Stranger Things: The Game

A surprisingly great game that redefines mobile gaming standards

I'll start by putting this out there: I am not a fan of mobile games. I think they lose their charm really fast and are usually overconvoluted with features to make them more interesting and microtransactions and/or "forced-waiting-before-being-able-to-play-again" just don't cut it for me. So when I heard of this mobile game coming literally out of nowhere on the day of its release, I was very skectical. However, having just finished watching the first season of the show, I had to take a look at it.

STORY
// A simple story reminiscent of 8-bit times

The story is really simple and it works. Hopper receives a phone call at 1:30am from Flo telling him that the Byers boy and his friends have gone missing. While searching for the kids and exploring Hawkins, he notices that a lot of gates to The Upside Down have opened and investigates them at the same time.

Not a lot of dialog is present in the game but what's there is kept simple and its perfect the way it is. It sort of reminds me how games used to be in the NES/SNES era. It's separated in the same way the show is with 6 Chapters telling the whole story. The events that take place here happen between the first an second season of the show and although you don't need to have watched the show to enjoy this game, I felt much more immersed because of it.

GAMEPLAY
// Very potent Zelda-style gameplay

The game reminds me of a Zelda game. You have "dungeons" to explore from locales of the show like "Hawkins Middle School" and the library, each with their own collectibles and challenges to accomplish (like destroying 5 red alarms). You go through them in old-school Zelda fashion in a room by room adventure, finding keys along the way to open doors Each dungeon has a boss that tests your newly found weapon which in this case translates to a new unlocked character. You also have to visit The Upside Down with its own puzzles. The dungeons have lots of puzzles to solve in order to move forward like hitting far off switches or distracting bears with honey. The puzzles are rather easy but it doesn't have to be complicated in my opinion. You can also travel freely through the town of Hawkins and, to my surprise, it's much bigger than I ever anticipated for a free mobile game. The town itself has a lot of sidequests (which are fetch quests) and a lot of collectibles to be found.

A total of 8 different characters are playable, with the eigth one only available after season 2 was released on October 27th 2017. Each character has their own special weapons and skills which allow you to survive against enemies and solve puzzles. You can also find items to improve each one's abilities. Enemies have simple enough attack patterns so the AI here is good for what the game is.

If you want to complete the game at 100%, your exploration will be challenged. 40 Heart Pieces must be found to increase your Health count, 8 Eggos are hidden to unlock THAT character, 12 Garden Gnomes are needed to obtain some of your character's upgrades and 8 VHS tape can be found in order to unlock an exclusive trailer for season 2. If you're reading this just now, its probably useless but since this game came out before season 2, this was a great way to encourage collecting and hyping the show at the same time!

My only complaints here is that moving your character via touch screen can cause some small frustrations sometimes by not clicking exactly where you wanted and the other problem I had was traveling the town without any sort of quick travel. The quick travel in the game is only unlocked after getting a certain character and you can't choose where you go. It mostly goes from one point to another defined one and that's true for every portal that can be used. Nothing really bothered me enough to either rage quit or just never play again.

VISUALS AND ESTHETICS
// The retro look for a retro universe

The show gave us a wonderful 80s style esthetic and the game aims to do the same. The visuals remind me of NES/SNES era games with its pixelated look and simplified visuals. It looks great and it does a pretty good job at honoring those "ancient times"! The locales are very colourful and varied. The characters are differenciable and actually look like demastered versions of their actor counterparts. The menus and inventory are kept visually simple. The aesthetic of the show is also on full display with the way the name of the game appears, the chapters are presented and even the audio.

OVERALL
// I highly recommend it!

This mobile game is free and I expected microtransactions to compensate. This game has none. Nada. Zilch. Aucune. Everything is available through normal playthrough. The game lasted me about 6 hours to get 100% and I explored it without any sort of guide except one or two videos for items I had been looking for awhile. I rarely recommend mobile games but I feel this one needs to be played especially if you're a fan of Zelda, the show or both! It's a great retro-style game that kept me hooked until I was completely done which is more that I can say than any other mobile game I've played before! I even came back to complete the new quests after season 2 came out!

STATISTICS
// For stats nerds out there!

My average playing time: 6 hours
# Playable Characters: 8
# of Players: 1
Microtransactions: Nope