The Midnight Walk Review (FastLawyer)
Experienced on the Meta Quest 3
You can view my full video review here: https://youtu.be/zh_ZGM9vxH4
I do recommend this game. I think it's a nice game. However, I have to admit that I was disappointed overall because I was expecting to love this game. This game is right up my alley. I love narrative-driven games. I love the art style (claymation / Tim Burton-esque).
However, it seems to me that the game was compromised. Maybe it was made for VR at first, but then the VR became a second thought. The VR interactions in this game are not very immersive. Most of them are of the point and click variety. You'll press a button to have Potboy (your companion on this journey) light a candle or press a button to hang on to the hot air balloon. The inventory system is reach for your holster and scroll through the different items. You'll put a key near a door and it opens up.
While the artstyle is amazing, unique, and original ... the resolution is not. There's some very low-resolution textures in this game that makes the clay look like paper mache / crumpled cardboard cutouts at some points. The lighting is awful at various points. The best way I can describe it is that there is this mask vignette effect and also some dark sludge around the eyes / dark filter that makes the visual look washed and faded, instead of crisp and clear. I know the art-style is claymation, but I would never guess it's really clay if the devs hadn't told us because it never looks like it in VR.
I liked the story, but it is a slow-burn. The gameplay is just okay. I think the pacing may have been off because there are so many monologues in this game. There's a ton of collectibles and audio logs that maybe slow down a pacing a bit too much.
Game is running on the Unreal Engine 4.2. On epic graphical settings (default), I was getting mostly 90 fps, but there were definite frame rate drops throughout. You can play comfortably seated. You have smooth and snap turning, but while snap turning has degrees of turn, the smooth turning only has one speed and it's a slow speed. I also experienced some minor bugs (having to restart to fix the issue).
Overall, I can't help but think that the original artistic vision was compromised by making this game that will run on a potato and/or the accountants. The art-style is indeed breath-taking .. or it would be if you could see it clearly in VR. At least the sound mix was excellent (good spatial audio, sound mix, VOs, etc.)
Rate 7/10.
I bought this game! If you enjoyed my review, please consider joining my Steam Curator group Oculus Rift Reviews.