“That show you binge-watched” : The Game is out and is the official companion to Stranger Things 3 on Netflix, but is it as good as the real deal?

Now before you start reading there will be spoilers for those who haven’t watched season 3. Luckily these people do not exist and we can dive in straight away into this Upside Down review of the game.

You start out by watching the very same scene season 3 starts with in Russia where the feeding device malfunctions and obliterates a few scientists. And thus they move to a place where the gate is weaker: Hawkins!

Straight away Mike and Lucas are playable inside the Starcourt Mall where your first mission is to sneak inside the movie theatre using the back alley of Scoops Ahoy manned by Robin and Dingus (Steve ‘The Hair’). Already this follows the series itself extremely closely and that’s also the UP and DOWN of this entire game. It follows the series too much in my opinion. While I understand that it’s called the official companion of the season and that BonusXP had to follow that script I believe it would’ve been nicer if the game was more of a “What if” alternate play on the events. That would’ve made it more fun for most of us that have already seen the magnificent season 3. At the same time it is interesting to see everything back again in this isometric viewpoint and to see it all play out within this pixelated rendition of Hawkins.

It’s cool if it weren’t for the pacing… The pacing of the entire game feels a bit odd. While it pays hommage to the games it’s obviously based on I’m sure the overall game could’ve been more fluent and less repetitive. The characters are great and their powers and use of trinkets are based on their actual powers and abilities of the show. Dustin uses a spray can like in the first episode of the last season while Lucas can use his fireworks as an ability or his standard slingshot for ranged attacks. The dialogue is on point and I love how they use those weird words and expressions from the 80s. Hawkins really feels like a town you’re free to explore and it really breathes the style of the 80s. The dialogue and ‘grown up’ jokes are excellent and don’t feel forced into the game. Like Billy inviting Mrs. Wheeler to “exercise” is a cheeky nod to the show.

Before launching the game I was excited for the score and sounds but they let me down a bit. It’s not bad but the tracks repeat themselves often and I’m missing that great score from the show itself. Also the FX sounds could’ve seen some variation. But I guess that’s how games sounded back in the day right?

There are a lot of quests for you to tackle and most of them are based on the actions within the show. They aren’t bad but I repeat myself by stating that having a bit more freedom to stray away from the season’s story and venture into the “what if” scenarios would’ve been nicer and more refreshing. The game also suffers from pacing. The underlying game and well fleshed out mechanics really could’ve shined in a more refreshing story. There are different modes you can play on varying in difficulty and how trinkets are used but this doesn’t add anything to the story element.  Season 3 was a bombshell and unfortunately the game is not good enough at retelling the exact same story, even if all the good game mechanics are there. I hope they learn from this for the upcoming season 4 because Hawkins is worth exploring under a more original and compelling story exclusive to the game, not as a “companion game”.

6/10

Tested on Nintendo Switch