Horror survival games usually just leave me by the wayside, cruising past like a friendly passing car. I’m neither bothered or generally captured by them. If you know me then you know horror in general is just a genre that I am very rarely grabbed by. So when White Night appeared to me, out of nowhere, imagine my surprise. This is a game that is basically a horror survival at heart, with a story to investigate! It appealed to my sense of mystery (I do like a good mystery to unravel after all) so I decided to take a punt on the game, to see if it could match up to what I wanted in my head. The game is a horror survival, albeit doing away with the combat element that the genre normally relies on for its suspense and action. It seems to be more akin to the classic Alone In The Dark series, relying on solving puzzles and exploration with a little bit of running for your life thrown in for good measure. Developed by OSome the game sees you venturing around a desolate, empty mansion house in the 1930’s. It’s clear from the start that there’s some evil presence still lurking within the walls of this once great house. Yet after a car crash, it’s your only chance for help, especially as you seem to be injured. You come across the abandoned house that presents itself to you with plenty of strange symbols and graves giving the game an eerie presence from the very start. The puzzles themselves are fairly simple affairs with the general solution being around aiming a light source properly, allowing you to manipulate items littered around the house like chests or posters, directing then so you can make your way past a an area safely. It ends up feeling like a cross between the aforementioned old school survival games and point and click adventures, such as Grim Fandango. The controls are simple enough and work reasonably well with you pressing X to run and hitting A to investigate an area. You’ll also find excerpts from diaries, helping you build a bigger picture of the story as it unfolds along with notes from victims. Yet it’s the subtle and elegant art style, along with an intense music track, full of jazz and sounds that make your hair stand on end, that helps bring the game to life. The game is visually beautiful in black and white, making it stand out from other games in the genre that simply rely on darkness. The monochrome art style doesn’t hamper the detail within the house though, which is just beautiful as the use of shadows complements the tone perfectly. To this end the darkness is your enemy with your only hope being boxes of matches that lay littered around the mansion. Along with the matches are lights that can be switched on, illuminating more of the rooms you explore. Sounds simple, however some of the wiring in the house is decaying and some lights are unplugged, making the use of the matches one of the most important factors throughout the game. Run out and you’re in serious trouble, also some of the matches, just like in real life, are duds. Leaving you panicking when you strike a match before the darkness consumes you only to find it strikes out, leaving you scrambling for another. It’s these little touches and the attention to detail that captivate you whilst playing. The dark tone matches the noir-esque style that is found throughout the game reminding me of the classic detective movies set in the ’30s. I’m not one for being scared easily, however the first time a shadow appeared across the screen I jumped out of my skin. When I heard something knocking on one of the doors, a fear grabbed my heart. That’s something that has not happened very often to me in horror games, when I do play them. The eerie nature of the game is presented well and really messes with your head, just like a good horror film does. The main threat are the shadowy ghosts, allergic to light and only killable by electric lights. They act like guard dogs, keeping you away from certain areas and leaving you alone unless you get too close. One touch from these spirits and your life is gone. This leads us to some of the most frustrating parts of the game. Instant deaths are inevitable during the game. Especially when the ghosts have a habit of hiding behind a doorway or in the distance, not being seen until its way too late and leaving you frustrated that you didn’t pick them up sooner. There are save points throughout the game in the shape of arm chairs with a special symbol adorning them. You can’t use them straight away however, there has to be ample light either by a lit candle or electric light. During the game, the surprising and quick deaths were getting me a little frustrated. So much so that after every specific event I made damn sure that I went to a save chair and used it! It’s this sense of building frustration that interrupted my play through, making an intense scary experience evaporate into a cesspit built on anger and frustration. In fact it got so bad that several times, I ended up just switching the game off before I totally lost my temper, resulting in the tempo of the game being some what diminished and spoiling the eerie glow the game has to offer. Yet even with this tad annoyance, I found myself going back. Back to watch the story unravel to see what would happen next. Thats the true beauty of White Night. It’s an experience that I have not had before with a game, one that truly mixes a dark tale with an eerie tone. A game that begs to be explored and will reward your patience. With a beautiful soundtrack and an amazing art style, a unique experience awaits you. This review is based on the Xbox One version of the game.
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