Every season the characters get deeper and more rich and sillier and more fun and it just broadens. "You're not doing the same old thing where Gilligan is stuck on the island and you gotta figure a way out. "There's a lot of in the '80s that we have yet to explore and I think we're starting to play with a lot more of that stuff and so it's risky," he continued. "What I can tell you is this, like you see season one you see season two and we're playing with the same alphabet of these '80s epics, but we're kinda throwing out the model again and sort of expanding these characters in ways that you wouldn't expect them to go in, so that's what I love about it, is that you have these characters in this show that is clearly working and yet the Duffers are continuously interested in exploring the limits and taking risks and we take a lot of risks this season so there's a lot of new relationships that get set-up and a lot of new devices and a lot of new cinematic influences." "This season they just came up with this arc and this idea that's so original and so new that and so fun," he told us. You craft the various upgrades by finding items in the environment or buying them from shops and vending machines, but I always seemed to be short on items and money, despite destroying every breakable item in every location.David Harbour had some very curious things to say about how the show is using the '80s and taking things in a new direction. I ended up using the ones that granted universal bonuses, like extra health or extra walking speed, which were consequently the most boring ones. I switched characters often, so I didn’t like equipping upgrades that benefited single characters.
The upgrade system disappoints, only giving you five upgrade slots shared among the 12 characters. I would get stuck on corners or they would be out of reach when they didn’t appear to be. The geometry of the levels often made it harder to attack enemies than it should have been. I didn’t find blocking useful until the end boss, when it was forced upon me as a necessary mechanic. When lots of enemies are on-screen you use your special ability, but that’s about it. Depending on your attack range, you just press the attack button a bunch and then move to the next enemy. That freedom extends up to the end boss, when I was forced to use a pair of characters I had learned early weren’t for me.ĭespite having different strategic options available with various characters, the moment-to-moment combat is bland. I enjoyed trying different combinations, but also appreciated that you can use whoever you want at any time, even if it doesn’t fit with the story. Mike and Hopper are up-close brawlers, for example, while Will is a ranged fighter and Max’s special ability drops healing items. You unlock additional characters every few missions, and each of the 12 has different abilities. You play as two characters at all times, swapping between them whenever you want. A handful of sidequests exist, but they tasked me with doing boring things like killing rats in a basement, delivering pizza, or finding hidden gnomes and the payoffs were disappointing. I felt I was moving around in a circle as I traveled point to point with simple puzzles and enemies serving as hurdles. They’re all fetch quests, or arbitrary moments where the characters proclaim it’s time to talk to Steve at Scoops Ahoy, or agree they should all meet at Mike’s basement.
The main missions are hampered by their need to hew close to the source material. I enjoyed that element, but it does nothing to expand the lore, dig deeper into the characters, or show interesting beats happening outside of the main story. Playing an adaptation like this is nostalgic in its own right, as direct video game adaptations of popular media are rare these days. The story beats are identical to those of the show, but the dialogue is truncated. In Stranger Things 3: The Game (which is confusingly the second Stranger Things game), you control the main cast from an isometric perspective to explore the town of Hawkins, Indiana, and beat up monsters and bad guys as you play through the events of the third season. The aesthetic makes the game feel like it should have been released for the Super Nintendo, but the simple action gameplay holds it back from being a worthwhile companion to one of Netflix’s biggest hits. A 16-bit callback video game is well-suited to tap that same viewership vein. Stranger Things is a well-executed throwback to classic ‘80s nostalgia that follows a group of kids in a small town as they solve world-threatening mysteries and try to grow up at the same time.