Sony’s troubles with getting more live-service games out have certainly seen much discussion over the last year. While the company might be looking to Midnight Murder Club as its potential next hit, its release ultimately reveals that even a few clever ideas can’t really help a game that has a few fundamental issues that prevent it from getting a larger player base. And because it doesn’t quite have a big enough player base, a lot of the title’s issues get even more amplified.
"Generally speaking, Midnight Murder Club doesn’t quite feel as accessible as a new multiplayer game that’s trying to garner an audience should be."
Let’s get the basics out of the way first. Midnight Murder Club is a competitive shooter that throws groups of up to 12 players together into a dark mansion. Armed with a revolver and a flashlight, players then have to figure out where their opponents are as they slowly skulk through the randomly generated rooms of Wormwood Manor. The twist offered up here is that darkness tends to be your best friend; using the flashlight might give you some much-needed visibility at times, but it also acts as a beacon to other nearby players. Because of this, you have to rely largely on sounds, and very judicious use of your flashlight to find your way around.
These core mechanics act as the foundation for a few different game modes, from the bog-standard free-for-all and team deathmatch modes that revolve around getting as many kills as possible, to Wildcard, which seems like it might be the big flagship game mode for Midnight Murder Club. In Wildcard, all players are given a choice between a number of different cards, each of which can have varied effects that are in play for the entirety of the match. These effects can range from everyone starting out with more powerful weapons, to shrinking a player every time they get shot. Cards can even go as far as changing up the very nature of the game mode iinto a team-based affair or adding light trails to all players, with getting more kills getting longer and brighter trails.
"Generally speaking, Midnight Murder Club doesn’t quite feel as accessible as a new multiplayer game that’s trying to garner an audience should be."
Shooting feels tight and accurate, and the movement and aiming both feel quite responsive. Issues, however, start popping up when you spend a bit longer with the title and notice some of the UI elements. The biggest negative in this regard is the fact that keeping your flashlight on also provides you with a minimap. While it might ensure that Midnight Murder Club is more accessible to new players, it also tends to act as a crutch, since it vastly de-emphasises one of the core tenets: learning how to raise your situational awareness in the twisting corridors of Wormwood Manor.
Generally speaking, Midnight Murder Club doesn’t quite feel as accessible as a new multiplayer game that’s trying to garner an audience should be. While it is incredibly dedicated to its core gameplay gimmicks – the fact that you can’t see anything unless you also make yourself visible to your enemies – these same mechanics mean that there isn’t really a way to ease yourself into the game and learn its mechanics. There’s no real tutorial mode, and while this might change over the course of the title’s life with post-launch updates, currently, the only real way you can learn how to play is by either joining several matches and, literally and metaphorically, fumbling around in the dark.
There are bot matches that provide less competitive stress, but only Wildcard and the PvE-focused Graveyard Shift modes are available. The former can be a decent enough way to learn the game, but the existence of the titular Wildcards can muddy the waters when it comes to learning the core mechanics of the game, and the latter doesn’t really teach you much at all since it revolves around you and a buddy fighting off Revenants. The mode revolves around two players teaming up to look for golden relics all over the mansion while also fending off waves of enemies, and while it’s fun for a few minutes, it starts feeling repetitive quite quickly. The other game modes – Free-for-All, Team Deathmatch, Thief in the Night and Headhunters – are multiplayer-only, and this brings us to the biggest elephant in the room with Midnight Murder Club.
"The small population means that any player that wants to give Midnight Murder Club a shot will have a lot of downtime"
There just aren’t enough players. In my attempts, I was met with several matchmaking queues that ended up going into several minutes, and while things were pretty fun when I finally got into a match, this wouldn’t last. The small population – a quick glance at SteamDB indicates that the title has been at a peak of over 200 concurrent players – means that any player that wants to give Midnight Murder Club a shot will have a lot of downtime, and there’s no guarantee that it will improve anytime soon. Ultimately, this means that the only real way to enjoy Midnight Murder Club right now is if you have at least five other friends to play with.
The nature of darkness and lighting being an important gameplay factor also means that Midnight Murder Club has to nail the visuals and audio, and in that respect, the shooter largely succeeds. It goes for a fun visual style that melds a masquerade party with the vibes of 1950s noir in its fashion, character designs, and environment. How the game handles light can also end up looking quite impressive, especially when some of the more insane modifiers from Wildcards come into play, like a massive disco ball reflecting multi-coloured light all over the place, or a falling chandelier lighting a doorway on fire.
The lack of light also means that footsteps and other audio cues – like the sound of doors being opened and closed – tend to be the best way to figure out where your opponents are. Midnight Murder Club doesn’t really offer much in the way of a soundtrack, which also means that you can focus more on the gameplay side of things without having to worry about enemy footsteps being muddled by the presence of background music. Aside from that, things like distant gunshots and the creaking of doors and wooden staircases also sound quite good.
"As is the case with many underbaked releases, things could potentially improve for Midnight Murder Club with post-launch updates."
This feels like even more of a shame considering the fact that Midnight Murder Club has a really fun premise for a shooter that we haven’t really seen much of before. Instead of opting for yet another straightforward competitive shooter, or even going with a more social deduction route by following games like Among Us, Midnight Murder Club instead takes a different approach that’s more methodical and tense. Unfortunately, the same premise also ends up feeling too inaccessible for many new players, and the fact that it isn’t a free-to-play game also adds yet another barrier in an already overpopulated genre.
Add on the fact that the PvE Graveyard Shift mode doesn’t really offer much in the way of depth and ends up feeling largely repetitive despite the Mansion itself being randomly generated, and this just doesn’t seem like it might be worth your time in its current incarnation.
As is the case with many underbaked releases, things could potentially improve for Midnight Murder Club with post-launch updates. However, even with new content, mechanics, and whatnot, it needs to venture beyond its current appeal to tap into a larger player base. And with the current state of the player base, it’s hard to tell whether the game’s fortunes will change.
This game was reviewed on PC.
Playing around with light and dark presents an interesting premise for a competitive shooter.
The game struggles with a small player base, limited ways to learn its mechanics, and a PvE mode that quickly becomes repetitive.
