Best Month Ever! PC Review

Best Month Ever! is about a mother who tries to raise her son under not-the-best circumstances. It is a gut-wrenching story where the least expected always happens. The game deals with so many heavy topics, but in the end, it does not go very far. There are several things wrong with not only how the game handles the said topics but also the mechanics, and the general run of the game.

Throughout the game, we make choices. And depending on our choices, the ending changes. This might be one of the only promises that are kept throughout the game. Yes, your choices matter for the ending. But that is all. There is no other place in the game where your choices matter. You decide everything for a single cutscene in the final scene of the game, which is not what “choices matter” means to me, and many other gamers.
 

 

There are some choices where the stat that it increases makes no sense. For instance, if you cry in front of your kid, you lower his confidence stats. If you talk about anything but family, you lower his relationship stats. If you’re going to play Best Month Ever!, I’d suggest staying away from checking what stats you are increasing or decreasing and just play as it comes to you. Because otherwise, there is nothing that convinces you to keep playing.

Best Month Ever! does not fail to tell an interesting story, but it fails to be convincing. There are lots of heavy themes that the game deals with like racism and s*xual assault, but there are no repercussions for any of the characters other than an act of puny revenge. There is one whole episode dedicated to the theme of white supremacy in this game and in the end, nothing happens. Yes, we do get to “punch the Nazi” so to speak but what happens after? Why is Mitch here to witness it? What does this episode add to the story or the characters’ growth? How are they going to deal with the trauma of this event?
 

 

There is nothing that Mitch (or the player) learns in this scene. If you want to deal with values, you must make it right. You must show the source of this value. Yes, racism is bad- But do not tell us this. We already know that. Show us what you mean when you say, “racism is bad”. Especially in a game where everything serves the purpose of raising an eight-year-old child, you must show the repercussions of your actions, so that the child can understand what is going on without any doubts.

The same goes with the theme of s*xual assault. We never really see Louise (the mother) explain to Mitch (the son) what just happened and why it is wrong. We are left to assume that this eight-year-old is completely capable of understanding all the evil in the world. Yes, we are not completely clueless when we are eight years old, but we also need guidance. Otherwise, we are left to make up our conclusions and even adults cannot do it right sometimes.

Furthermore, all these heavy themes do not add anything to the story. Mitch, a black kid of a white mother, is never the object of outright racism. This story takes place in the 60s, almost 70s. How is Louise able to shelter him from the world? Well, she has a gun. Does she ever give any valuable advice to a child who is literally witnessing a mother’s death? Well, she does explain to Mitch that “she is very ill”. How is any of these convincing?
 

 

The mechanics are incredibly frustrating. Everything in this game is so slow. Slow does not mean bad, but sometimes it just means frustrating. Even the sound design is so slow: In a scene where Mitch is in a hurry to save his mother, he waits a couple of seconds to speak. To run away. To drive. Every single voice line has three seconds of complete silence at the beginning and the end. This leads to some funny scenes like Louise acting like her sentence is cut off by someone else, when she has plenty of time to finish it before the other person speaks.

Voice acting is alright. Mitch’s voice actor does a wonderful job I think he is the best. Louise, on the other hand, does not sell it all the time. Sometimes the funniest scenes happen because of the way Louise speaks. Her tone of voice never really changes, so when she says something serious in a daily, cheery voice, you cannot help but laugh.

One playthrough ends in approximately four hours, so the game is incredibly short. For a story that aims to deal with extremely heavy topics, four hours is barely enough. Yet, for the core story of a woman trying to find her son’s father, it is just enough. That is why Best Month Ever! would be better had the script stayed away from the topics that they just cannot explain.
 

 

The best aspect of Best Month Ever! is its art. The art style looks like something out of an oil painting, it is just so beautiful to look at. I would even say unique because there are not a lot of side-scrolling platformers where the game utilizes the oil painting style. But this style sometimes leads to complications, like not knowing where the ground is when walking. You try to click on the top of a hill where you want the character to go, but the character does not understand it and tries to go behind it. It becomes frustrating so quickly.

Art is the only thing that stands out in this game. Best Month Ever! is not the best experience ever, and there are plenty of other games that handle these types of heavy themes better. In short, Best Month Ever! fails to be a great example of a heavy story that is handled well both in terms of the development of the story and the characters, the mechanics are clunky and frustrating, and the sound design is not the best- But it is great in the art department.
 

Yagmur Sevinç (@yagmursevvinc)
Editor, NoobFeed