As I ’m trusted is the casing with many people right now , I ’m currentlygoing through it . It ’s hard not to look at the State Department of the world right now and not spiral a little bit . concern about the economy and the destructive rise of AI have bled into my personal and professional anxiety , leave me in the dark . So many times this twelvemonth , it has felt like my fire has been blown out . But you are not sentence to eternal pitch blackness once a flame goes out ; with a little endeavour , it can be rekindled .

So perhaps it was circumstances that I posture down to playThe Midnight Walkthis past weekend on a whim . After two exhausting weeks of traveling that fully drained my vigour , I decided to nail down in for developer MoonHood ’s introduction plot . I did n’t have intercourse much about it other than the fact that it ’s an risky venture game that boast a Claymation artistry dash that ’s a deadened ringer for Tim Burton ’s study . Though it can be played on a normal display , I chose to try it onPlayStation VR2instead . I ’m not certain why . Maybe I just wanted to disappear for four hour — a textbook case of escape .

Thankfully , The Midnight Walkdidn’t let me drift away . alternatively of break loose my troubles in a fantastical world , I got the wisdom I ask from a moving fable that ’s about both reigniting your interior firing and knowing when it ’s fine to cover the darkness . Like any gravid fantasy , it only whisk us away to bring us back to where we started with fresh middle .

A character camps under a large book in The Midnight Walk.

MoonHood

Fire in my heart

Created by a newfangled studio apartment founded by developer who worked onLost in Random , The Midnight Walkis a playable fable built out of the Great Compromiser . In it , I manipulate a character known only as The Burnt One who sets out on a pursuance to make for Light Within to a dark world . I am accompanied by a critter named Potboy , a sentient lantern whose flame is just what I want to navigate fire - based mystifier that have me get down candles and heating up cauldrons to kick upstairs platform . It ’s a straightforward adventure plot that ’s solely build around light puzzles alternatively of combat .

Its most right away striking lineament is its stop - motion art . Like this year’sSouth of Midnight , it does a convincing job of adapting forcible animation to an interactive spiritualist , concluded with characters that are animated on two . At first , I see an obvious parallel to Tim Burton , butThe Midnight Walkhas its root in bass animation custom . I ’d equate it more to classic European and Soviet film , portion out more in plebeian with Yuri Norstein’sHedgehog in the FogthanThe Nightmare Before Christmas . It strikes a soft tonic symmetricalness that ’s somewhere between cute and creepy-crawly . It ’s childlike , as if pulled out of a storybook , but mature and emotional in the same breather .

It ’s sort of a Rorschach test for players as there are a few ways you could categorise it bet on how its tone hits you . At times , it ’s a warm and charming escapade . Other times , it ’s well-nigh a repulsion game in the vein ofLittle Nightmares . That duality is n’t a defect , but rather a function . The Midnight Walkis very much about the tenseness present in its tone .

The fib takes place across five chapters , each of which is centered around ardour as a multi - purpose symbol . In some tales , ardour is a fundamental resource needed for survival . I require to bring flame back to a freezing town to keep it warm , for example . Other tales abstract it a bit more . One chapter tells the story of a craftsman and his labored human relationship with his daughter , a conflict that snuffs out his originative heat . Much of the gameplay has me decide those issues by wielding the top executive of fire to solve villagers problems as I embark on a trek up the legendary Midnight Walk to regenerate a burn down out sunlight .

MoonHood develop originative about how to flex its symbol into gameplay . I now and again require to snaffle gargantuan mate and strike them against a box to light torches . I can command Potboy to move around and unclouded objects up with the insistency of a button , ca-ca for some cagy “ one - player conscientious objector - op ” puzzle . One repeated sequence has the two of us running through a raging violent storm , stopping to hide behind rocks before a cock-a-hoop gust of wind freeze us . In those moments , I need to huddle together around his glow mind to stay warm . Fire is n’t just an element here , but a line of life . It ’s no marvel that the residents of this world experience so lost without it ; they are left wander through the darkness .

You might be tempted to boil story down to a conflict of luminosity vs. darkness , a deadening crutch of a theme that so many games tend on . The Midnight Walkis far more nuanced about that though , which is where its excellent VR manner comes into free rein . Darkness can be terrorise for The Burnt One . It blot out teras that stalk the hero , forcing me to occasionally tippytoe through stealth sequences lest I have the bejeezus scared out of me . But like fire , darkness can be a tool too . When I fold my eyes ( literally on PSVR2 thanks to excellent eye tracking ) , I formulate a world power . I can discover hidden object like Francis Scott Key , allow me to find them by tracking the sound . When I see a blasphemous heart ikon , I can conclude my eyes to expose mysterious paths . Some enemies have that same eye and I can crush them by resist tall and shutting my eyes rather than reverse and running away . I ’m pit the first time I do that , as I can hear the sound of a charging beast approaching . But when I open my center , it has decompose .

The nuance toThe Midnight Walk‘s story is in how it realise wickedness as a essential like urine . Rather than being something to escape , it ’s ensnare as a constructive force that allows us to find when times get tough . There is elbow room for ego reflection in the seemingly unnumberable pitch blackness . Stretch out as far as your eubstance will allow for to fill up that void and then hit a match when you ’re ready to proceed the long walk .

That idea resonated with me by the end of the four - minute journey . The more I play , the less I dread the darkness . The horror elements dissipated as I grow more convinced . I could close my eyes without awe , beating the monster on their home sod . I was still on a quest to rekindle a lost flame , but I establish that I could pilot the twisted clay world even without it . We are not lose even when the visible light go out . There ’s always a path fore . Close your eye , take a deep breath , and listen .

The Midnight Walkis available now on PS5 , PC , and compatible VR headset .