MADiSON

If you’re looking for a title to scare you and sweep you off your feet, there’s little that will be a lot more interesting to see than MADiSON.

MADiSON is a terrible psychological horror game that had me spit my trousers. MADiSON creates an atmosphere of terror in order to maximize all of the jump scares it has in store. While I wish games relied less on jump scares and more on ambience, I believe MADiSON had a horrific environment from the start. If you enjoy playing psychological horror games or watching your friends play horror games, this is the game for you.

Story

MADiSON begins with a young man inside his parents' abandoned home. Luca, a troubled adolescent, has returned to his parents' house as an adult. Luca was enamored with his cousin's Polaroid camera and shown symptoms of aggressiveness and hearing voices as a toddler. He was expelled from school, and his parents were informed that he need assistance. Luca looks around the home for the camera. However, the camera appears to have been owned and is possessed by a serial killer named Madison, and the mansion may have been the scene of more heinous crimes and torture than the player believes. It’s pretty cool and inspired by titles like Silent Hill and the recent Resident Evil 7: Biohazard and Resident Evil: Village titles.

Gameplay

In terms of the mechanics, the game is a first-person puzzler. WASD is used to travel, and the mouse is used to look and interact. The player has the ability to pick up and interact with things in the house. The player then solves puzzles and causes events that result in the next region or "flag" being set (an in-game condition that results in the next area being unlocked after all "flags" have been raised). Locating a picture, finding a nail, and putting said image on the wall where there was a clear dust-free mark is an example.

By hitting F and left-clicking, you may pick up film and take images with the camera. I thought it was extremely ingenious how the player uses the Polaroid camera and has to "shake" the photographs with their mouse for the film to develop. It's strange how a slew of horror games have exploited webcams as a gameplay aspect. So, while I believe it's done nicely in MADiSON, it's not really unique. Aside than that, the puzzles in the sample are quite simple, but rely on the user recognizing items out of place and triggering events. I didn't need to think hard to solve them; I only needed to be alert. When I assumed a red herring was the next step in the game, I really played myself for thinking too hard.

Graphics

The setting, lighting, and models are all stunning. They are quite lifelike. There were Polaroid film boxes that were possibly the most realistic I've ever seen in a video game. There are no jokes. They had corrugated cardboard shadows jumping about when I spun the box in the light, which was insane.

Pros

• Truly scary
• Great graphics

Cons

• Relatively short story