The Midnight Walk is a horrifying clay-sculpted stroll from the makers of Lost in Random

Developer MoonHood may not sound familiar, but the talent behind this team is undeniable. This studio was founded by the co-creators of Fe and Lost in Random, departing from former developer Zoink to bet on themselves with this new development endeavor. MoonHood's debut effort, The Midnight Walk, contains a lot of that Lost in Random spirit, right down to a frightening atmosphere sculpted entirely with clay. Shacknews recently had an opportunity to give it a look.

The Midnight Walk tells the tale of The Burnt One, accompanied by a lost lantern creature named Potboy. The idea is to embark on a long journey, one taking place on foot across the titular Midnight Walk trail. This is no yellow brick road. The Midnight Walk trail is a dark one filled with wondrous terror, conveyed through its dreary atmosphere and horrifying monsters waiting to strike at nearby intruders. New paths are opened up by lighting candles with matches and sometimes finding the way forward will come after solving some puzzles. The Burnt One and Potboy's journey will eventually lead to a confrontation with The Dark Itself, a mysterious antagonist that players will learn more about over the course of the game.

Senses are vital in The Midnight Walk, an idea expressed during the game's opening minutes where players pick up their eyes and ears to attach them to their head. Players will frequently be prompted to close their eyes with the shoulder button in order to listen for hints on what to do next. This can involve sound cues pointing to a key object. However, the eye-closing mechanic can also be used to escape certain dangers. There were some sequences where monsters only existed when seen, requiring an "out of sight, out of mind" mentality.

Sound matters during this adventure as well. Beyond listening for sound cues to find certain objects, enemies can similarly detect players based on sound cues. Wanderers will often be cued to "Sneak" across certain areas, since some foes will move based on the sounds of their footsteps. The blood-curdling screams of monstrosities like the fire-eating Crawlers add greatly to the horror vibe, but they can helpfully be avoided by luring them away to another area with lit candles.

A sense of touch is conveyed when using one of The Midnight Walk's more frequent items: matches. Matches will help light the candles that open up the way forward, but they'll also function much like they do in real life. That means holding on to a match for too long will burn the player's fingers, creating a greater sense of urgency during candle puzzles. Burnt matches going out may not mean much when wandering an illuminated town, but the sudden loss of light could create an uneasy feeling when wandering down a dark cave.

The Midnight Walk will look to balance its frights with some more lighthearted moments, usually involving companion Potboy. Potboy is almost childlike in his antics, sometimes stopping for a quick hide-and-seek game and jauntily skipping ahead after being given a snack. Potboy's friendship will help drive the game from a narrative perspective, but he can also aid players by assisting with certain puzzle sequences. For example, he may run on ahead and create a bridge to for players to cross or he'll stay nearby when it comes time to light a series of candles.

Furthermore, if players need a break from the game's scares, they won't have to go too far. Towards the beginning of the adventure, players will discover a house (named "Housy," naturally) that will act as a safe spot, as well as a place to keep collectibles. Housy will also accompany the player on their journey, sprouting up on two legs and joining them on the Midnight Walk.

Like Lost in Random before it, developer MoonHood is crafting more whimsical horror in the vein of classic Henry Selick movies. With that said, the horror does lend itself more to a VR environment. Fortunately, in addition to being a first-person adventure game, The Midnight Walk will be fully playable in VR.

There's a lot to discover in The Midnight Walk. This became clear when a few candle-lighting sequences, the introduction to Potboy, and some Crawler stealth sections turned out to merely be the game's cold open. It'll be fun to discover all of them, as co-creators Olov Redmalm and Klaus Lyngeled have meticulously constructed each of the game's environments and characters solely with clay and puppets, all brought to life through Unreal Engine. The sun will soon set and The Midnight Walk will begin on PC and PlayStation 5, as well as on SteamVR and PS VR2, on Thursday, May 8.

This preview is based on an early PC build played by the development team virtually via a private Discord session. The final product is subject to change.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?