Project Night Review

Let me make it clear from the start - if you haven’t read my Penumbra: Black Plague Review that I did a few years ago, then you may not know my preference towards Survival Horror games - simply put, they aren't at the top of my favourites. I haven’t played one in the genre since Penumbra because of my dislike for them - until now.

It had been a long time since the hair-raising experience of Penumbra but I felt like it was time to re-welcome the genre into my gaming repertoire. With AAA games like Alien: Isolation and The Evil Within available for my enjoyment, I didn’t want to barge back into the genre head-first, frightened to play. My answer lay in Project Night, an indie game available on Steam, whetting my appetite but certainly not “wetting” my underwear.

Plonked in the blandest of bland settings, you start controlling an N64-grade protagonist away from his car in the barely-lit street - armed with a small torch - and a gun with a limited amount of bullets of course. Immediately feeling completely out of touch with the bizarrely dressed character and atmosphere thanks to the tremendously heavy controls matched with the static torch position and shoddy over-the-shoulder camera, I didn’t set off through the eerie forest in terror - more-so impending bemusement.

As I approached a house, walking past two white mannequins sat up against two separate trees in this sparsely populated forest - a single-frame jump-scare of a car and a road made me absolutely certain that I would not be at all attached to this game’s narrative anytime soon. The house, of which I walked literally straight through, lay before what I can only describe as the most hilarious enemy I have ever witnessed in a videogame.

Behold! The most odd, entertaining and shoddily designed enemy of all time

If its look didn’t appeal to you enough, then its lethargic animations and almost complete lack of words, noise or intimidating presence certainly must. Shooting at the enemy appears to do nothing as there is no hit detection or crosshair and before you know it, after a tame swipe of an arm, the enemy instigates a red screen to signify your death; then a generic game over screen, followed by an image of your character still donning his ever-present top hat, serving as little dignity or context to what he’s experienced. I mean come on, there’s game glitches and then there’s design laziness. Just a ragdoll collapse to the ground and a death screen would suffice more than a lazy, sometimes mid-flee fade to a red screen (that’s if the enemy can actually strike you, as seen at the bottom of this review).

After restarting the level and working out that you can simply run past the first and all subsequent enemies without them even coming into your stupendously dressed character's line of sight, you approach a portion of a house. Outside is a medikit (useful in a game with no health bar or damage meter) and a set of bullets (yet to be used on this restart). If you don’t need either of these items, the game will inform you of such by popping in the top-left of the screen: “YOU DON’T NEED BULLETS/MEDIKITS. NOW”. Oh...okay.

Running past another enemy and delving further into the vast forest you come across a human-shaped object (not sure of which gender) that then disappears when you approach. Sure. Then, another jump scare with the same shot of the enthralling car and road combo from before. Fine. You collect a key from outside another portion of a low-lit house in the distance, attempt to run back towards another house you’d previously passed that had a locked door and bare witness to a flamboyant cutscene (of-sorts) as a random collection of items (including the kitchen sink), are vaulted at the screen towards your now seizure-tarnished eyes.

At this point, I had lost almost all hope. The game’s last saving grace before I was lulled into boredom and a lack-of-context induced coma, was the house of which I had somehow been teleported to.

Wandering around the house held no excitement for me and after further ineffective attempts to get me somewhat spooked had failed, there was little to no hope left for this game. Walking upstairs yielded the final nail in the coffin as I approached a girl sat at a desk. Even the developer knew the portrayal of the girl was so bad, that he had to ensure the player knew her situation was such, by softballing it in with two simple words: “She’s Dead”.

After continuing to Chapter 3 I reached an impasse. A vast, heavily-misty town where the game kindly gives you a map to help you understand where you're going - yet fails to show where you are on the map. Barely visible surroundings, unknown position in the town - you get the picture (or don’t). That was where my Project Night story ended.

For a game that refers to itself as being like a ‘90s survival-horror game, asking you to excuse the graphics, its hard to see the comparison. With the Silent Hill series, the atmosphere, music and fear of the unknown created a foreboding sense of suspense, but where brilliant survival-horror games excel, Project Night flounders at the first few steps. Poor controls which make the mouse practically redundant, cheap scares that will only serve from stopping you from falling asleep, uninspired and glitchy enemies and a really dated feel. Even when compared to early survival horrors, these factors add up to make this survival horror, just a plain horror. Maybe I’ll load up Penumbra: Black Plague again and see if my vitals are still functioning.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKq7OJaDesY