Category: Reviews

Wet and Cold Skyrim Paid Mod Review

This is the start of a potential new series called Paid Mod Review. The idea here is that will Valve allowing modders to sell their content, players who are interested in purchasing these mods will need a way to tell if they're any good before plopping down some cash. Check after the break for a transcript of the above video.

*UPDATE*

The mod now has a DMCA takedown notice disclaimer on the Steam Workshop site. This could be legit, or it could be people upset about paid mods doing it, so we'll have to wait and see how it shakes out.

Welcome to a new series here on Twinstiq, Paid Mods Review. As you probably know if you’re watching this, Valve has allowed modders to charge for their mods if the game developer approves. We’re not here to talk about whether this is right or wrong, that’s for another video. In this series we’ll be reviewing the mods so that you don’t waste your money.

My name is Billy C for Twinstiq.com, and today’s mod is “Wet and Cold” by Isoku, for Skyrim. The mod is meant to increase your immersion in Skyrim by adding a few small details, mostly affecting the NPCs. With the mod enabled, and none of the optional mods, you get water dripping off of characters during rain or after you get out of water, and it looks alright. Honestly I would have prefered less drops pouring off of you, or have a lot of drops early on and then quickly slow down to a few. Right now it just feels like your character is exploding water out of their torso and legs.

Another nice effect is NPC breath fogging up in the colder areas of Skyrim. Your characters breath will be visible while you’re running, but the NPCs will also have their breath fog up while speaking, and it’s a nice touch. The mod doesn’t add this effect to all creatures yet though, but it’s enough that I don’t really mind. For a full list of creatures check out the mod link in the description.

The final vanilla effect for the mod involves snow accumulating on your character’s hair and armor. It affects you as well as the NPCs when it’s snowing, and when a blizzard picks up the wind sounds like it’s really rushing past you while snow builds up on your body. It never gets very thick so you aren’t going to be covered head to toe, but it looks nice.

NPCs will also react to all of the weather effects as well, heading into their homes if it’s raining, with Argonians and beggars just sitting outside in it. If it starts snowing then everyone will head inside, to their home if it’s close or an inn if it’s not, and that can be a pain in the butt if you’re trying to find someone.

While all of this is nice, my favorite parts of the mod only work with Skyrim Script Extender also installed. When you have SKSE then NPCs will equip hoods and light cloaks when it starts raining, or massive fur lined hooded cloaks if it’s snowing. They don’t seem to do this if you’re watching, so you can be stalking an NPC when it starts snowing, turn around for a second and when you look back he’s got a cloak and hood on, but it’s not a deal breaker.

Sadly I did notice a performance hit while using the mod. I ran around for an hour before installing the mod to get comparison video and my FPS never dipped below 60. After I installed the mod there were a few moments in heavy blizzards, or in crowded areas when it started snowing, where the FPS dropped for a few seconds. Granted, I’ve got a decently powerful rig and it could have a greater effect on others, so keep that in mind.

There are several optional mods that this mod will take advantage of if you install them, and I’ll link to that in the description below. So, overall what do I think of the mod? It’s a nice addition to my Skyrim gameplay that adds to the immersion factor. I wouldn’t bother with it without the SKSE additions of equipping cloaks, but with that and several of the other optional mods I enjoyed “Wet and Cold”, and I’ll be keeping it installed in my Skyrim when I’m not reviewing other mods.

Author: Billy C
Game: Skyrim
Mod: Wet and Cold

Slow Down, Bull Review

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Slow Down, Bull is a simplistic game with a cute art style about steering a bull into decorations. It is also way harder than I expected it to be.
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Don't sweat it Esteban.

In Slow Down, Bull you control Esteban, a cute blue bull who enjoys making art. The problem is that Esteban is easily stressed out by his perfectionist tendencies and he frequently destroys his imperfect creations. I get the feeling that the developers at Insomniac who worked on this game are trying to tell me something about developing video games…
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Things start easy...

The gameplay is pretty basic. A right click will rotate Esteban right and left click will rotate him to the left. Clicking both right and left simultaneously will charge a boost move that allows you to pass though some enemies and builds a bit of speed. The stress that Esteban suffers from also flairs up when he turns. Turning Esteban will slowly build his stress and if you build enough he will go on an uncontrollable rampage that not only destroys decorations but can also force you into enemies causing you to drop all of your unbanked decorations. Your quest for shells, buttons, bells and such might initially seem simple but the difficulty ramps up and never comes back down.
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Run Bull, Run!

In the first several levels your only concern is leisurely collecting decorations and dropping them in baskets placed as checkpoints. Increasingly restrictive time limits and more wandering enemies will force you to speed up your collecting while still maintaining caution and control. Esteban can be sped up by bouncing him into walls or by preforming boosts. Multiple impacts and boosts will allow you to incrementally increase Esteban’s speed but his turning is never diminished.
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He never stood a chance...

Almost every stage throws a new cog in the machine. People wander the levels carrying jars and panes of glass and bull catchers relentlessly pursue Esteban. Each of these living obstacles behave slightly different and have different effects. The jar carriers can be moved though using the boost maneuver but the glass pane carriers and bull catchers cannot. The bull catchers don’t cause Esteban to drop his decorations but drain time from the clock instead. New complexities don’t just come from people though. Bashing trees and hedges will knock decorations on to the level and occasionally drop stars the act as point multipliers. Water pits allow you to instantly drop your stress at the cost of all your speed boosts and also act as a trap for bull catchers. Rainbow colored wormholes will teleport you across levels and a possum named Spike will multiply your decorations assuming you can hold him long enough. Then Mango shows up.
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You can always count on your big sister when things get bad.

Easteban’s sister makes things even more complicated. Mango essentially acts a projectile attack. A vision cone appears when she rides on Esteban’s head and pointing her at someone will launch her and knock them down. She also acts as a key in some places. You need to drop her in a separate basket that often obstructs the route to the decoration basket. Carrying her near enemies is problematic as she she will launch herself at anything that passes into her vision. This often sends her bouncing off in the wrong direction as you are try to leave. This is one of the few parts of the game where the minimalistic controls needlessly complicate things.
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Thanks...

Not all stages are set up in the basket to basket fashion. There are several arena stages that place you in open areas with reappearing decorations and people. These levels change up the game slightly and task you with using a limited number of multipliers to maximize your score before returning to a basket in the center of the area. Slow Down, Bull actually requires you to be good at it to keep advancing though the 5 areas. The exit of each area is locked and requires you to have collected a specific number of score stamps to advance. There isn’t much wiggle room though. You much finish most levels with three score badge in order to accumulate enough badges to advance with the story.
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Slow Down, Bull!

There isn’t much story in Slow Down, Bull but what is here could be seen as commentary on both the difficulty of game development and the nature of gamers who must obtain 100% completion. The game requires a degree of mastery to even advance but failing to collect enough badges will force Esteban back to collect more but at the risk of losing his temper.
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This game might push you...

Slow Down, Bull is a fun and occasionally frustrating game that manages to induce the stress that it so lovingly warns about. There’s a solid challenge here for someone willing to take the bull by the horns.

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Steam copy of Slow Down, Bull provided by Insomniac Games

Metareview: Mortal Kombat X

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First thing's first, I'm the realest. Drop this and let the whole world feel it. And I'm still in the Murda Bizness. I could hold you down, like I'm givin' lessons in physics. You should want a bad bitch like this. Drop it low and pick me up...for just $4.99 as DLC
Guess who hasn’t a launch day review for Mortal Kombat X.

Yes, us.

Why? Well, that’s conspiracy territory:
We requested a PC copy and as it turns out, the PC version seems to be broken for many people.
But we all know that a games publisher would never do something like this on purpose, so I’m sure this is only a very unlucky coincidence, as proven by the abstinence of Xbox One reviews. (Hell, even well known PC only magazines got PS4 code)

With that out of the way, let’s take a look at some already released reviews.

Game Informer (9.25/10 PS4): “Mortal Kombat X is a fantastic successor in every sense. The mechanics may be similar to 2011’s strong release, but with so many new modes and features permeating every part of the experience, it’s a worthy upgrade. Mortal Kombat X is more than the continuation of NetherRealm’s successful vision for the franchise; it’s one of the best fighting games in years.”

The Escapist (4.5/5 PS4): “Mortal Kombat X offers the best story mode I've ever personally seen in a fighting game. Its cohesive plot and extended cinematics makes you feel much more like a participant in a film than a player on the couch. The fighting is frantic, fluid, and dynamic, with the glorious goriness of the X-Ray moves often turning the tides of battle.”

Metro (8/10 PS4): “Surprisingly generous is not a phrase that gets used much nowadays but in terms of the number of characters, modes, and unlockables Mortal Kombat X exceeds expectations. And more importantly it’s a really fun, and amusingly grotesque, fighting game. It’s still not the deepest fighter around but that’s not what’s its aiming for. Instead, there are several things it does better than its rivals and even just being identifiably different is no mean achievement for such a crowded genre.”

Videogamer (8/10 PS4): “With fighting games requiring pinpoint precision and timing, input lag in online multiplayer is a noticeable and disappointing issue. Each of the online matches I’ve played has suffered with input delay. When trying to pull off special moves or X-Rays, having to wait half a second for the command to pay off in the fight is nigh-on impossible to compensate for, and more often I’ll fail to do the attack. It remains to be seen if this will be fixed, but it's not a great start.
Overall, however, Mortal Kombat X is the most entertaining fighting game on next-gen.”

GamesRadar+ (3.5/5 PS4): “As a whole, Mortal Kombat X is a rock-solid fighting game that owes a lot to the power of its presentation. The story mode is unparalleled in terms of sheer entertainment, but MKX has a way to go in terms of teaching the player how to get the most out of its core systems. Once you've wrapped your head around the many variations and found some actual people to play against, the blisteringly fast back-and-forth matches really start to open up. If you're not willing to make the commitment to seeking out challengers and learning beyond the basics, though, this fighter definitely has a shorter life expectancy.”

LA Cops Review – Let’s Book’em!

Developed by Modern Dream and published by Team17, there's no denying that LA Cops is similar to Hotline Miami. That's not a dig at LA Cops by any means, as without imitation and iteration we wouldn't have the FPS, RTS, or any other gaming genre. So while imitation isn't necessarily a bad thing the hope is that when you do something similar, you also do enough different to distinguish yourself while improving upon what came before. Does LA Cops manage to do that? Hit the break or watch the video to find out.

Presentation:

The style of LA Cops is fantastic. From the cell shaded rooms and characters to the ridiculous 70's cop show setting that recalls some of the best movies of my childhood. Even the music is great for a while, though it does get old due to the limited selection of tracks available. I really do have very little to complain about with this games presentation but there are a few issues. The first is that the camera doesn't zoom out enough to see an entire room, which means that you might have to walk halfway through a room away from all cover before you see that the far end is littered with Uzi wielding enemies. The second problem is that the objectives window is massive and useless. Most missions are just about killing all enemies, with maybe destroying some items, but the objectives window takes up such a large portion of the top right of the screen that it can block incoming enemies.

Mechanics:

The gameplay of LA Cops is an isometric twin stick shooter with an element of tactics thrown in to differentiate it from Hotline Miami. When I first started playing the game, having not played Hotline Miami before this, I did not immediately have a good time. The game felt very tactical, having two characters you could either take direct control of, or use a 'move to' command to position your AI controlled partner. Bullets shot into walls draw the attention of enemies in adjoining rooms which can quickly overwhelm you as well, so it seemed necessary to stealth through levels, handcuffing as many enemies as possible before all hell finally breaks loose.

Sadly that's just not what LA Cops is. That is possibly what it aspires to be, but if so it falls short. In fact the only strategy that seemed to work was to go in guns blazing and lure enemies through doors. You have a second cop that the game instructs you to station at doorways, or to send him into a room through one door while you burst through a door on the other side, but sadly he's near useless as a true partner. Sometimes he will kill 4 or 5 enemies in as many seconds, and other times he will stand there not firing a single shot while enemies run through the doorway he is guarding. This leads to him being murdered, and shortly after you being murdered.

In LA Cops you get two police officers and a single, randomly placed resurrection per level in the form of a health pack. To use the health pack you need to find it, grab it, and return it to the body of your fallen partner. In reality it is almost always a better idea to have your partner stay far back out of harms way as a second life than it is to risk him by sending him to near certain death by trying to fight.

It doesn't help anything when the games mechanics seem like they are fighting you either. In a fast paced twitch style shooter like this where bullets are at a premium for the nice guns, it should be obvious what it will take to kill an enemy so that you can start to engage the next. In LA Cops I could sometimes kill an enemy in one shot, and other times it would take two or three shotgun shells at near point blank to take them down.

If you are locked onto an enemy and you have a clear line of site then you will always hit that enemy, which is essential for controller play and indeed feels essential for keyboard and mouse too, which is odd. It is so powerful that you can sometimes take our waves of 5 or 6 enemies without taking damage, simply by alternating the lock-on and fire buttons. The problem is that the game doesn't lock-on to the enemy closest to your reticle and instead it locks-on to the enemy closest to your character. This means you might have two enemies rushing through an open door, but you accidentally lock-on to an enemy behind you and in another room, leading to your death. Interestingly the lock-on feature is disabled in impossible difficulty, which makes controller play feel truly impossible.

Doors are another source of frustration in LA Cops. Most doors are closed when you first come to them and you can swing them open either way just by moving into them. Sometimes though the door will explode for no reason leaving you exposed to enemy fire. Additionally doors can be used to stun enemies by swinging the door into them, as long as they aren't walking in the remote direction of the door. If they are then you'll just end up pushing on each side of the door and slowly opening it.

Another way that the game stands out from the crowd is it's stable of playable characters. You can pick from an assortment of cops, each of which can be leveled up individually. This makes each cop unique as you experiment, but you quickly realize that unless you want to repeat the same levels over and over to grind for XP it's just better to stick with two characters throughout the game. XP is shared among all officers as well, so you can either spend your XP leveling up one cop, the two cops you are using, or seriously dilute it by spending it on more cops. Make no mistake either, you'll need to spend you XP if you want to get anywhere in the game, leveling up things ranging from starting weapon, clip size, health, damage, and speed.


Conclusion:

LA Cops has many problems that keep it from being a classic like the game it takes inspiration from, but it does enough to stand apart that it's a fun game in it's own right. With 9 levels to play, a selection of bonus levels, multiple officers that are really just different skins, and an attempt at tactical gameplay that just turns into an interesting way to handle multiple lives, LA cops is a fun little game that kept me interested for a while but ultimately didn't make any headway into my daily gaming schedule.

LA Cops gets a 2 1/2 out of 5, but with the caveat that most of it's problems could be patched. Indeed the developers have stated that they are working on the partner AI, so this could all change in the future. My recommendation is to pick it up if you find it on sale for $10 or less, but unless you are a huge fan of this fledgling genre I wouldn't pay full price while there are more coherent offerings out there.

Author: Billy C
Source: Review copy provided to Twinstiq.com by Team17 Digital Ltd.
Rating: 2 1/2 out of 5
Developer: Modern Dream
Website: http://www.la-cops.com/
Platform: Reviewed on PC, also available for XBox One and Mac.

Helldivers Review: What the hell man!?

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Helldivers is the epitome of what an online co-op experience should be. It didn’t matter if I played online by literally dropping into a stranger’s game or on my couch with a couple good friends. I had an absolute blast.
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You're probably familiar with these controls...

Allow me to walk you through what exactly diving into hell entails. You have probably played a game like this before, it is a rather typical twin stick shooter. Move with the left, aim with the right stick. Pull one trigger to shoot and another to toss a grenade. If you have played any shooter in the last fifteen years, you’ll instinctively know how to play.

It is safe to say that Helldivers wears its influences like a badge of honor. The story is shades of Starship Troopers: You, fighting for Super Earth, freedom and liberty, against the endless hordes (including bugs). It all seems so derivative but that’s not to say that it's uninspired as a couple things set the game apart. 

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See those turrets? Bad idea.

The first thing is how deadly your mistakes become. Everything in this game can potentially kill both you and your teammates. Friendly fire is always on, without an option to turn it off. Call in some ammo and risk crushing your team with the airdrop, aim a grenade poorly and you’ll be picking up the pieces (of both your team and your friendship), or get too excited with that fancy new shotgun and your partners end up crumpled up in a pile.

Your teammates may be deadly, but your enemies are even more so. Three varieties of bad guys can be found in Helldivers; we’ve got bugs, cyborgs, and super high tech aliens. Each of these races is comprised of multiple units. The most deadly will only rear their heads in higher difficulties however.  If that sounds like science fiction’s greatest hits to you, you wouldn’t be wrong.

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Spawn killing taken to a whole new extreme.

From the onset you only have access to a basic assault rifle, hand grenades, and essential Stratagems, the game's title for ammo, turrets, and other pieces of equipment you can deploy. As you begin to earn XP, level up, and complete missions, you will obtain more interesting weapons and Stratagems. Weapon selection may seem underwhelming initially, but later weapons are more nuanced. The shotgun can easily eviscerate teammates and must be used with caution. A laser cannon can be used without limit or needing to reload; so long as you don’t make the weapon overheat.

The Stratagems system is the most standout aspect of your arsenal. To receive any type of support you must press the L1 button to pull out an 80’s style cell phone and basically input a 90’s era cheat code. All of your Stratagems are assigned a fixed d-pad button combo (which can be memorized for convenience). All take a specific length of time to activate once selected and most are beacons that are thrown much like grenades. Running out of ammo is a reality, and there is a surprising amount of strategy that emerges from proper Stratagem use.

The Stratagems become equally unique as well. Mech suits and 4-seater APCs can make traveling in snow or sand a breeze, but prove unwieldy in tight quarters. Massive airstrikes can decimate large groups of enemies or more massive monsters, but also run the risk of annihilating your entire team if poorly placed. Add in specialized items like anti-armor rockets, land mines, portable ammo boxes, and repair tools and you can build a highly effective killing machine. Beyond initially obtaining these weapons and stratagems, all can be upgraded using points found within missions. Needless to say, there is a cornucopia of carnage to be unlocked and mastered in repeat playthroughs.

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Real Helldivers know when not to walk.

Playing frequently isn’t going to be an issue either, even if you don’t have friends available to play locally. The online functions in Helldivers are expertly integrated and uniquely clever in some ways. The basics are still covered though. The pause menu can set your game to private, public and friends only, which allows you control of who you play with. Beyond that you can literally drop into anyone’s (publicly) open game, and I do mean literally. Just like with respawns, joining a game can carry potentially disastrous results. Every combination of local and online play is supported. 4 local, 4 online and anywhere in-between. All games, local or online, also feature super smooth drop in and drop out functionally as well.

Especially impressive was when I dropped from a local game to make a sandwich. Three online players joined and ran a mission with my friend while I ate. One of the newcomers bailed on the game and I was right back in with a single button press. This may not seem impressive but no menus were involved and it all occurred seamlessly without loading. While voice communication is recommended, it isn’t completely necessary thanks to a very basic emote/command system. A simple “move” is generally understood as “don’t get hit by my incoming junk”.

There is also a neat feature in which the entire community is working toward conquering the enemy’s home worlds. Upon starting back into the game, you are given an update as to the current state of the war. There are real-time feeds of how many allies have died, enemies have been killed and unfortunate team killings have occurred. To go along with this persistent war idea, there are occasional defense events in which players can participle, that are in a different settings than the usual missions.

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This map updates daily to inform players of the status of the ongoing war.

All said and done, Helldivers is an excellent co-op game (both online and off). It is impressively detailed for a top-down shooter. There are a plethora of missions to complete, weapons and equipment to acquire, teammates to save (or accidentally murder), and strategies to employ. Given the nature of the persistent war that the game is presenting, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a significant update with more content being added in the future. 

I found myself somewhat torn in the process of playing Helldivers and I feel the need to end my assessment of the game with this: I typically hate playing online with strangers. Helldivers is fun, hard, and chaotic. I recommend it immensely for local co-op games but the online functionality is exemplary (thus a suitable substitution for a room full of friends). I plan on revisiting Helldivers fairly frequently for quite a while longer.

The copy of Helldivers reviewed was purchased with personal funds for personal use.

Metareview: Bloodborne

Seems like Sony finally found its killer exclusive. The first reviews for Bloodborne are in and from the looks of it, we got our first real GOTY contender. Jim Fucking Sterling Son gave it his first 10/10, Metacritic has it at an impressive 93 and even the user score is at 90.
Since we didn’t actually had a review copy (Jye is currently playing it. His opinion so far: “I'm not hating it, I'm not getting my ass kicked so far...  In the first 20 min anyway”), I take this opportunity to bring back something from the old Joystiq days: Metareviews!Let us all bath in the glory of scores from all over the web, without having to read those pesky reviews that they usually stick on them.

The Jimquisition (10/10): “Bloodborne is as glorious as it is grotesque, a harsh and unyielding exercise in getting battered mercilessly while feeling encouraged the whole painful way. While very much a Souls game through and through, the switch from methodical and slow progression to a faster, ultimately more savage environment provides just enough of a twist to give it a wholly unique feel, a more empowering journey, for both the player and the opposition. Bloodborne is something truly special – a barbaric horror RPG that will giveth and taketh away in perfect measure, wrapped up in a perverse world that will refuse to let you go.”

The Guardian (5/5): “Bloodborne like its predecessors, will spill its secrets slowly, over months rather than days. Part of the appeal of Miyazaki’s games is this slow-release effect, whereby riddles are unpicked and shared by the community, rather than plainly laid out on the first day of release. It brings players together, where the fiction itself keeps them somewhat apart. Bloodborne is, by any measure, an extraordinary game, one that runs forcefully against the commercial tide, subverting perceived wisdom that contemporary games have to hold their players’ hands, or make their shape and rules explicit from the get-go.”

The Escapist (4,5/5): “All things considered, Bloodborne is an absolute must-buy for fans of the Souls series and for fans of games that push a player's skill to the absolute limit. It's easily the best PS4 exclusive title yet, a game that's more than worthy to be considered a part of the fantastic Souls series, and it's one of the best games of 2015 thus far.”

Destructoid (9/10): “Bloodborne is an interesting mix of everything From Software has learned throughout its storied developmental career. Not everything will gel with fans old and new, but for the most part, the shift towards a combat-oriented game is a net positive. From Software is still one of the only developers left that makes you work for your satisfaction, and Bloodborne is damn satisfying.”

Gamespot (9/10): “The finest treasures are found within the city of Yharnam and the forests, lakes, and purgatories beyond it. Only Bloodborne would be so bold as to bury an entire factional player-versus-player mechanic within an optional region, which is in turn buried within a series of oblique steps you might miss if you aren't exploring every nook and cranny, or ignore the game's enigmatic hints. I finished Bloodborne in less time than I did Dark Souls II, yet I treasure it more in spite of its few missteps. In death there is life, and in blood, there is redemption. More hyperbole, yes, but for a game this theatrical, only hyperbole will do.”

Image: Sony

Sid Meier’s Starships – Video Review

I've spent the last few days with Sid Meier's Starships and I've finally finished the review! Check out the video above and be sure to like, subscribe, and comment. Or just send me hate mail, either way really.
Billy C
Game Source: Purchased for personal use.
Audio: The main menu theme of Sid Meier's Starships.
Video: All video of the game recorded on my PC during play.

White Night Review

The horror game genre is in a bit of a slump as of late. Most games that claim to be in it are either action games masquerading as horror, or simply jump scare factories. There are few games these days that try to tell a story and build suspense, most just yell boo and hope for a reaction. White Night understands the value of suspense and storytelling, even if it stumbles a bit in a few other areas.

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Messiest. Ghosts. Ever.
You play a man who thinks he's struck a woman on the road under the cover of darkness. Your car swerves as you try to avoid her and you injure yourself in the process. Looking for help and possibly answers you seek shelter at the closest house. A garden full of graves and strange markings litter the outside of the home. Things go from bad to worse when you venture through its doors to discover the abode shrouded in darkness. Armed only with your wits and a pack of matches you begin to unravel the mystery that lies therein.

Those who’ve played survival horror games like the original Resident Evil and Alone in the Dark will feel right at home as they skulk around the house, finding clues and unearthing the enigma that surrounds it, all while avoiding the ghosts that will stall your progress at every turn. Gameplay harkens back to the days of old school adventure games like Grim Fandango and the Monkey Island series with its series of simple but fun puzzles, almost all of which employ the use of light to uncover the solution.

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Come on baby light my fire.
It is this contrast between light and darkness that becomes the backdrop for the game. Smaller touches, like the soft film grain on white areas, are what make images pop on the screen and brings the noir motif out fully. Combined with the fixed camera angles made famous in the survival horror games of the 90’s there are multiple moments that will make you feel as though you are in one of the many pulp novels the game draws inspiration from.

For a story in an adventure style game to work, it needs to be fairly straightforward, something White Night does a decent job at. It services the gameplay well and you’re rarely left wondering where to go and what to do next. The intermittent narration that runs through White Night sums up the events well enough, that if you miss any of the scattered documents found lying around such as diaries, letters, and news clippings you never feel out of the loop.

The puzzles are relatively easy, but they never bore you. You’ll figure them out within the first few tries with the exception of one or two that had particularly obtuse solutions. The best puzzles are ones that service or supplement the game’s story while not becoming a roadblock to it. White Night does this in several instances by using the game’s lore to its advantage, so if you’ve been following the story with any passing interest their solutions will foreshadow events that will happen later, adding a nice touch to the experience.

You’ll be going to these puzzles by navigating the mansion’s many blackened rooms. The only method to light your way in many cases, is by using a pack of matches. These only last a short period of time and if you’re left in the darkness too long, you’ll be at the mercy of the ghosts that roam the halls; if you get too close to them, they’ll come for you anyway. The matches themselves are a nice idea, think of them like the ink ribbons in the original Resident Evil, however there are simply too many of them around. It brings the suspense down a tad knowing you can simply go to the kitchen and find dozens of them lying around. I had managed to beat the game with 10 matches remaining (you can carry a maximum of 12) with plenty more within arm’s reach.

In addition to the game’s cutscenes and vivid gameplay, there are a number of various tomes and publications around the mansion that offer more details as to who the characters are and how they fit into the story. While not essential to beating the game, they offer a bit of flavor text that would have been nice; that is if someone bothered to proofread them. The documents’ seemed to receive only the most cursory of revision, before being hastily sent to market. It is my understanding that the developer is based in France, so there may have been a translation issue. Either way, there are multiple grammatical errors, which seems inexcusable for what is such a short affair.

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Since Steam won't let me take a screenshot of the game's bad grammar here's a pic of the protagonist pushing furniture.
The game clocks in at about 4-6 hours, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Games, especially those in the survival horror genre, tend to overstay their welcome and bring little to the table after they do. It is simply harder to get scared when you’re 10 hours in on a 30 hour story. White Night fits a good amount of content within a little package.

Fixed camera angles may be a deal breaker for some. It can be frustrating at times to run from a ghost in one room and suddenly head back into that room and die because of the next room’s perspective forcing you back, but that is the same for nearly every game that uses this mechanic. It’s an unavoidable problem that seems to plague the survival horror genre the most. I found it to be annoying but it did not completely detract from the experience.

White Night is a game that rises above its faults and provides a short but unnerving survival horror experience. There are some that won’t be able to look past its brief length, fixed camera angles and lack of editing but if you’re able to, you’ll find a delightfully creepy story that has a great deal of suspense and intrigue. Recommended for anyone who is a fan of old school horror games.

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-William Sierra

Reviewed: Digital PC copy of White Night provided by Activision.
All screenshots provided by the publisher.