White Night
Osome Studio
Steam/PS4/Xbox One
I can’t tell if the games I’m playing – Resident Evil, Alien Isolation and Osome Studio’s new game White Night are increasing the order of terror or if I’m just saturating myself in scary video games towards a nervous breakdown. White Night is a terribly good game which stylistically reminds me of Resident Evil and Broken Sword. It is a two tone noir survival horror, it is a gaping head wound of tension and horror and will shatter your ability to not die of a stroke within minutes. Priced at less than fifteen pounds (sterling), White Night is worth every penny. It is said that Resident Evil was originally going to be ghosts and not zombies and this game is pretty much that, very puzzle-centric. The only thing there are more of than puzzles in this game are my screams and tears.
As the game starts, my character, an alcoholic detective of some sort, has ended up in a minor car crash which leads him to stumbling into a house with nothing but a trenchcoat and a voice-over. I spend the first few minutes looking at buckets and moving statues and gravestones until I decide that I should go into this big mansion. Instantly doors start locking themselves, lights start flickering and puzzles start offering themselves to me with the help of the most terrifying ghosts I’ve seen since I played project zero 2 on the PS2. The ghosts are all women a few bad and one good because of gradually emerging plot points. The only way the ghosts in White Night could have been more scary is if they had walked into my living room and told me they were pregnant.
Partly because of the colour scheme being so stressful on my eyes, though that could be due to my inability to pay heed to my optician, and mainly because of the game being so stressful on my nerves I would stop occasionally to play Peggle 2 with all its wonderful colours and non-threatening looking Unicorn.
The plot is based around a lot of noir stereotypes such as smoking, jazz, black and white things, private detectives and beautiful women. Though it seemed too predictable, I found the plot very satisfying and did everything I wanted it to do. There are so many diaries, newspaper articles and notes lying around that I found as I took the time to read enhanced both the intrigue and the fear caused by the emerging details of the story. The game is very short, that is the only downside, but it is also pretty cheap, so the value for money is very clear. There are nice touches apart from the colour scheme, including the only colour being from lights or matches and the clocks striking in real time as it hits an o’clock of some respect in real life.
If you fancy spending some time absolutely ruining underwear and shortening your life span then I suggest you get white night as soon as possible.
4 out of 5 Nerds
Irwin Fletcher
I'm an LA journalist who really lives for his profession. I have also published work as Jane Doe in various mags and newspapers across the globe. I normally write articles that can cause trouble but now I write for FTN because Nerds are never angry, so I feel safe.
Nerd Comments