The year of 2022 certainly continues to be the year of indie horror games from new and talented developers from all over the world, such as Brazil, Italy, Spain, and now we can add Argentina to the growing list. Just released on PlayStation and Steam (will also be released on Nintendo Switch later this month), MADiSON is developed by Argentinian company, Bloodious Games, and like many of these horror games this year, this is also their debut game. Of all the foreign horror titles I reviewed for Gaming Cypher this year, this one in particular, really hits it out of the park the most. This psychological horror of a game knows exactly what it’s doing every step of the way and knows exactly when and how to scare the player.
You play as a young boy named Luca, and for his sixteenth birthday he receives an old school polaroid camera. When you find out this camera was owned by a serial killer over three decades prior you quickly learn that the killer, herself, is still a part of this camera and leads you on a journey that mainly all resides in one large spooky as hell house. I feel like ever since P.T. released back in 2014 and captivated the horror audience with its short but extremely effective gameplay, many developers have tried to emulate that experience as much as possible. Some have been more successful than others, with most often missing the mark. Fortunately, for MADiSON, I think this is one of the closest experiences I’ve had to properly mimic what P.T. so greatly did in the first place, but to also have their own identity and follow through with a full-length experience (not just a playable trailer).
It’s always great to know the team behind a game understands how to scare, not just with cheap pop-up scares, but with long, intense, psychological torture. The art of the dread is what I like to call it, and with each new room you enter, each dark area, you can’t help but feel you’re being followed or there is something there, most of the time though, there actually isn’t, but that just continues to stack the layers of dread to boiling levels and the scares really feel earned and pay off very well. MADiSON is a genuinely scary experience and constantly made me feel unnerved. In this first-person experience, you’re often needing to use your camera to help with solving puzzles, or even to add to the tension as your last-ditch attempt to get some light in a very dark room. The story itself is paced really well, and does a great job at letting you easily pick up the pieces to what’s going on as you play along. Extremely long exposition dumps are nowhere to be seen here and I fully welcome it.
Overall, this is a really solid experience where besides a few puzzles were a bit too obtuse to solve and the bitrate was a bit choppy, which I found quite strange. I also would have preferred more autosaves throughout, I never enjoy repeating my progress. All those are small nitpicks that could easily be fixed up in future patches. As far as the initial package we got on launch, this one is a pretty damn solid scare fest that horror gamers really should not miss.
9/10
You can check out the MADiSON trailer – HERE
MADiSON is available for PC via Steam, PS4/5, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch.
For more information, visit: https://madisongame.com/
Related: Nick Navarro Reviews
Gaming since I was given an original Nintendo as a kid. I love great storytelling and unique ingenuity. When both collide in a single game, I'm a happy gamer. Twitter/IG @NickNavarro87
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