The Midnight Walk review: Let your light shine

The creation of The Midnight Walk is an interesting story in itself. According to its developer, MoonHood, every single asset within the game was first handcrafted with real clay before being placed and animated into the game world. That level of passion is easily seen and felt not just in the game’s stunning visuals, but in its incredibly strong worldbuilding and atmosphere.

A hand-crafted world

Immediately upon booting up a new game, I was enthralled not just by how beautiful these clay models look up close, but also how cinematic the actual gameplay looks and feels. Moving through the game’s clay-filled world feels like walking in a claymation film I would’ve watched as a kid. Pair film-like stop-motion visuals with an eerie atmosphere similar to the likes of Little Nightmares, and you have The Midnight Walk.

The Midnight Walk is about a world that’s lost its sun. As The Burnt One, you’ll travel along the path known as The Midnight Walk, discovering the world bit by bit as you encounter the tales of several of its inhabitants and how the long-lasting dark has impacted their lives. On this walk, you’re accompanied by Potboy, a cute little fire guy that will help light the path on the dark road ahead, and Housy, your two-legged place of respite from the horrors outside. Despite neither of these companions having any dialogue, I grew to care for these characters in the nine hours that I spent with them.

There's comfort in the horror

In its gameplay, The Midnight Walk is more akin to a walking simulator. There’s no combat and the mechanics are fairly simple. One of those mechanics is using Potboy and matches that you’ll find scattered throughout the world to light fires. The other, which I feel is where the game innovates the most, is the ability to close your eyes to focus on the sounds around you. You’ll use both of these mechanics to solve puzzles and uncover the mystery of the path ahead. While The Midnight Walk’s puzzles aren’t groundbreaking or difficult by any means, the stories associated with them still made some of these puzzles feel satisfying to solve.

Innovative gameplay isn’t what MoonHood’s dark fantasy is trying to achieve though. Its drawing factor is in its, dare I say it, vibes. The game is a careful mix of both a relaxing stroll through a painstakingly crafted environment and a true horror game, complete with tasteful jumpscares, chase sequences, and hiding mechanics. Its incredibly focused art direction elevates both of these elements to create a seamless marrying of cozy and creepy. I found myself often stopping to admire the scenery around me, and many other times, stopping to collect myself after an encounter with one of the several horrifying monsters within.

...But it's still horror

As an avid horror game player, I was surprised by how truly scary some of the moments here are. That’s helped in no small part by the visual and sound design that makes the monsters in each tale genuine nightmare-fuel. There are times where I’d turn a corner only to immediately find a large monster rushing at me, and I’d have to close my eyes while facing it in order to make it disappear. There’s another creature that, once I'd step into its field of view, would take a second to notice me before letting out a horrific screech and rushing at me at a speed that should be illegal, while I'd stumble about, quickly trying to find somewhere to hide. Suffice to say, my partner and her Overwatch team definitely heard me scream from the other room - I’m sorry again.

The lovable fiery companion Potboy makes getting through these horrific paths a little more bearable though, as he’s with you every step of the way. It was nice to be hiding in a random closet, and also see the little guy hiding as well, or to be crouch-walking past a monster and see Potboy tiptoeing forward with me. This combined with the ability to send him out to light a fire that would in some way help us continue on made him feel less like a useless AI companion, and more like Potboy and I were really in it together, finding our way through The Midnight Walk.

Take the walk

As most games go, there are various collectibles hidden around the world. These range from audio logs to figurines of characters and creatures you meet along the path, music records, and tapes. Each of these add a bit more context to the world and lore of The Midnight Walk, and are all viewable within Housy, which you can enter at any time from the main menu. Collecting these definitely enhanced my playthrough as this is where you learn a lot about why the world is the way it is.

The Midnight Walk is an atmosphere-first claymation horror game. What the game lacks in gameplay, it makes up for with its distinct world and art style. Immersive visual and sound design makes it easy to get lost in MoonHood’s dark fantasy story. There are weirdos like me that find comfort in horror games, but The Midnight Walk strategically and intentionally walks the line between cozy game and horror game. Come for the vibes, stay for the vibes, as you tread along The Midnight Walk.

This review is based on a Steam code provided by the publisher. The Midnight Walk is available now for PS5 and PC.

Josh Childs

Contributing Editor

Josh is a writer from Maryland with an admiration for horror, indie games, and anything with a great story. The first game he fell in love with was Kingdom Hearts on the PS2. Today, you'll find him online raving about Final Fantasy, Resident Evil, or the hot new indie game of the week. You can find him on Twitter @JTheMogul.