The Midnight Walk Review – A Dance of Light and Dark

Games as aesthetically rich as The Midnight Walk don’t come very often. As a fan of claymation visuals and stop-motion animation, I felt specifically catered to with this experience. And to my delight, the designs are varied and interesting throughout the journey. But this isn’t a visual novel; there’s a surprising emphasis on stealth gameplay here that I wasn’t quite prepared for (or maybe it was the absolutely terrifying creatures that I wasn’t ready for). The creators behind Lost in Random have something special here, as The Midnight Walk feels like nothing I’ve really played before.

That said, the game does have a structure. There are six chapters total, each telling a more or less self-contained tale with the overarching themes of fire and darkness shared between them (and what the game does with these themes is brilliant). As the Burnt One, your own objective is to guide your adorable Potboy companion to Moon Mountain, a ubiquitous sight from every corner of the game’s world. In-between these chapters is the Midnight Walk itself, a long stretch of road leading to Moon Mountain. It’s on this stretch of highway where you can chat with recurring characters like the banjo-playing Soulfisher and the two-headed Soothsayer guide.

"Each chapter feels like you’re stopping off the highway and getting a tour of the town’s culture and history."

These friendly faces, along with a charming narrator, help offset the otherwise dark and isolating tone the game has. You might want to put subtitles on for some NPCs though, because their accent and dialect can be uncanny and hard to understand at times (in a good way). I love the roadtrip vibe the game has going on; each chapter feels like you’re stopping off the highway and getting a tour of the town’s culture and history. It’s typically within these chapters where The Midnight Walk’s core gameplay really comes into focus.

The Midnight Walk has the heart of a classic adventure game and the mind of a stealth title. You’re typically helping the bizarre denizens within each chapter by bringing fire to them through clever use of your portable flame companion, Potboy. One of the more common puzzles involves commanding Potboy to light a series of candles in a particular order to raise a platform for a limited time. The command feature works well enough, but there’s occasional issues with Potboy’s pathing. There were three times when I ordered him to light a candle, only to realize he’s stuck behind a wall or in a different room getting snagged against some geometry. The pathing is not terrible, but it could be better.

"Later in the game, you’re given a match launcher that lights fires from afar."

You’re not left without any tools of your own though. Later in the game, you’re given a match launcher that lights fires from afar. It’s not a full substitute for Potboy, but it does alleviate some of the pathing issues that can arise from commanding him. This is not a puzzle-heavy game though, and the puzzles that exist are pretty straightforward. This lack of progressive puzzle design throughout the game left me wanting a bit more, I admit. There’s just a lot more that could be done with the fire-lighting concept, so it strikes me as a bit of a wasted opportunity that it never evolved into anything more challenging or substantial gameplay-wise. For me, at least, most of the game’s challenge came from the stealth sequences.

Early on, players will get a taste of just how nerve-wracking and terrifying sneaking around the dark can be in this game. The stitched-up faces of the Crawlers really compel the player to get as far away from them as possible. The creatures you’re hiding from are downright terrifying. And the game doesn’t hold back on the jump scare animations when you get caught either, accompanied as they are by that classic horror sting in the sound department. I think the studio nailed the theming of light and dark with the sneaking gameplay here. It really is a natural fit having a fire-lighting mechanic while sneakily avoiding nightmarish monstrosities in the dark of night.

"Early on, players will get a taste of just how nerve-wracking and terrifying sneaking around the dark can be in this game."

In gameplay terms, stealth is rather simple like the puzzles, but more satisfying. You have a typical crouch toggle, and the game lets you know if enemies spot you by dimming the light around the screen. The darker the screen is, the more hidden you are. And like a horror game, there’s closets to run and hide in should a monster catch sight of you. Sprinting to a closet and waiting for the monster to scurry back to its spot is just as tense, if not more, as other horror games. And yes, there’s an element of powerlessness considering a majority of creatures cannot be directly harmed.

Some of the more nail-biting sequences involve closing your eyes to enhance hearing in order to locate invisible objects and places of interest. You can imagine the kind of scenarios the game gets up to with this premise, with creatures stalking you while blindly listening for the way forward. My favorite puzzle utilizes the psychology of facing fears all too well, requiring you to directly look and blink at the monster’s face in order to escape and get past it. Suffice to say, this game can be absolutely terrifying, despite its demure and unassuming appearance at times.

"This game can be absolutely terrifying, despite its demure and unassuming appearance at times."

Part of the reason the horror works so well can be attributed to the game’s uncanny and wildly creative art style. Every creature was crafted from real-life clay models first and then rendered in-game. There’s even a stop-motion effect to animations that give it that extra touch. Going into this, I thought it looked vaguely like a Tim Burton movie, and yes, the environments and weird creatures do have a certain Burton-esque quality to them. I mean, a couple of landscapes almost seem to reference Nightmare Before Christmas more or less directly. But The Midnight Walk is also very much its own thing, taking the whimsy of fairy tales and fusing it with uncanny horror.

"There’s an element of contrast between common real-world objects, like old shoes and books, and the more bizarre abstract creatures and landscapes that just works so well."

One of the joys of the dreamlike journey is simply admiring all the bewilderingly unique environmental details. Whether it’s the awkward tree-like spires reaching into the night sky or a discarded teacup emblazoned with Victorian era art sketches, The Midnight Walk never disappoints with its intriguing aesthetic. And then there’s the occasional moment of awe upon witnessing groups of giant figures migrating off into the background to who knows where. It’s the odd little background details like these that make it a more mysterious and unpredictable place than many others in gaming. There’s an element of contrast between common real-world objects, like old shoes and books, and the more bizarre abstract creatures and landscapes that just works so well.

One area in particular put a grin on my face. A cave housing a terrifying creature had a couple of windows with which I could gain a better vantage point. As I approach, I notice the windows are actually the end of a glass bottle lodged into a small hole. Examining the bottle closer shows the typical bottom grooves accompanied by scratch marks and realistic reflections. In this instance and others like it, The Midnight Walk demonstrates not just uniqueness but attention to detail. And what’s more, the mixture of everyday objects with the fantastical fits with the lore in interesting ways that the game oh so subtly hints at. I never knew quite what to expect from the surreal landscape despite the connective aesthetic style draped across the whole work. This is thanks in part to each chapter varying up its environment. The swamplands of one chapter feels different to the more clustered metro area of another.

"The various knickknacks you collect can be examined at your leisure within Housy"

Such strong environmental design might give the impression that the game is highly explorable; and while there is some exploration, it certainly is limited by design. The Midnight Walk is a pretty linear tale. Each of the chapters is a self-contained area with specific objectives. That said, you’re free to roam around at your leisure (when you’re not being chased by a Grinner), checking the collectible objects located at dead ends and other corners of the environment. Still, there’s not a whole lot of surface area to explore here. This is very much an adventure game in its exploration, with small intricate areas to browse around at your own pace.

The various knickknacks you collect can be examined at your leisure within Housy, your walking house companion. It’s here where you can peruse the various vinyl music tracks, chapter items, story page reels, and shellphones (basically audio logs) that you’ve gathered up over the course of the game. Some of these objects tell their own stories, but many give further context to places you visit and creatures you meet. Whether you’re listening to the collected music tracks within Housy or experiencing it through the chapters, there’s plenty to love with the soundtrack. The score gets across the dreamlike atmosphere and dark ambiguity of much of the game very well.

"The stopmotion claymation visuals are a treat to behold."

Much of The Midnight Walk’s charm is owed to its artistic presentation. The stopmotion claymation visuals are a treat to behold. Likewise, the way the game uses the themes of fire and darkness coalesce into something really poignant and unique. I enjoyed my time journeying down the midnight walk, though I don’t see much of a reason to return. There’s just not a lot of replay value here. Replaying chapters to collect everything you missed doesn’t take too long either, considering how small most areas are. And while the game touts six chapters, the final two are very brief segments with little gameplay. The game feels lacking in content in the later half, almost like it got rushed and had a deadline to meet. It’s a polished game, yes, but I was certainly left wanting more from the last two chapters considering the self-contained tales the first four managed to tell. Still, even with its low replay value and short five hour runtime, The Midnight Walk is a memorable journey oozing with creativity that won’t be easily forgotten.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.