On the surface, The Midnight Walk would be a game that the “old” me would see, think was adorable – looking at you Potboy – and continue on banking an obscene number of hours into one singular game. However, I’ve begun my journey of branching out into indies and smaller games and am finding no lack of incredible work and The Midnight Walk is just that.
The Midnight Walk is a game brought to Playstation and Steam by MoonHood Studios. MoonHood is a small studio made up of incredible talents from such games as Lost in Random and Ghost Giant. The Midnight Walk is unique in that it does have a PSVR iteration of the game – one I would be a little scared to try as this game does have some horror elements. However, as someone who is largely incapable of playing many horror games due to very-little-fight-and-a-whole-lotta-flight sensibilities, this game does provide for some good jump scares and thrills but is much more gentle than say Resident Evil or Silent Hill.
I played on Steam and the experience is incredible outside of the VR realm. The game employs immersive mechanics such as having to close one’s eyes in-game and listen for clues to find your way and/or hidden items to progress. Sounds clues in this game and the use of audio, I personally suggest wearing headphones or a headset, also draws the player deeper into the story. Aside from the incredible usage of sight and sound, the story alone speaks for itself.
You play as The Burnt One and due to the first-person POV, the most you see of your visage are arms that match your epithet. I personally loved this as it allowed me to fully insert myself into the game, although I found my kindred spirit into someone I will introduce here shortly. You, as The Burnt One, find yourself on a Midnight Walk through a world that has lost is sun. You’ll experience various challenges and puzzles along your walk, but you do not go on your walk alone.
Meet Potboy, your adorable best friend who walks with you on your adventures.
Unrelated to the game, is the visceral amount of cuteness aggression Potboy invokes in me. The entirety of my playthrough was streamed live on my Twitch account and the VODs live both on Twitch and my YouTube channel. Throughout my playthrough, you can hear the tell-tale sound of Steam screenshotting image after image of my best boy as well as me telling chat over and over how much I love and adore him….and how I would die to protect him.
Potboy is your light and warmth in a world gone cold, dark, and with its fair share of scary things; monsters both in visage as well as in character. There are five chapters to this story and each chapter has its own narrative and lessons to be learned. Along the way you’ll be faced with fear, grief, misunderstandings, and several other emotions that we all have faced in some capacity in our daily lives. So too will there be release and joy, oftentimes perpetrated by Potboy himself who grins and waves at you as you fall behind or who, even in the scariest of times keeps his chin up and his grin on his sweet face.
The story is rife with lessons to be gleaned, both as The Burnt One but also as the player behind the controller. The Midnight Walk was one of those “right place, right time” games for me. Potboy himself had me sold as did the art, where the developers handmade over 700 clay sculptures to animate for this beautiful game. I spent several days prior to purchasing the game listening to the soundtrack on repeat…and I am listening to it now as I write this review. It’s beautiful and I highly suggest a listen on your preferred platform, but back to the personal connection I formed with this game.
The last two years for me have been rough. I have gone through three jobs in one year alone, resulting in quite a lot of financial hardship I have yet to see a way to fix or navigate. I have had huge life changes outside of work – relationships, living situations, and more. I have been challenged in ways I never thought I’d be and in ways I never hoped for. And yes, I’ve wanted to quit often. But The Midnight Walk reminded me that we cannot. No matter how dark, how cold, we must continue forward and we must NEVER allow our light ie our Potboy to go out or be taken.
If this is where I leave you, I will leave you with this – I highly suggest checking this game out, but if not – never let your light dim or go out. While it may get dark and things may feel impossible, you continue to burn and never let anyone take that from you. If you’d like additional information about the game I have these suggestions:
- Steam Page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2863640/The_Midnight_Walk/
- Playstation Store: https://www.playstation.com/en-us/games/the-midnight-walk/
- Moonhood Studios Page: https://www.moonhood.se/home
- Moonhood’s YouTube: https://youtube.com/@moonhood?si=BWBEth9d95NMdxt3
- An incredible interview by Abhi Jha with Klaus Lyngeled and Olov Redmalm of Moonhood: https://www.behindthevoice.net/episodes
If you read beyond this, I will be spoiling the end of the game but also revealing why this game has seared itself into my mind and become one of my personal greats of all times.
You have been warned.
The ending of the game left me in what I have always referred to as an emotional hangover, where a game or book or movie is so impactful I have a hard time thinking of little else and cannot simply move on to the next. Much to my heartbreak, as I drew closer to the end the foreshadowing could not be ignored and I was finally prompted with a choice. Upon attempting to reignite the sun you as the player are given a choice – Burn or Stop – and it becomes evident that “Burn” means Potboy will burn out, but he will bring back the sun.
I did both endings, but chose “Burn” first. Potboy breaks and as the sun rises the camera pans through all the beings in this dark world reacting at the sun returning. All the creatures you met along the way in which you gave momentary heat and warmth to now have a permanent fix, but to the loss of dear Potboy. In some regard, Potboy ceased to exist as himself and now exists in other ways, but your jovial little potbelly (no pun intended) sidekick is gone to The Burnt One. Telling Potboy to “burn” hurt me profoundly due to highly personal reasons.
Despite self-inserting as The Burnt One, I saw myself more in Potboy. Dark, scary, uncertain adventures, he remained undaunted. As I felt fear being chased or jumpscared, Potboy remained smiling and waving or doing any number of cute things that pushed the fear back. I feel like in my life I am often the Potboy, continuing on with a smile in spite of what’s happening around or to me. I’m the person with the smile, the kind words, the laugh to bring joy to others, even when I myself do not feel it. So at the end, telling him to burn felt a lot like lighting myself on fire to keep others warm – something I do not hesitate to do and have done many times over. Potboy gave of himself time and time again and I saw myself in that.
However, in choosing “stop”, the ending was equally heartbreaking. Potboy and The Burnt One walk away together, but prior the camera pans to the world where the sun momentarily blazed before going out. You can see the excitement quickly turn to sadness as for one moment there was a hint of hope before the sun burnt back out and darkness returned once more. It made me think that Potboy giving himself for the greater good, despite how horrible it felt, was the “correct” thing. It had been what he had been made to do.
Potboy inspired in me to not give up. The dark times always come, but the light is there if you find it. This game is well worth its price tag and I suggest giving it a try. Maybe someday I’ll be brave enough to give VR a shot, although I fear I may be a tiktok fail video as I sprint into a wall after a Crawler comes out of nowhere.
Thank you for coming with me on this Midnight Walk and I hope that as you find yourself in yours that you do not lose your light and warmth. Where there is breath, there is eternal hope.
If you’ve made it this far, I’ll post my linktree where you can find all my things:
Welcome to the Bakery! 
Leave a comment