Stranger Things 3: The Game PC Review

Once again, we’re back in the town of Hawkins, Indiana with our favorite Netflix misfits trying to save the world from certain doom. With another great season of Stranger Things given to us, the developers over at BonusXP teamed up with Netflix – Building A studio to provide the fans of Stranger Things and PC gamers another side of season three is excellent, allowing us to control where & how we want to take on the bitter end of the many monsters they brought to us during season 3 of Stranger Things. With the excellent pixel art and retro style feel that Stranger Things 3: The Game gives us, you might be asking yourself a little bit more after watching the full season three of the show. But with a great story to back it up, you’ll be able to enjoy the whole season of Stranger Things 3 once again.

Storyline

Going back in time to 1984 Hawkins, Indiana a plague turns a small town upside down. With the first season of Stranger Things going after it’s first victim, Will Byers, the viewers of Stranger Things got instantly drawn into this strange, but exciting story about a town being invaded by dangerous monsters, through visions. With a young girl with superpowers and a group of friends backing up the city of Hawkins, they must defeat their first monster boss, the Demogorgon.

Going forward a few years and coming up to season three, the group of misfits are now up against an army of Russians and dog style Demogorgons to save the small town of Hawkins. Being the supergroup they are, the Stranger Things team must go through a battle of a lifetime to stop Russians trying to open up a portal that will bring back the monster they pushed back, and also fight one of their own. With a story that will make you want to watch it again, Stranger Things season 3 has yet another story that will have you wanting to watch, or maybe even play through it yourself.

Gameplay

Stranger Things 3: The Game gives us a tremendous 2D pixel retro-style feel that will have you right in the shoes of the group from Hawkins, Indiana. The game gives off some gameplay that will have you doing little missions from house to house crafting different items to defend yourself and your friends from certain doom. But with the power of eleven on your side, you’ll get to experience the power, punch and shootem-up gameplay that we all saw during the third season of Stranger Things.

While the game might give us most scene by scene gameplay of the full season three, you can’t help but feel like you’re stuck in a game doing a lot of side chores to progress into the story. With a fun system allowing you to switch between different characters to-do different abilities, you’ll see the number of obstacles that will come before you while traveling the town of Hawkins to ensure you get all the information and clues you can to uncover the secret Russian lab under the random mall build in the city.

Graphics & Sound

The visuals of Stranger Things 3: The Game gives us a vast pixel art style that gives off enough to understand the characters and to get you through the story piece by piece. While the town of Hawkins may seem a little simple when it comes to the layout and thinking back when watching season three of Stranger Things and how far the group would travel when going to each others houses, mall, and the pool, the layout of the world may become a little too close for comfort. But with a great retro style vibe putting you right back to 1984 Indiana, the game has enough there to have you loving the full look and feel of Stranger Things 3 once again.

With Stranger Things always coming in with some great retro style music during each season and the ambient sounds of the creatures lurking behind you around every corner, Stranger Things 3: The Game comes in a little short when it comes to giving you that full sound emersion. While the music gives off a retro vibe, it doesn’t bring you sufficiently into the story like you felt while watching the season on Netflix. This may be because the developers over at BonusXP wanting to give off more of a retro vibe during the fight scenes, or it may just be that there is too much gameplay to fill in the gaps while looting around the world to allow the same feel the music and ambient sound gave off while watching season 3.