Midnight Evil

Genre: First-Person Horror

Players: 1

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Review:

Midnight Evil is a First-Person Horror game released on PC and Nintendo Switch in 2019. This is a game in the same vein as Five Nights at Freddy’s – you’re trying to complete a task in one stationary spot while keeping a wary eye out for malevolent enemies. In the case of Midnight Evil, you’re a teenager in his bedroom reading a book about nasty magical child-killing creatures, creatures that can only be temporarily warded off by looking at them directly, and only permanently stopped by completing the book.

The presentation here has its good and bad elements, and unfortunately, the bad elements often undermine those good elements. The graphics here are nothing special, but competent at least, depicting the room and the nasty little green creatures in 3D. However, while the little goblins (fae?) called “urklings” are a bit creepy, they’re also somewhat comical in appearance, which undermines the tone of horror the game is going for. This odd mix of creepy and comical is mirrored in the sound – the babbling little noises these critters make are similarly both creepy and ridiculous, and while the decent deadpan reading of the book by the main character and the heartbeat noises (because of course this game uses heartbeat noises…) do a good job of building up the tone of horror, every time one of these critters makes noise that tone is shattered.

At the very least, the story your character reads is fittingly creepy, and the gameplay built around darting your eyes back and forth between your book and the room around you is a solid premise for a Horror game. Unfortunately, the mechanics aren’t very well-explained. I found myself frustrated that there wasn’t any reliable sound or lighting indication that you were suddenly in danger, and had to look online to see that apparently there is a random chance that one of the critters will spawn after the completion of every sentence in the story.

This led to a new frustration – it’s tedious to have to stop “reading” after every sentence to do a visual check of the virtual room. While this is repetitive and simple enough already, this is especially true with the game’s frustrating controls, which refuse to return your view to the book unless you hit just the right spot. Don’t expect touchscreen or motion controls to solve this issue either, as neither is used for this game.

One other issue deserving of note here – At $10, this game feels extremely overpriced. Horror game fans may find this game to be a bit more worthwhile when it goes on sale (as it does frequently), but at its standard price it’s absolutely not worth it.

In the end, I found Midnight Evil to be sorely lacking in multiple ways, but at the very least its premise was good, and the voice acting and writing is solid as well. Unfortunately, the silly depiction of the game’s little green monsters undermines the horror elements of the game, and the poor controls and repetitive gameplay make this game too tedious to give a high recommendation, especially at its normal asking price.

tl;dr – Midnight Evil is a First-Person Horror game that plays a bit like Five Nights at Freddy’s but with the player reading a creepy book while keeping an eye out for little green child-murdering goblins. The premise is decent, and the writing and voice acting are good, but the somewhat comical look and sound of the critters undermines the creepy tone of the game, and the tedious and repetitive gameplay make this a game that only the most dedicated fans of the genre will want to get… and certainly not at its normal price.

Grade: D+

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