Beacon Pines is a 2.5d adventure game that tells a beautiful story in about 5 hours. I can easily recommend this game at the current price (~$20) to just about anybody.

*This is a spoiler-free review*

The graphics set a very charming vibe. The scenes and backdrops are well painted and really set the tone for the game. The characters in dialogue scenes are also painted and perfectly match the style. They’re very well-done and each individually distinct. Characters are drawn with clearly-defined facial expressions and personalities that are visible at a glance.

When characters are on the map instead of in dialogue scenes, they’re instead rendered as high-res animated sprites. I feel that these clash a bit with the painted backdrops of each scene, but they do make the characters stand out and ‘pop’ from the background. The animations are simple but smooth and they serve their purpose.
Overall everything is very vibrant and pleasing to look at, and it maintains a clear consistent visual tone.

The background music is very pretty and sets the tone for each scene well, occasionally cutting out to build tension. It’s well done. Ambient sounds throughout each area add to the immersion and charm.

The narrator is voiced, and the voice actor did a good job. They’re easy to understand and you can clearly hear and relate to the emotion in their voice throughout the story.
The rest of the characters in the game are not voiced, but rather have their speech punctuated with blips of sound as each word appears on screen in dialogue scenes. Each character has their own unique sound and tone which builds on how distinct and individual each character is, making them easy to tell apart and reflecting their personality.

The plot is, in a word, beautiful. It's the main highlight of the game and the reason you should play it. There’s mystery, intrigue, action, adventure, exploration, and very intense emotion woven throughout. The story is engaging, like a book that you can’t put down. The characters have plenty of depth and really do a good job of expressing their emotions in a way that makes the player sympathetically feel the same. The characters show development over the course of the game and the story really pulls on the heartstrings.

The storyline follows a branching pattern, so there are multiple endings and different pathways to reach each one. You’ll explore all of them over the course of a single playthrough, which I'll explain shortly.

The game works a bit like a choose-your-own-adventure book, but the main difference is that the more you explore the world, the more you unlock new choices for past and future decisions. This encourages exploration and leads to further storytelling as you gain insight into the world and the characters.

Because of the branching storyline, the game encourages you to turn back to previous decisions you've made and change what you did, thereby changing the outcome and creating a new branch of the story. Essentially 'save scumming' is a core mechanic of the game, and you end up exploring every possible decision and ending over the course of a single playthrough.

One thing that mildly annoyed me was that you constantly have to press space bar to advance dialogue and narration. For advancing the character speech (which is not voiced) this is fine and keeps the player engaged (as this is a dialogue-heavy game), but the narrator's pace and flow are broken up by constantly stopping and waiting for the player to advance to the next line. I would prefer if the narrator spoke uninterrupted or if there was an auto-advance option that kept the narration flowing smoothly.

One thing to note about this game if you're considering gifting it to somebody is that despite its child-friendly appearance, the game does feature occasional harsh language and PG-13 themes. Nothing extreme, but you can tell that the target audience are adults. That's not to say young people shouldn't play it, but rather to point out that it wasn't primarily designed for children and adults shouldn't shy away from it based on the childish appearance of the main characters.

In conclusion, Beacon Pines is a fantastic narrative game that tells a really beautiful story in a reasonable time. It's clear that a lot of heart went into this game and I would recommend this to just about everybody, especially considering the very reasonable price. If you happen to find it on sale, it's a complete no-brainer.

Buy this game.