Midnight Scenes: From the Woods (2023)

One of my friends plays more Indy titles than anyone else I know. He knew I was looking for more horror games, particularly shorter horror games to try, and recommended Midnight Scenes.

Wow, I am glad I tried this game. It's short, about 2 hours, and plays like a visual novel.

I absolutely loved the art style and music, it really nails an engaging and exciting style, while also being creepy when it needs to be. The story was decent, very standard horror stuff, but engaging enough that I played it in one sitting.

I think our characters are decent, horror tends to deal more with tropes, and this isn't an exception, but I think our main character is solid enough. I wish some other characters were explored a bit more, and to my excitement they are, in other games! It does mean this feels more like a snapshot rather than a completely fleshed-out story, but I was fine with that.

My main complaint is that the game play and story seem very linear. I don't hate this, it gives it an interactive book feel. And for horror sometimes a lack of choice helps with the scares, but anyone considering trying it just keep this in mind.

Overall, this was the perfect horror game to start off my month of horror for October. I will definitely be checking out more of this studios stuff.

I am a huge fan of the Midnight Scenes series, and this has one of the better stories. It is campy and gripping, featuring Octavi Navarro’s incredible pixel art style.

The Stephen King type narrative really carried this whole game. The gameplay is noticeably absent, with only one or two real puzzles. Mostly, it is a visual novel, which was pretty disappointing.

That said, it has one of the better written stories in the series. The whole game took me about an hour to finish, so it made for a short and cozy ghost story.