The Midnight Walk (PSVR2) Review

The Midnight Walk is a beautiful, emotionally resonant stop-motion masterpiece that stays with you long after the credits roll.

Set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland where the sun has vanished from the sky, The Midnight Walk spins a folksy yarn about the Burned One, tasked with guiding the adorable Potboy along the titular road to Moon Mountain.

On the way, the pair are told a series of melancholic tales about the inhabitants of the road, living in a world whose creator has abandoned it.

There are the nobodies, who decided to decapitate themselves as they blamed their bodies for their warlike nature, after murdering almost all of the Molgrims and stealing their fire. The mining community that fed a child into a furnace for wasting all their matches, and the tale of a craftsman who made endless replacements for his daughter who left.

Light plays a big role in The Midnight Walk, metaphorically and literally, as you command potboy to light torches, ignite furnaces, and guide you through the ever encroaching darkness with the tiny coal fire sputtering from his head.

Likewise, as you shed light on the tragic tales of the residents of The Midnight Walk. You begin to realise the truth is far more complicated (and heart breaking) than what’s initially presented in simple stories.

But rather than simply being a tale about beating back the darkness, it also uses it to great effect, especially in VR, as you’re often tasked with closing your eyes and listening to find objects hidden in drawers and the environment. It’s also the only way to battle against some of the hostile creatures lurking in the dark. Though most of the time your only option is to run and hide in the nearest wardrobe or burrow

What sets The Midnight Walk apart, though, is its distinct visual style. It’s Phil Tipett meets Tove Jansen, which is apt considering it’s about a world abandoned by some sort of mad god, and it’s hard not to make comparisons to Moomins in November, you get the sense there was some sense of beauty and wonder in this world, but now its gone, leaving its inhabitants lonely and searching for some small solace in the light of a fire, and hope that one day the sun might rise again.

The handcrafted Claymation style used is absolutely jaw-dropping, the world is twisted and distorted, and the folks left to live in it are strange and unsettling. Though all slightly tragic. Even the monsters that stalk you in the dark have a sadness to them, when they’re not trying to eat you, or tear you limb from limb.

Everything moves with a sort of odd jerkiness to it as well, which makes everything feel all the more unsettling. This is coupled with an absolutely beautiful score and some phenomenal voice work that does a brilliant job of conveying the tales being told as well as the weird and wonderful cast.

Throughout The Midnight Walk you’ll also come across a raft of collectables including models of most of the characters, records containing the game’s phenomenal score, shells which fill out the backstory of the regions you wander through, and a series of film reels that once played re-contextualise the story in a really powerful way and make the ending feel all the more poignant.

All of these items are yours to pore over inside your literal mobile home, Housey, a house that one day got so bored of being rooted to the spot it grew legs and decided to go on an adventure.

It’s a great way to display your collectables and at certain points of the story Housey will help you on your way by giving you a lift to the next area. A perfect time to settle in and find out why the sun vanished, and appreciate the craftsmanship that went into the game.

Although the Midnight Walk can be played on a TV, I would recommend diving into the VR mode if you have the means because it heightens the experience in every conceivable way.

As previously mentioned, the blink mechanic is transformed from holding down a button to closing your eyes, and with the 3D sound of PSVR2, it makes the audio puzzles that rely on this all the more compelling (easier to navigate, too). Likewise, you’re immersed in the visuals, which makes some tense moments in the dark all the more nerve-shredding, especially when all you have to guide you is the light of a flickering match, and you can hear some strange, unnatural noise as something stirs that you can’t quite make out.

Final Thoughts

The Midnight Walk is a bewitching and thoroughly affecting experience that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about since the credits rolled.

From its mysterious opening to its thoughtful, bittersweet conclusion (there are two endings, both leave you pondering whether you did the right thing, or if it even matters), like that old book of fables I had as a kid, I couldn’t put it down. I needed to see it through to the end, I was compelled to push on, to see Potboy safely to his destination, enthralled, and compelled in equal measure by the world and the series of fables it contained.

The Midnight Walk is easily one of the best VR games of the year, and even just on the TV, it’s still a stroll well worth taking.