Man, when I saw the first trailer for The Midnight Walk, I was stoked. Even if adventure games with limited gameplay aren’t exactly the type of title I look forward to the most, the vibes, the setting, the visuals… everything screamed “a playable Tim Burton movie”. I really wanted to give it a go, despite knowing very little about it as a game per se. With it finally out, and after giving it a go, I was definitely very impressed with its absolutely sublime presentation. When it came to its gameplay, however… I had mixed feelings. Which is already a lot better than what I can say about other experiences like Gone Home, Tacoma, and Edith Finch, granted.

In The Midnight Walk, the plot begins from out of nowhere, with little to no explanation, with you playing as someone called The Burnt One, in a world engulfed by darkness. You see, in this world, the Sun has died out, so deadly creatures have managed to rule over the land with wickedness and darkness. Your objective is simple: to meet, befriend and escort a little walking thingy called Potboy, to the summit of a mountain in order to bring the light back to this world. In essence, it’s half of the plot of Dark Souls and half of the plot of The Lord of the Rings… without the cool aspects from each of them. Or action.

Nope, this is a very straightforward first-person adventure game where you need to occasionally solve a few puzzles, guide your buddy to specific places for it to perform context-sensitive actions, and avoid some truly heinous monstrosities. You can use gigantic matchsticks, as well as Potboy’s fire-breathing abilities, to light candles and create paths in which enemies cannot attack you. As to be expected, monsters fear light. In other sections, you might need to look at eye-shaped icons and close your eyes (there is a button for that) in order for something to happen onscreen, which will unlock a path forward. Sounds odd, but it is more interesting than you would expect.

It’s part walking simulator, part adventure, part horror. It has enough interactivity and urgency to make it feel a lot more complete and enjoyable than the games mentioned in the first paragraph, but what really drives The Midnight Walk forward is its astonishing presentation.

As clichéed as it might sound, The Midnight Walk is an interactive stop-motion clay experience, and boy, does it look amazing. All of the creepiest ideas never utilized by Tim Burton in any of his movies were crammed into this bizarre world that manages to look hideous and cute at the same time. It felt like I was given free reign to explore the underworld from Beetlejuice, stop-motion and all. That being said, some of its areas are so dark you can’t exactly appreciate the creativity behind the designs. I get it, it’s dark, it’s creepy, but some areas felt TOO dark, too hard to see. It was such a gorgeous world I just wanted to see more of it.

Another thing the developers really tried to turn into a selling point was The Midnight Walk‘s sound design. It’s all based around binaural 3D sound. In some sections, such as whenever you’re told to close your eyes in order to “listen” to where you need to go, it was actually impressive. For the most part, however, it felt more like a gimmick. All in all, the sound design was great, but other games did it better, such as both Hellblade games, as well as Returnal.

I gave a lot of emphasis on the presentation because, to be fair, the story and the gameplay weren’t that engaging. I kept playing The Midnight Walk, and enjoying my time with it, because it was just a blessing for my eyes (and occasionally for my ears). By featuring the bare minimum of gameplay to make it stand out from other walking simulators, it’s vastly more enjoyable than most of its peers. That being said, it’s a one-and-done experience at best. One that you should probably try out in VR, unlike the flat version I reviewed, if you have the means to do so.

 

Graphics: 9.5 Undoubtedly one the prettiest and most visually unique games I’ve seen in a long time, even if some of its areas are so dark you can’t exactly appreciate the creativity behind the designs.	Gameplay: 6.5 For what’s mostly a walking simulator, there’s some puzzle solving and survival horror elements to spice up the gameplay a bit. Just enough to ensure there’s actually proper gameplay in this game.
Sound: 8.0 It’s all based around binaural 3D sound, but I think other games have done it slightly better.	Fun Factor: 6.5 A really immersive game with some jaw-dropping production values. By featuring the bare minimum of gameplay to make it stand out from other walking simulators, it’s more enjoyable than most of its peers. That being said, it’s a one-and-done experience at best.
Final Verdict: 7.5

The Midnight Walk is available now on PS5 and PC.

Reviewed on Intel i7-12700H, 16GB RAM, RTX 3060 6GB.