despite Karen's cries of protest pleading to him to come back to her. However it is too late as both Old Erik and Karen fall down into the watery grave of Fenris' jaws.

They all return to the new world, Old Erik has died and Karen tries to perform CPR on Espen but it is too late. Her son is dead thus delaying the inevitable by an only few years. To honor Espen's sacrifice, Karen has to pick up the mantle of Old Erik because the instant the pact is broken, every child sacrificed will have been for nothing, and she will not let that happen.

Gameplay

The game features interesting lighting and sounds that plays tricks on, and deceives the player. As the player explores the woods they will find many hidden caves and passageways containing secrets about the island where the game takes place.[3] The main character is only equipped with a flashlight and will need this and sneaking skills to get past the creature inhabiting this grim place.

Development

The game was developed by the Norwegian studio Antagonist and started out as a student project. Antagonist began full production in July 2014. It won the "Sound of the Year" award at the Norwegian GAME Awards, 19 February 2015.[3] A Kickstarter ran from 14 May 2015 - 14 June 2015 with the goal of $40,000. They exceeded their goal with $43,833 from 1,272 backers.[4] The game was greenlit by the Steam Community.[5] The development team consists of Dan Wakefield (Sound designer and writer), Stian Willums (art director and character artist), Torje Dreng Andersen (environment artist), Eirik R. A. Hanssen (programmer) and Torstein Vien (programmer). It was released in May 2018 for PS4 & Xbox One .[6]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Through the Woods on Steam". Steam.
  2. ↑ "Through the Woods on GOG.com". GOG.com.
  3. 1 2 "Antagonist press kit". Antagonist.
  4. ↑ "Through the Woods by Antagonist — Kickstarter". Kickstarter.
  5. ↑ "Steam Greenlight :: Through the Woods". Steam.
  6. ↑ "Antagonist About Page".
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