SENSEs: Midnight Review for Steam

SENSEs: Midnight is a survival horror game, by developer SUZAKU Games and publisher eastasiasoft, where you traverse an abandoned park in Japan. You play as Uesugi Kaho, an occult researcher who is on a mission to discover the secrets of the ‘Midnight Door’. While exploring this run down park you have to be careful and avoid getting caught by the many corrupted spirits roaming around as well the vengeful Onryo that is stalking your every move. Will you be able to survive this long night in the abandoned Ikebukuro Walking Park, or will you succumb to the same fate as so many others before you.

When you first start the game, you break into an abandoned park in Japan, while breaking in you also manage to block the path preventing you from getting back out that way. Once in, you look around a little and find that you have access to a camera and a live feed where others, from the occult club, can see and give useful tips on occasion. From there, you are left to wander the park picking up items and looking at things through your camera. Eventually, you come across a lone door that leads to nowhere otherwise known as the ‘Midnight Door.’ After walking around more and coming back to the door, you perform a ‘ritual’ by knocking on the door and saying a phrase three times. When nothing happens you assume it did not work and with mild disappointment you decide to try and leave the park. You don’t get very far though when an Onryo appears from the doorway to chase you.

This is when the game really becomes about survival. You run to a shrine in order to escape the ghost at which point the rest of the vengeful spirits awaken and take notice of your presence. From then on, you have to avoid the spirits and the Onryo while gathering items in your small inventory in order to find a way out of this nightmare you’ve created for yourself. There is a very limited amount of items you can carry, forcing you to make choices of what to carry and hope you do not have to run back and forth too much. This game features tank controls and fixed camera angles giving it a more classic horror game feel. On top of that the atmosphere is creepy and well done in order to give the park a haunting and abandoned feel. Overall, SENSEs: Midnight does well at telling a story through environmental details and lore while also painting vivid horror scenes with moderate gore and violence.

While this game features some interesting and scary aspects, it is a bit rough around the edges as well. The controls are hard to get used to, the tank controls paired with the constantly shifting camera angles from their fixed placements make it very hard to traverse the area. Some of the camera angles are really janky and hard to see from, not only that but they just shift so dramatically that it is difficult running from scene to scene while fleeing ghosts. The graphics are a little grainy as well but they still convey the horror atmosphere in a way that isn’t hard to look at even if it looks weird at times. The enemies are also worth talking about, at first they scare and freak you out but quickly they become really easy to dodge once you get used to their movements. This makes the game easy in the regard of enemies but hard in finding items and getting around so it becomes repetitive and a little boring. SENSEs: Midnight has some good aspects of an old school horror game, but also has its fair share of issues.

SENSEs: Midnight is a survival horror game with a solid creepy atmosphere. This game features fixed camera angles and tank controls, and while they add to the atmosphere they also make the game harder to play in the long run. There is an interesting story telling aspect to the environment and the established lore. Overall, it is a fun game for when you want a little bit of a scare but something that can get boring rather quickly. I am giving this game a 6 out of 10 because it has some solid horror game elements, but has its share of issues with its gameplay.

SENSEs: Midnight is available for PC for $11.99 via Steam.

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