The genre of Horror is one that, I must admit, I am not the most experienced in. As much as I enjoy watching videos of others being scared firsthand, I don’t exactly enjoy being spooked. But in the spirit of this Spooky Month of Halloween, I was given the opportunity to dive deep into the studios of Otherworld Interactive’s Hello Puppets: Midnight Show. As a prequel to the highly acclaimed, Hello Puppets, which brought these wooden monsters to life in full VR during their first outing, the game has big shoes to fill. In order to live up to such a high standard, this game has opted to leave its VR origins behind to allow for greater freedom of movement. But was it wise to vary from the formula, or should the studios’ secrets have remained hidden for a little while longer? There’s only one way to find out, so get ready to puppeteer through a Jim Henson nightmare.
Taking place inside of the production studio for the children’s show “Mortimer’s Handeemen,” you play as series creator Owen Gubberson, a creative who’s gotten tired of others failing to live up to his vision. In a desperate act to get the show exactly the way he’d like it, he’s spent half a million dollars in search of the mythical Book of Enioch to try and bring his puppets to life. This money wasn’t his to spend, however, and he receives a voicemail from his studio representative informing him of his show’s termination. Angered by this, he rashly uses the book to bring Mortimer to life, which appears to work. However, it doesn’t take longer than a week for the horror to begin. Angered by the fact that he can only “play” when Owen is puppeteering him, Mortimer seemingly enslaves another worker, shrouding their head and turning them into his permanent personal puppeteer. When Owen isn’t thrilled by this and demands him to stop, he steals the book of Enioch and uses it to bring his co-stars to life before scattering the pages of the book between them. The only hope that Owen has to stop this is to assemble all of the pages and destroy them, ending the spell and reverting his creations back to a lifeless state. However, getting these pages back is a herculean task, and one which isn’t even guaranteed to right his wrongs.
In each level of the game, the player is tasked with sneaking around different sections of the studio to assemble a group of hidden objects, each of which is themed to the character whose area you’re trespassing in. There are three different opponents to face: the dramatic Knick Knack, the studious Riley Ruckus, and the bipolar Daisy Danger. However, there is no real difference between the three, other than the theming of their areas and gimmicks, meaning that you won’t have to constantly shift between different styles of gameplay. As you sneak through the studio, you have to keep in mind how much noise you make, as well as how visible you are. Staying crouched, while mostly silent, is slow. Walking may be faster, but it also makes noise, which could attract your hand-operated opponents. Running is also an option, but your stamina only lasts so long. (It’s also incredibly loud, but you likely aren’t running unless you’ve already been found) The pieces you need to gather are hidden behind different simple puzzles that remain solved in the event of a death. You’ll be happy to avoid repeating them, as a death results in the pieces being sent back to their original positions. You’ll need to bank them at the center of the puppet’s makeshift arena to keep them from moving, which will likely become increasingly relevant the further you go into the game.
Nearly every element of the game is fine-tuned to near perfection. The game is visually appealing, with an incredible style that combines harsh reality with fabric and plush. The sound design is also spot-on, creating an immersive and incredibly creepy atmosphere. I have to give props to the voice actors, as they bring an immense amount of life to their characters, no pun intended: Mortimer can switch between sounding like a gentle grandfather and a terrifying mastermind on a dime; Knick Knack has all of the theatrics of your average Broadway star; Riley is imposingly condescending, like a plush GLaDOS who’s not afraid to get her hands dirty; and Daisy can flip between sinisterly sweet and outright terrifying in an instant.
The gameplay is varied and enjoyable as well. Each puppet switches between three modes at seemingly random intervals: At first, they simply roaming around in hopes of catching you, and will chase you if they find you. They can also try hiding inside of a painting, peeking out of the eyeholes and killing you if you get too close. Finally, they can call you to a certain part of their arena, giving you one minute to arrive and play their own unique minigame up close and personal, or else you’ll find yourself attacked by an unfriendly playmate. While you dodge them, you’ll solve simple puzzles such as stopping a character roulette in a manner similar to the roulette minigame in Super Mario Bros 3, playing a round of spot the difference, or testing your recognition of animal sounds. Later stages will also have you managing an economy of batteries, using them to power up puzzles and to use distractions to slip away. The game even accounts for some of the biggest problems in the genre, providing unique ways to prevent yourself from being caught while running and hiding: while running, if you sprint past a door, you’ll be given the option to slam it shut behind you, stunning the puppet on the other end and forcing them to open it. Similarly, you’ll regularly receive quick-time events to make entering and exiting cover safe and silent while a threat is nearby. What I find most ingenuitive was their way of avoiding the traditional “button-spam” defense to keep the door to your hiding place shut: the bar that represents your safety is divided into two segments of a circle. As the marker moves back to its lowest point, you’ll have to mash a button to desperately keep yourself in the green. However, if you over-mash, you’ll wrap back around to the danger zone, instantly killing yourself
The game isn’t perfect, however, and I think its biggest weakness is ironically its lack of scares. As it stands, the jump scares aren’t intimidating or scary. That’s not to say they are uninteresting or boring, just that they don’t provide as much of a scare as the initial chase that it is likely the result of. The game also has an issue with clipping, which ironically lead to the scariest moment of the game for me: while hiding in a locker, Knick Knack decided to break the laws of physics and clip through the wall to hide with me. I thought that I was dead, but apparently despite phasing through the wall to look me in the eyes and give me a heart attack, he didn’t actually know where I was. Afterwards, he disappeared in a puff of confetti, which leads me to my next concern. The characters will apparently frequently teleport, which is a double-edged sword: on the one hand, this means that the player can’t ever be truly out of their opponent’s range. On the other hand, this makes intentionally triggering a chase sequence and successfully hiding from the area’s puppet a genuine strategy to get them out of your way, which feels anticlimactic and the reverse of how it should be. Another note is that the puppets’ painting-hiding phase isn’t challenging, especially considering that the puppet can teleport to a painting close to you and can warp away as soon as they’re done: provided you’re willing to wait, all you have to do is stay away from the painting and take a breather until they leave, which is always notated by a change in the puppet’s icon and a line of dialogue.
Ultimately, Hello Puppets: Midnight Show is an incredibly interesting and fun game, just not necessarily as scary as I thought it would be. However, as the stakes in the game get higher, I imagine that the fear factor would rise alongside the difficulty. I personally consider the game to be an 8 out of 10. It’s not perfect, but it’s very well designed, and I believe that a few tweaks would be all it takes to take it to terrifying new heights. I’ll be keeping an eye on the future of the Hello Puppets franchise. Just… maybe that eye will be on someone else’s YouTube video instead of my own copy of the game. Personally, I’m more of a fan of the treats than the tricks this time of year.
Happy Halloween from both myself and the entire Gaming Cypher crew!
Hello Puppets: Midnight Show is available for PC via Steam.
Related: Reviews by Aaron Grossmann
Gaming is a passion that I, like many other people, hold near and dear to my heart. As an aspiring Game Writer and general Storyteller, I enjoy looking into the vast worlds and deep stories of every game I can. Then again, sometimes bad guys just need a good pummeling, and I am more than happy to provide!
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