White Night

I really wanted to like this. The setup, aesthetic, and vibe are great. The music is excellent, and what starts as a bit of a ghost story and mystery quickly turns into a lot more as you start finding out about the inhabitants of the house - not all is what it initially seems. God, I wanted to love it, but the devs, I'm assuming to pad out the game time, basically make every step of progress a super tedious hard fought battle. And no, it's not because the game is pitch black with fixed camera angles making it so you are constantly using a resource to see or get around anywhere and you're constantly getting turned around are confused as to where you are. And no, it's not even that the same darkness makes it so you're just mashing on everything in the hopes it's some kind of useful object. All of that would get a pass, and largely does given that matches are so plentiful. No, what kills the game is that on top of above, they put in one hit kill enemies that are difficult to see until they are right on you. It completely kneecaps the game and turns what could've been a great spooky mystery noir ghost story into a trial and error slog of saving the game, lighting a match, running like chicken without a head in a room hoping you see the thing you need to use in the dark and use it turn on a light to save yourself or immediately die. Take a wrong turn? Dead. I mean hey it's not like this game is in the dark and has fixed camera angles so getting turned around is easy to d-oh wait yeah, it IS. Did you not see this one tiny corner of the room because you were running for your life and evil ghosts were there? Oh you silly fool that was where the light switch was! There are so many instances of this and it feels so overdone and overplayed and I just didn't want to deal with it anymore. It isn't fun, it doesn't feel fair in the slightest, and oh yeah, the death animation takes forever, is unskippable, and takes you back to the last time you saved so uh, save often, I guess? There were so few things needing tweaks here and it would've been really solid. But devs gonna dev I guess, worrying so much about a short gametime they make it a chore, bummer.

A cliche story with a deranged atmosphere, detailed environments, and in-depth collectibles. I suffered through horrible transitional camera switch ups and a poor camera perspective that makes navigating areas with certain dangers very difficult just to be let down by the ending. Due to its downsides, saving is crucial whenever possible. However, it's worth trying out just for the journey.

Did you know Activision originally published this game? It was so strange to see at the time among their usual catalogue - and in fact they "remedied" that by eventually stopping being the publisher (the game was delisted for a while until being picked back up). Publishing history aside, [b]White Night[/b] still stands as one of the closest games to the original [b]Alone in the Dark[/b], if not the closest - it's even set in the same era and made by a French developer. Unique to itself, however, it has fantastic monochrome graphics that haven't aged a day. No regular graphics with a filter applied later, but assets clearly conceived to be in black and white only, with the exception of a few dashes of orange. They perfectly serve the stark contrast between the darkness constantly threatening to engulf you and the light, which is always a precarious protection, given how few matches last. The game oozes with atmosphere, further enhanced by the piano music and the noir-style monologues. It, however, also takes the flaws of the classic inspirator, like the fixed cameras, which easily confuse an already difficult navigation between locations, and puzzles that can get really obscure, if not obtuse. Add few and far between save spots, and constantly dealing with the scarcity of resources, and you get a high risk of dying and having to redo long stretches of the game because the camera contributed to a cheap death. In wanting to increase tension, the developers made it so there's only more frustration. Those issues prevent [b]White Night[/b] from reaching the greatness it could have aspired to, yet at the low prices you can find it nowadays - at the time of this writing it's getting a 90% discount - you won't lose much by trying an old-school survival horror game with a strong personality and visual style. Shame that the developers have done nothing else like this.

As nice as an idea of noir minimalistic design looks in static, as frustrating it is to play when you can barely tell the protagonist from the scene. Match lighting mechanic adds to the noir mood of the game but puts even more pressure on the player. And the limited amount of those matches tipped the scales for me into more stress than enjoyment so I never even finished it. Maybe I just don't like noir that much. I still think the idea of this game is very cool but the mechanics didn't work for me.

Great game. The twist in the story is sheer brilliance. 10/10

Film Noir Style! Can be quite creepy. Can be a little frustrating at times but overall it's a pretty good puzzle solving game with Resident Evil style fixed camera angles.

Необычный геймплей, местами даже сложный, потому что источник света не бесконечный. А еще куча приведений которые рады тебя придушить. Сюжет отличный, вначале вообще ничего не понимаешь, а под конец весь пазл складывается и такой "аааа ничего себе". Однозначно рекомендую к прохождению.

I'd say this game is definitely worth the discounted price of 1,24€. The art style is cool and in terms of mood, the game often outdoes the most obvious inspiration - the original Alone In The Dark. Unlike most Alone In The Dark-inspired games (Resident Evil, Silent hill and even the actual Alone In The Dark sequels), it completely removes combat, opting instead for puzzles where you defeat ghosts by turning on the lights (which is often not an option, requiring you to simply run away or avoid going near them). This feels refreshing when compared to the modern survival horror genre, which often revolves around not running out of bullets. The noir style narration adds character and actually makes the story work despite the clichés. And speaking of clichés, some people have called the ending predictable but I didn't find anything that even remotely hinted at it (some things even pointed to the exact opposite) and I wasn't very fond of it for that exact reason but the journey itself makes it worth it. The game has some gameplay flaws, like the fixed camera angles forcing you to run right into an enemy you can't possibly see, which instantly kills you. Also, the main character sometimes wastes a match when trying to light it. I'm not sure if this is a bug or a conscious design choice but either way, it's mildly frustrating since matches can be scarce and running out causes you to die very quickly. There are also some puzzles that are confusing and hard for the wrong reasons (you assume you're supposed to decode symbols and turn a wheel, only to realize you can just keep on turning it and the game will tell when you've found the right position). Also, there's A LOT pixel hunting...in a black and white game...not gray scale, just completely black shadows and completely white light. Still, at such a ridiculously low price, the good parts outdo the bad ones.

I LOVE THIS GAME

Стилистически очень красиво, отсылки на классику игровых хорроров великолепные. Обожаю фиксированную камеру. Однако, это больше симулятор ходьбы с интересными записками. Советую