Enter the Twilight Zone || Midnight Scenes: Highway (PC)

"Imagination... its limits are only those of the mind itself." --Rod Sterling

Title

Midnight Scenes: Highway is a short point and click suspense created by Octavi Navarro. You play as Claire Barnes, a woman on a journey whom is forced to take a small detour when her path becomes blocked. What Claire encounters, however, may change her life forever.

I loved this short adventure. It has heavy Twilight Zone feelings, a show that I love dearly. I was sad that the game was so short, but I feel that it doesn’t need to be longer. It leaves off like an episode of Twilight Zone as well, I could even hear the voice in my head.

Oh boy, a dark looking house... Let's go in!

Octavi does a spectacular job of creating an atmosphere of suspense and unease. The music, sound effects, and the graphic style all work very well together. I was never explicitly afraid, but it did make me feel uneasy and a little anxious. This is the sort of eerie game I enjoy. Not the in your face jump scares, but the subtle unease that makes your hair stand up on the back of your neck.

Kudos to the developer for creating such a well-crafted game. Given that this game is called Midnight Scenes: Highway, I do wonder if there will be more of these in a sort of series. If so, sign me up! I would even happily pay for one.

All a dream?

If you enjoyed Twilight Zone as a kid (or an adult) I think you’ll find immense enjoyment in this little game. Either way, please be sure to check it out for yourselves. You can download it free from Itch.io *here*.

As always, be sure to leave your feedback and encouragement to the developers, and until next time… stay safe, and happy gaming, Jammers!

Bell

Looking for the Light || Actual Sunlight (PC)

Title

Actual Sunlight is an “adventure” game created by WZOGI. I put adventure in quotes because the game doesn’t quite fit what I expect my adventure games to be, in terms of gameplay. You play as a character who feels stuck in his daily life, and is having trouble finding the willpower to move on. This game tried to deal with some heavier and more complex issues, like depression, and suicide, but it fell short in a few areas for me.

I want to make a note that I could not finish this game. I have a pretty good idea of how it ended, though. I’ll check to see if I’m right before I finish writing this to see. Anyway, you follow your character through his daily life, and almost every object you inspect or person you interact with will give you a little blurb about something—like a memory, or an information tid-bit. I think this can be a useful tactic in the game, but when it’s almost the only way to get anything from the game, it because tedious. I’m talking about walls of text. If you wanted to make a point, this same thing could have been achieved by writing a short story, or an online comic or something. What’s the point of making this a game, if there’s not actual gameplay(other than walking around).

Wall o Text

The graphics are not spectacular. Keep in mind that I’m not a stickler on hyper realistic next gen graphics. But because I felt this game was, frankly, boring, it would have been nice to have something to keep me interested.

The theme of this game is meant to be depression and thoughts of suicide, but other than a few explicit mentions of it, I didn’t get that impression from the game. I felt that the character was unsatisfied in his life and harbored a lot of resentment and self-loathing, which can be a part of depression, but are not exclusive to it. Even so, this game could have been better if it used character development, interaction, or anything to help build a story, rather than the wall of text style that was used.

The office

Overall, I feel that this game could have been much better, but simply fell short. I got this game on a steam sale for, I think, 50 cents or so. So, it’s not a huge loss. Normally the game is 4.99, and I wouldn’t recommend it for that price. In case you want to read on it some more, or even try it yourself, you can check out the Steam page *here*. 

As always, thank you for sharing some of your time with me today. Hope everyone is ready for the holidays! Until next time, happy gaming, Jammers!

Bell