Subway Midnight

The transformation of trivial everyday activities into gripping gameplay never ceases to amaze me. Subway Midnight turns all those weird and wonderful characters you meet on public transportation into a visual feast of puzzles, scares, and Saturday morning cartoon nostalgia. The game looks like a goldmine of thrills.

However, on the surface, it's hard to understand what's going on inside the game. Sure, we are already enticed by the notion that we're interested to see the developers take on nighttime commutes. But what are we trying to accomplish within this strange realm that fixates on roaming around a subway train? Let's enter the world of Subway Midnight.

Just Your Friendly Neighborhood Subway Ghosts

The premise of Subway Midnight is pretty simple. You're a passenger on a train littered with ghosts, and you're trying to escape the clutches of arguably the weirdest person on the train. Sounds like a regular Friday night train ride, right? Players will run away from their ghostly fate by solving puzzles and interacting with other spectral beings on their ride to nowhere.

Because there's not a lot of dialogue, it's a bit hard to piece together any sort of lore behind why you've ended up here in the first place. Regardless, the unique visual style of the game provides the backdrop for a few exhilarating jumps scares. It almost compensates for the fact that puzzles aren't challenging. Also, that most of the game is spent clicking to your next destination.

There is a level of interaction involved with other passengers shapes how the game plays out. However, Subway Midnight does start to become muddled as your perspective changes according to the puzzles you'll have to solve. It ends up to a point where the gameplay is frustrating purely because you're not sure what you're meant to do.

Although the gameplay is confusing, the visual style of Subway Midnight makes the game palatable. Even as you progress into a more aimless state, the colors, characters, and scenery is a doodled sight to behold. They set the scene well and deliver that terrifying train ride from hell. Other than that, frustrations will inevitably muster.

An Acid Trip on a Train

Players that fired up Subway Midnight without knowing what to expect would think the protagonist took a large helping of magic mushrooms before heading home after a big night out. It has that vibe, but the threading of visuals does relieve the esoterism to provide a more compelling, psychological horror experience.

Pros:

• Beautiful and unique visuals
• The game does a decent job of providing scares
• The concept behind the game is laudable

Cons:

• Puzzles aren't challenging
• Gameplay becomes frustrating with a lack of intuition
• Little dialogue doesn't help players understand the game's premise