An interactive horror story not to be missed.
If you enjoy a good ghost-hunt, part film-part game live-action, then At Dead Of Night is the full-motion video game that you don’t want to miss out on.
What Is At Dead Of Night?
At Dead Of Night is a brilliant but sorely underrated live-action RPG-story-driven horror game.
Playing as Maya, your aim is to free all of your friends while trying to escape the hotel that is run by the psychopath, Jimmy Hall (otherwise known as Hugo Punch).
Due to some very unpleasant weather, Maya and her group of friends end up stopping at The Sea View Hotel as they are unable to continue with their camping trip. Although The Sea View Hotel may look like a lovely, cozy stop, the host is far from lovely. The antagonist of the game, Jimmy Hall (full name James Alexander Hall) who runs The Sea View Hotel, comes off as chatty and quirky with the underlying tone of lonely, socially-awkward individual who is portrayed as sympathetic and suicidal but enjoys his side-work of being a comedian that has won multiple awards.
His alter-ego that is portrayed as the comedian side of himself, however, is not quite the same. The mentally unstable Hugo Punch (which Jimmy named as such without realizing that “Hugo” was the name of his father, the vengeful spirit which controls Jimmy’s alter ego) completely takes over; he is violent and certainly not sympathetic and while onstage, will insult the audience and drives Jimmy to kidnap and murder his guests.
Throughout the game, Hugo is a persistent threat to Maya who is trying to free her friends and escape the hotel. You will need to communicate with the ghosts of Hugo’s previous victims in order to figure out what is going on and who is behind everything and why. As you explore you will find various clues and tools that help you progress but you’ll need to discover items and scenarios at certain points in order for the next scenario to activate, in other words, even if you know what to do or to look for next, you’ll still need to go through the steps to reach that point before it’ll be active for progression.
You will make use of various tools such as a scrying mirror, compass, and spirit box and find items such as evidence to solve the mysteries of the various murders, such as the murder of a young girl named Amy Bell who was relentlessly tormented by Jimmy who she’ll refer to as “the boy”. In order to save your friends, you will need to find a key for each of their rooms and free them by asking them to run without being caught by the ever-threatening Hugo. It goes so far as to rely on you to listen and check for Hugo before allowing them to run out of the room and being able to make it out.
It is good to note that it is not guaranteed that each of your friends will make it out and it will affect your ending.
This isn’t the kind of game to grab the attention of many but I, myself, will vouch that this game is definitely worth a playthrough. It has a cozy yet eerie atmosphere, the graphics are certainly a sight for sore eyes and the interactive story pulls you in.
It’s available on PC for R105 on Steam.