The Midnight Walk Review – Review
“After the end of the world, the Burnt One woke from a deep slumber, only the burnt one was left. Broken, deaf, and blinded. “ These opening words set the tone of game developer MoonHood’s The Midnight Walk. A walking simulator at its core but one that does so much with its captivating presentation that it overrides any notion of simplistic genre titles. It’s a unique experience that builds an entire world and mythos in all its claymation glory, yep I said that right, claymation. Let’s dig in.
First off, The Midnight Walk beautifully emulates the look of claymation in a manner reminiscent of the work of Tim Burton. Gothic, haunting, macabre, and grotesque are all the adjectives that I would use when describing the art design. Creatures with exaggerated features and barbaric shrieks surround you, accentuating your time in the eerie world of arts and crafts. It should be noted that this is especially emphasized with crucial use of spatial audio, but does not support surround sound on the Switch 2.
The Midnight Walk starts you as the awakened “Burnt One,” a fabled creature of legend with a destiny to walk The Midnight Walk with his partner Potboy, to re-ignite the Sun or doom this world to be bathed in darkness forever. Since the world is already so dark, it’s hard to imagine anything else but those are the stakes. It’s here that you will traverse the land lighting candles, stealthing past disgusting monsters, and solving very simple puzzles on your path to Moon Mountain.
While I mentioned walking simulators in the beginning, there is a bit more interactivity within the moment to moment gameplay. There is actually quite a lot of stealth gameplay, sneaking around massive monsters, finding cover or hiding spots within bureaus, and figuring out how to escape. Getting caught just respawns you at designated coffin points in the environment so there’s no worries there. There are also puzzles that are to be solved by sending over your partner Potboy to light candles or fuses. Later on you get a matchstick cannon to shoot flames for said candles and fuses. There’s also an interesting eye closing mechanic that’s used to listen in on clues. So when you close your eyes, you can hear via the spatial sound design where something is. Later on this is also used to open gates.
The game is organized in different story sections where you will find a town or area, talk to the locals, and attempt to solve their problems.These sections also come with separate tragic stories, playing out in various ways. One has you reliving the history of a town that was so desperate for warmth that when a young child stole the last match to save a freezing cat, she was killed for her treason. This left the town in a deep sense of remorse. By putting her soul to rest by finding her bones you are able to give the town the peace they needed. There’s the story of the creator losing his spark, the story of the lonely Molgrim, and even a story plucked directly out of Bloodborne. The stories are tragic, endearing, and well written enough that I was always curious as to what the next section would bring. The pacing is perfect in these bite sized parables and never lingers too long on one.
While claymation has been around since the beginning of the 1900s, it’s still relatively new within the gaming sphere with the latest standout being Harold Halibut. With that being said, it’s not used as a novelty as much as crafting something both stunning and horrifying at the same time. Originally released on PC and Steam VR, it’s a wonder how amazing everything works on the Switch 2. It’s when they begin to mix the animation styles that we see the game start to take a sharp framerate dip. Things like lighting bonfires or key story points with animated eyes will cause everything to chug, but those weren’t super common, still it should be noted. There were also a few animation hitches, seeing enemies tear across the screen, and a handful of crashes, specifically during the ending sequence. The Switch 2 is doing a lot of heavy lifting with this one and it does show slightly.
The real star of the show is our trusty companion Potboy who follows us around, listens to our directions, and oftentimes gets into trouble. He’s capricious, adorable, and everything that makes for good character design. He communicates only in non verbal shrieks but gives you all you need. From the beginning you gain his trust and then he’s a ride or die guy. You care when he’s captured, you get excited when he’s happy, and you wallow in his pain. Once I was connected to him I found I was connected to the entire world of characters in this game. The Soothsayer and Soulfisher who act as narrators between levels, are mysterious but lovable people that give sage advice while still talking in riddles. The way they would give updates or discuss the previous adventure were always a welcome reprieve after a particularly intense section. The headless no bodied population of Nobodyville were cranky but lovable, and even the silent Housy the House. I would buy figurines and make tier lists for every single character in the game and that says something about the quality of their design and writing.
Still after my time with The Midnight Walk I found myself wanting. Not for more per say but different. There are glimpses of greatness here, but they barely touch what really could be something great. They dip their toes into horrifying stealth puzzles but move on so fast that mechanics are often abandoned after being used twice. There was one specific mechanic of statues that become monsters when your eyes are closed, so you have to lure them onto switches, that is actively only used twice. We then never engage with that mechanic again and it feels like a waste. The matchstick gun is used so infrequently that I often forgot I even had it. There are so many good ideas that need expanding.
The Midnight Walk is an impressive feat. Creating this massive world, with these wonderfully bizarre fairy tales is nothing short of fantastic. This feels like a fully fleshed out world, with so much more to explore if they felt inclined on a sequel. That being said, performance on the Switch 2 in both docked and handheld did struggle at times, and lack of surround sound, which is present in other iterations of the game, is disappointing. I also found that the mechanics were just too slight, making for an all too breezy experience. I’ve been keeping my eye on The Midnight Walk for a while now and was not disappointed in the final presentation. It’s gross, and disfigured in all the best ways, and does amazing work with mixing animation, claymation, and film media to craft something truly special. This game is an accomplishment and one of the best arguments for games as an art form this year.
