“Cosy” and “Horror” seem to be like words with opposing definitions, but Developer Moonhood Studio has repeatedly marketed his debut game The Midnight Walk as a cozy horror game. I understand where the studio comes from; Despite jumping and chase sequences, Tim Burton-like art style is nostalgic and reminds me of watching Body bride or The nightmare before Christmas As a child. Nevertheless, both genres are cozy and horror that describe the aesthetics of a game rather than its mechanics, and while the visuals, history and soundtrack from Midnight Walk are convincing, his mechanics are less exciting. Nevertheless, this core paradox of “cozy horror” and his accompanying style was a lot to motivate me to see the satisfactory end of the game.
In the midnight walk you play in the first person as a burned, a creature whose face we never see, but their hands are dark, shrunk and scarred. The title trip is a hike that ends the burned and delightful, flaming accompanying spot and helps people on the way. It feels like playing through an old children's book, both in his bizarre tone and because of the narrator who leads the player through history.
In the land of the midnight walk, the sun disappeared a long time ago, so that most creatures only knew the darkness and the cold. So it is only natural that your main tool is fire to solve problems. Use games, a fire weapon with a match flinging and the flickering flame on Potboys head. The game also contains a button to close your eyes with which you can listen to your surroundings more precisely and interact with shining eyes on doors or certain enemies. I guess how the topics of light and warmth extend from the plot to the abilities of their character.
In general, however, the gameplay is nothing special. The linear, story -oriented experience combines simple stealth and puzzle solution. There are a few outstanding moments and mechanics, such as a puzzle in which you can close your eyes when monsters follow to transform them into statues, but it was usually a vehicle to get me from one interesting area to another. Adds of candles and monsters on monsters never react no longer or boring, only uninteresting: it was made before. The quick length of the game of the game prevents this from being a great critic.
The reasons to play the midnight hike are his art and music. The visual aesthetics, which is achieved in a digital format by handmade models, is similar to what they would find in a stop-motion film. Characters have round heads, long, thin limbs and exaggerated facial features that make them so ugly that they somehow get themselves to be sweet. Potboy is the perfect example of this with an incredibly jagged smile. On the whole line, characters are charming, repulsive and unique, from a village to a hiking house called Housy.
While I knew about the graphic of the game beforehand, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the soundtrack of the midnight walk. Instead of corresponding to the dark, the Halloween mood emphasizes that has the rest of the game and emphasizes the serious tone of the adventure and often shows a single clarinet or saxophone that plays a simple melody to underline the emotional weight of the trip. While none of the main characters can speak, the music communicates its emotions better than words. The last part of each chapter has sparked a long toe flame Potboy, and the musical wave attack associated with this action offers a lot to inform the player about his meaning. There is flame from the dark; There is music from silence.
The Midnight Walk is a rare case of a book that is best assessed according to its cover. When his aesthetics speaks to you, you will have a pleasant, creepy journey next to Potboy. If this is not the case, it is unlikely that your simple gameplay will draw your attention firmly enough to compensate for this. Regardless of this, his execution of this style is commendable, and when the score rose in the last moments of my through, I knew that it was a walk that I was happy to have made.
