The next part in the series, Midnight Scenes: Among Graves feels a little weaker but is still a neat, quick horror story.
A couple of years ago I played Midnight Scenes: A Safe Place, which I found to be a pretty solid horror game, although I felt had limited actual interaction. Since then I tried out some of the other games in the Midnight Scenes horror anthology series and discovered many of them were equally entertaining. I feel that Midnight Scenes: Among Graves is perhaps the weakest one I’ve played, but it’s still a solid enough horror story.
I’ll be keeping narrative details to a minimum as this clocks in at just over an hour in length. You play as Matthew living in small town America. He’s a single dad who is recognised at the town’s medium, being as he can communicate with the dead. People in town actively recognise this, but lately Matthew has found his power waning, and strange creatures appearing in his visions. Over the course of the game, you’ll find out where his ability came from and what’s happening to him. There’s a pretty well presented ending, but there isn’t anything really surprising in narrative terms.
There are a few creepy moments though, and the visual design of the creatures is really quite solid. They genuinely look interesting in close up, and they, as well as the general cast of characters are really well animated even with the simplistic pixel art style that is used in all the Midnight Scenes games. The sound design is great for the most part too. Creepy music and ambient sound is used well, though like in others in the series I could do without the tiny bit of voice acting that pops up from time to time. You’ll get the odd word in a sentence that is acted but the rest is not meaning it comes out of nowhere and creates an uneven tone.
The issue with these games is that there’s very little actual interaction. They come across as point and click games, but there aren’t really any puzzles and in real terms you just click your way around until you hit the next cutscene. This is fine as these are meant to be entirely narrative games, but if you were hoping for some engagement with the world, you won’t find it here.
What makes this one weaker than others in the series is the pretty straight narrative of it, and the fact that the tale doesn’t really feel like it has a lot to say. Others feel as though they’re about more than the surface level plot, whilst Midnight Scenes: Among Graves lacks that. In addition, I found Matthew to be a pretty unlikeable protagonist. Yes, he’s a dad trying to do his best for his baby daughter, but he’s also pretty unpleasant to most people around him so he’s hard to root for.
With all this said, Midnight Scenes: Among Graves is solid enough as a horror story to wander through before bed one evening. I don’t think it’s terrifying enough to cause you to lose any sleep, but you’ll have a good time if you know what you’re getting into. Whether you think £6 is good value for an hour long game is good value is up to you though.
Midnight Scenes: Among Graves is available now on PC.
