Although not one of my favorite games, "Night in The Woods" is the most recent game I've played that can very much be considered literature. This video game is known as an adventure-puzzle-platformer where you play as a anthropomorphic female cat known as "Mae". The game starts you off returning home after Mae dropped out of college and had her Grandfather dies. In this video game, you take control of the cat and are granted the freedom to explore her hometown as well as interact with every character you see while you write notes on your own little journal.

The game has plenty of decision making moments which lets the player choose his or her path that affects what happens in the story. This element is very common in video games that are considered visual novels. One could argue this game is a visual novel in disguise due to its minigames that the player stumbles upon once in a while. The main plot of this game has to do with Mae experiencing astral projection during her dreams that foreshadow the end of the world.

However, the story isn't entirely focused on the conflict of the game and more often than not we are exposed to a variety of real life themes. Such themes include: mourning over the death of a loved one, sexuality, education, socialism, economic issues, family issues, murder, cults, religion, teenage drama, relationships, and more. I personally consider the game to be a book you can play, nonetheless I do have a couple of opinionated criticisms towards it.

I did mention that the decisions you make in this game  affects what happens in your story and though that is true, your decisions don't make that much of a difference. There were times in the game where I find myself choosing dialogue options that vary between "woah" or "no way". It seems to me like the developers at times wanted to create the illusion that you were affecting the story of the game when in reality it was a minuscule change. Another criticism is that the character you played as was very opinionated  and at times discussed subjective matters. The option to say what the player wanted was not there and instead we had to choose what the author of the game wanted to say. This ruined the immersion for me at times and made it so I couldn't quite relate to the protagonist who I was suppose to empathize with. The game also became boring at times due to the lack of difficulty and/or gameplay. There are three endings to the game and they are all anti climatic. With all that said, the game still holds up as a beautiful, comfy game that you'll enjoy playing every night right before going to bed.