What do a murderous witch, a grandmother’s mysterious death and demonic possession have in common? An old Polaroid camera. Discover what it’s like to defy Madison, an indie horror title that fits the post-PT first-person haunted house mold. Players explore a stunningly rendered home, solving puzzles and avoiding apparitions, armed with a camera that’s more than meets the eye. Despite a strong premise, presentation, and core mechanics, the experience is slowed down by flawed puzzle design and repetitive scares.
As Luca, a demon has manipulated you into completing a dark ritual in your haunted family home. Along the way, meet Madison Hale, a practitioner of witchcraft who committed a series of gruesome ritualistic murders before being killed herself. While sitting at the center of her plight, the story also interweaves her family’s history with the demonic in a way that at times feels disconnected from the main storyline, making it unclear how, say, a supernatural trip to a 1950s church is directly related to the Present is related to events. Lucas’ panicked, eye-rolling babble became a distraction too, so I’m grateful that a Silent Mode allowed me to turn him into a silent protagonist with subtitles to add to the creep factor.
Her supernatural camera serves as her primary interactive tool and occasional weapon. Photographing important locations can break down barriers, open portals to new areas, and create other cool, reality-warping effects. The photos themselves often serve as crucial clues. It’s a neat mechanic, and I like the excitement of shaking a Polaroid to see what big revelation appears. Because there’s no visual cue to when to take a picture, I’ve learned to take a picture of something whenever I hit a wall.
If the camera isn’t the answer, you’ll rummage through a limited inventory of items for the right tool to pry open floorboards or snap chains. Puzzle-solving is reminiscent of Resident Evil in that sense, and while there are some clever puzzles, others can be too obscure and it can be easy to lose the thread of what to do next.
After receiving a new item, I wandered the house for over an hour looking for a way to use it, only to find that I had to return to a room I had thoroughly explored to find an unrelated one Find the item in the corner of the floor. A notebook conveying your next destination threw in a more vague waypoint; The solution required such a huge leap in logic that I screamed, “How should I know?!” These situations occur more often than I would have liked. So don’t be afraid to keep a walkthrough open, as traversing the house multiple times to find a metaphorical needle in a haystack shatters the sense of dread.
Exploring this cursed dwelling during opening hours or two hairs raised thanks to its oppressive atmosphere and exceptional light work. A shadowy corner or staircase would always make me stop, and the game’s bumps and camera tricks made me question every step. Unfortunately, the more I researched, the more I noticed Madison’s excessive use of his repetitive soundboard of creaks, groans, and thunderclaps. Eventually I stopped jumping at the same door closing sound because I knew it wasn’t threatening, and it made Madison’s home feel closer to a haunted house at a county fair with a broken record player.
That’s not to say Madison doesn’t have terrifying moments; Activating a bunch of turntables while being chased by a demonic creature from a children’s book freaked me out, and the game offers its fair share of “no” moments. I believe that less is more when it comes to horror, and Madison is at its best when it inspires a big scare and comes through sparingly. As the adventure progresses, it begins to overindulge. A room-hopping statue startled me a few times before it started appearing every two seconds in more absurd places like bathtubs and awkwardly on furniture, making me laugh and dispelling its menace.
Madison is also starting to rely too heavily on cheap jump scares, especially in the back half where I was hit with an almost constant barrage of them. I even experienced the same jumping fear in one spot twice within minutes. After the fourth “surprise” in a row, I was more frustrated with them than anything else. I can see Madison becoming a hit with the streaming crowd for this reason, but I wish it showed more restraint and creativity on that front.
Despite my misgivings, Madison still makes for a respectable night of horror and is well worth a look for psychological horror fans. It manages to build suspense and puzzle variety, stumbling when obsessed with baffling players with mind-boggling solutions and stopping their hearts with lame jump scares. But if the game hits right, you’ll be glad no one noticed the look on your face.
