White Night Reviews
Had White Night been more of a ride, dragging you through rather than slowing things down, its subtly unsettling tone and at times nerve-shredding moments would have had a much greater impact.
Possibly the scariest 12-rated game ever made, although the attractive visuals are better designed than the poorly balanced difficulty.
I love a well done noir film styled game. This one has perfect sound design, shocking and unique visuals, and integrates the gameplay with those visuals. Every aspect of the game fits the theme, from the mini tutorials in the beginning, to the sultry piano of the menu, to the way your character is always narrating what you do in true noir film form. The story is always one step ahead of you, with tons of additional information that enhances the insanity, if you are keen enough to find it. The length of the game is slightly shorter than what I expected, but I understand that a good mystery can be hard to draw out with gameplay if it isn't already written into the story. And honestly, when I was done, I was proud to have figured it all out and survived. The controls can be a nuisance, and the way the puzzles have to be solved can be trying, but I would urge you to play through this game if you like any aspect of what you see. I can see myself in the future fondly remembering White Night, that one scary game in only black and white.
A noir art style, terrifying atmosphere, and an enjoyable narrative lead White Night towards success only marred by a few irritating mechanics here and there.
White Night is a pretty well crafted survival horror game. You'll get scared. Unfortunately for it, a few niggling mechanical issues linger through to the released version of the game and dampens the experience somewhat. Otherwise, it is a thoroughly enjoyable game, at a very minimal cost, for fans of the genre.
White Night isn't the most riveting survival horror game I have played in recent memory but it isn't the worst either. If not for the unique film noir storytelling combined with a stylized black and white look, White Night could have been one of the more forgettable survival horror games of 2015. Unfair enemies and camera issues dampens an experience which otherwise should have been much better than the sum of its parts.
The distinctive visuals of White Night bring plenty of atmosphere but also some significant and frustrating problems.
White Night does a lot right, delivering a great story which only dips slightly in the run up to its conclusion. The art style is fantastic, and while it hurts other things – like the visibility of the title's many collectibles – the trade-off is honestly worth it. Unfortunately, the release's biggest issues sit in the gameplay department, as it's exceedingly frustrating on far too many occasions. The end result is interesting, then, and worth experiencing – but perhaps not recommended for everyone.
White Night is another game which has remained stubbornly devoted to its art style to the detriment of the actual game tucked away beneath it. It remains faithful to its influences and loyal to its theme, but when its misgivings contribute to make it such an irritating experience, it's impossible to overlook them.
Delivers scares with style even if it doesn't satisfy in all areas
Beautifully Noir, White Night offers some excellent experiences mixed with punishing frustration. A dark and compelling survival horror, it is certainly worthwhile as long as you can overcome the anxiety and irritations.
While being in possession of some clever ideas, a good story and a superbly-realised black and white world, White Night doesn't do enough scares to be a good horror or have inventive enough puzzles to be a decent adventure.
White Night is a gorgeous and intriguing game that deserves to be played for its engrossing story and beautiful art style. Its impact is unfortunately diminished by frustrating design choices and an overall vague approach to its gameplay, which may leave some of you in the dark.
Once I started I couldn't stop playing. It had me by the throat with its mystery, its atmosphere and finally the ending. This is an instant classic in my eyes.
White Night is a great concept with a really nice art style. The atmosphere it provides is incredibly convincing and genuinely unsettling, right up until the time that the perceived threat becomes a reality and things take a nosedive. A tad more polish would have seen this become a real benchmark for the genre, but a number of missed steps mean that it will likely just fade into the darkness.
It would be more accurate to say that White Night is an exploration adventure, an interactive story in the "weird tale" tradition. Just enough obstacles exist to make that story feel as though it was earned, that the player participated in the telling, but conveying the story is the priority. From clever exploitation of gameplay mechanics to the pages and pages of rich exposition which carefully unravel and the moody jazz soundtrack, everything exists in service to the fiction. In that, it succeeds, and it's a story worth experiencing and deserving of praise.
There's a lot to like about White Night, if for no other reason than it genuinely is different and these is real potential for this to spin out into a franchise if the development team can do a better job of rationalising the noir elements and figuring out the solution to a frustrating Easter egg hunt in the dark. The underlying vision alone makes it worth a look, but it's not going to be quite remembered as the same innovative experience as those pioneering horror games it references back to.
The survival horror genre has struggled to find a place in recent years, but titles such as The Evil Within have attempted to breathe new life into it. With White Night, OSome Studio has managed to invigorate the genre by taking us back to the methodical and tense gameplay that kept us on edge so many times in the past. When playing the game for subsequent playthroughs, you will undeniably blaze through it, but hasn't that always been the case with survival horror games? The art style is beautifully unique, the gameplay is simple yet highly enjoyable and the soundtrack is superb. The reason you'll want to stay inside this mansion, though, is because of the history behind it. A compelling story is waiting to be unearthed and the more you learn, the deeper you'll want to go. The ID@Xbox lineup continues to get stronger and its latest addition is unquestionably worth checking out.
White Night hints at a horror story of quality, but it's hidden in the shadows of tedium and visual ambiguity.
With a working adventure formula that utilizes light and shadow, White Night offers a haunted house full of atmosphere and ripe for exploration. Just don't run out of matches.