Horror is not so terror-ble
MADiSON ◆◆◆/MOTHMEN 1966 ◆◆◆
MADISON is a first-person psychological horror game made by indie studio Bloodious Games.
This is the studio’s first title and it meets the objectives of the genre well enough to make playing through the game engaging.
You play Luca, a teenager who awakens with blood on his hands, and must search through his home and learn of his family’s past, to understand and potentially stop a demonic ritual from being completed.
The game has good visuals and background audio, well done voice acting, and interesting puzzles.
Sadly, despite its good understanding of setting and use of environment to build tension, it has an overreliance on jump scares and little else in the way of making the player feel they are in danger. This, along with a couple of mechanics that seem unnecessary, let what is otherwise an excellent game down.
MOTHMEN 1966 is the first instalment in what is being dubbed “Pixel Pulp”, a visual novel of the pick-your-ownadventure variety rendered in 80s 8-bit pixel graphics. Based on the American Mothman folklore, you guide the interactions of three separate characters through a number of horror-laden chapters, solving puzzles along the way, as you uncover the mystery of the Mothmen. With puzzles that are simplistic and often seem tacked on, it’s a promising start but fails to deliver in key areas.