Between Me and The Night is described as a surrealist action adventure game; and that it certainly is. While the early access preview lasted all of 37 minutes for me it was a very strange twisting adventure through video game and the possibility of a broken childhood in equal measure. A game with a story (though being in early access, that story is ‘please support this game’)
Before I describe this game in any major detail I have to point out this early access preview is around 10 days old with the early access phase lasting for ‘two months’ (Developers own words.) This means there is obvious teething and bugs within the preview. That also means I had very little gameplay to preview this off. Yet I will do the best I can.
So Between Me and The Night is an adventure game bridging the gap between your character’s sanity and reality. The game is built to show this off in every aspect. Carpets drape over the front edge of the 2D landscape, rain hits windows not in view and yet we can see it dripping down. Light turn on and off with no warning and other characters of the world seem to be ghostly in design. The only time the game has a sense of normality about it is during the portions where your character plays video games. These vary from the 8 bit ‘Generic Knight’ game to an arcade machine on the first floor of the house with a grand knight’s adventure which literally sucks you in.
The mechanics of the house, which is sort of the hub, is much like a puzzle game. Items can be found and stored in your character’s pockets and used to open various areas around the house, such as using bolt cutters on the chain around the shed. Objects have the option to observe them as well, which can lead to strange descriptions. Plenty of items around the house can be picked up, and don’t be put off from nosing around, even with the inventory bug not putting objects in the correct place.
The early access preview is only around 30 minutes to 1 hour of gameplay, therefore not an incredible amount to get an understanding of the game off. Questions are still hanging around: Why are there monsters? Why is everyone else you meet ghosts? Is this all because he’s ginger and this is just the most expensive ginger joke of all time? But these questions are compelling me to continue the game when it is finally released.
Problems so far? Well, the price. For 30 minutes of gameplay, £14.99 is an absurdly high price. The depth is just not there for this game to be viable for that cost. £1.00 is closer to what the cost should be for the content inside. However once it is out of early access I can easily see this game being worth the cost.
With the game being in early access and so little content available, it hard to 100% judge the game for its upcoming finished version, with more and more content being added, I hope to return to the game at a later date to see how the game is progressing, as it goes through alpha through to its’ final release.
I can see this game having a marvelous story, in the same line as LIMBO or Thomas Was Alone
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