Developer: OSome-Studio
Price: $14.99
Platform: Xbox One (Reviewed), PS4, PC, Mac, Linux
A Review copy of White Night was supplied to us
OSome Studio, creators of such classics as, well actually you’ve probably never heard of them, but that’s all about to change. On March 3rd they unleashed White Night, a minimalist survival-horror puzzler with a noir style game, on the world.
White Night takes place during great depression era boston in 1938. The events of the game take place in a memory of a drunken man who tries to drown his sorrow. The game starts as the unidentified man lights a cig, gets in his car and leaves the bar. as you drive home drunk a beautiful song plays on the radio and the protagonist almost hits a ghostly woman and crashes his car into a tree, suffering minor injuries as well as amnesia as a result of the accident. Seeking help for your injuries, you arrive at the gates of Vesper Manor, a destitute mansion that would appear to be unoccupied upon first sight.
Once inside Vesper Manor your character tries to call for emergency services, but gets a creepy inaudible phone call and the manor doors slam behind you on their own. Believe me when I tell you that this is the most normal thing that happens in White Night.
When you first enter the manor, you’re seeking help for your injuries, but once you’re trapped within, the player goes on a personal journey of survival and ultimately, redemption.
Along the way you’ll find pictures, journal excerpts, newspaper clippings and various letters that help you piece together the full backstory and lore of the experience. The game in narrated by the main character as well, but you really need to collect these optional items to understand the characters and their motivations.
The visuals of the game are very minimalist, using only black and white and the two primary colors, with the yellow tinge of a light or your matches here and there. I have to say that this was a huge bet, but it’s one of the main selling points of the game and it pays off in a huge way. I felt like I was stepping into a Rorschach test and I loved every minute of it. Well, almost every minute, but we’ll get to that.
The game mechanics are pretty simple as well, relying on you to solve puzzle of light and darkness in ways that I personally hadn’t really thought of before. You walk with the directional stick, use B to light and extinguish matches, and A as your action button for doors and items.
Using matches to light your way through the mansion, you’ll have to manage them wisely, but they are mostly in abundance. I never ran out of matches mind you, but I did come dangerously close one time specifically and I was debating whether or not I would screw myself over by saving with 2 matches left. One thing I would like to note is that sometimes you’ll light a match, and it will fizzle out immediately, just like in real life. It’s a minor gripe, but still presented enough of an issue to bother me once in a while.
The game focuses on you finding out the secrets of the mansion’s inhabitants, in particular, “The Wolf of Black Lake”, his family, and his unfortunate victims with the backdrop of big business, wealthy families, and a healthy dose of esotericism thrown in. I have to say though that the esoteric aspect seemed to me a little contrived.
As you explore the mansion, you’ll follow an innocent apparition by the name of Selena as she leads you to the games conclusion. While trying your best to solve puzzles and keep following the light that is Selena, the player is stalked by the dark apparitions that inhabit all corners of the manor.
The story is by far the most enjoyable part of the game in my personal opinion, but it ended up being somewhat predictable. If you’ve seen enough movies like me, then you’ll have it figured out before the games final act.
My biggest complaint about the game is a specific part at the end. This isn’t a spoiler so I’ll go ahead and enlighten you. Eventually you will find yourself running through a cave in total darkness with an ungodly amount of dark apparitions chasing you. The run is so long that your match will most certainly burn out, forcing you to light another with the spirits right behind you in hot pursuit. Even when I didn’t have my match burn out, I would get caught by a random apparition that was standing directly in the path that I had just taken one try before. I’m all for difficult games, I mean the Dark Souls series is one of my most beloved franchises in gaming, but I can tell when a game throws a curveball at you for the sole purpose of making the game seem longer.
To be honest with you the game froze while I was playing and I lost 15 minutes progress, and the last bit I mentioned above still takes the cake as the worst part of the experience.
White Night gets 4 burned up matches out of 5.
Check out the trailer below:
The Final Word
All in all, White Night is an excellent game with a few minor shortcomings that keep it from getting a perfect score, but it’s still worth playing for any true fan of survival horror or story driven games.
– MonsterVine Rating: 4 out of 5 – Good
