To anyone familiar with the recent spate of first-person horror titles, MADiSON will seem instantly familiar. With its moody lighting, tight corridors, and affinity for jump scares, there's little here that really sets it apart from the likes of Outlast or Layers of Fear on the surface. Diving into the game a bit deeper, however, unveils some pretty interesting gameplay mechanics, chiefly driven by an item you'll be carrying around for the majority of the experience: a polaroid camera.
The camera itself provides multiple functions; some of which are pretty obvious, and others that might not be quite so clear until you start using it properly. Its main use, of course, is to light your way in the darkness. MADiSON is, naturally, a very dark game (although a patch to add in brightness settings proves more than welcome), so there will be multiple instances where you'll struggle to see ahead of you without any clear source of light. This is where your camera comes into play: a quick flash of the shutter will instantly reveal your surroundings, if only for the briefest of moments. It's a clever way of showing you key items that may otherwise be obscured, but it's also an effective way to implement some pretty pant-wettlingly scary jump scares.
The camera's other use is to reveal supernatural elements within your surroundings. This only becomes clear once you start clicking the shutter at every available opportunity, and you might even stumble upon this particular mechanic by accident if you've not read up on it beforehand. Despite the grounded setting, there are numerous supernatural elements to the game that are either revealed by the flash of the camera shutter or the polaroid images themselves, so if you find yourself in a bit of a bind and aren't quite sure which way to go next, just keep taking pictures; chances are it'll trigger an event or give you some sort of hint as to what you need to do.
All told, while the camera mechanic isn't the most original idea in the world, its implementation is pretty well done. It reminded us of a key moment in the recent horror film Host, and its usage here is probably just as effective. What's perhaps even more impressive are the jump scares themselves; given that they often occur as a result of the camera shutter going off, their occurrences are very much driven by the player, rather than feeling like they're baked into the narrative during scripted moments. It effectively raises your anxiety as you play, because you never quite know whether taking a picture will result in a jump scare or not.
Visually, MADiSON looks pretty great for the most part. The lighting is particularly impressive and makes for some truly atmospheric moments. In terms of art direction, the environments are well designed, but there are instances of repeated assets, like picture frames and certain pieces of furniture. Given the impressive visuals, performance expectedly takes a bit of a hit on the Switch, with impacted frame rate being the most egregious flaw here. The good news, though, is that the gameplay itself is slow and methodical throughout, so this likely won't prove much of an issue for most people.
If you're a fan of horror games that focus more on atmosphere and scares rather than combat, then MADiSON is a no-brainer. It's not the most original game and it mostly follows the lead of pioneers like the aforementioned Outlast or even Hideo Kojima's P.T, but that doesn't matter. What you've got here is an effective horror experience regardless, and one that you're going to enjoy from start to finish.
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Nintendo Life’s resident horror fanatic, when he’s not knee-deep in Resident Evil and Silent Hill lore, Ollie likes to dive into a good horror book while nursing a lovely cup of tea. He also enjoys long walks while listening to video game music... and Motorhead.
I'm getting really tired of every horror game this generation being a first person point a to point b adventure that relies on jump scares and cheap gimmicks. What ever happened to silent hill? That series was a masterpiece and an example of how to do horror right.
Love my horror games! I was thinking about getting a physical copy for PS5. 7/10 isn't bad. Mabey I'll pick up a copy for Switch as well! But these next few months are pack with releases, so I can hold out for a price drop. Hopefully enough physical copies will be available so it doesn't sell out...
"Use camera to reveal monsters" is not just a little unoriginal, at this point it's one of the most clichèd themes in horror. But it's just a mechanic, the game could still be good if it differentiates itself in any other way. I wish the review talked a bit more about what else is going on in the game.
So it's basically Slenderman but even more boring and unoriginal with fantastic graphics? sighhhhhhh
It caught my eyes, and it's on my wishlist. My first idea was "basically Project Zero (or Fatal Frame - which, while I prefer Project Zero as the name for that series since that's how I got to know it, buying a used copy of the first game on PS2 back in the day because it seemed interesting - would be a more fitting name for THIS particular game) and that one scene from the first Saw movie, which back then, I found to be quite a good idea for a scary scene. It's been a long time since I, well, "saw" it.
@JasmineDragon That's pretty much all the game is. You walk around, barely anything happens, you take a picture with your camera and something slightly changes in the polaroid then move to next scene.
7/10 is extremely generous for what is pretty much your typical bargain based Steam horror game.
@Shambo - any comparison of this to Project Zero is a massive insult to that series.
@cammers1995 Silent Hills was cancelled, it's a pity. I doubt more will be good like 1 - 4.
You guys have way too high expectations for indie horror. Silent hill was developed by a AAA studio with a AAA budget. Despite agreeing with the overused scares, this title is packed with atmosphere, decent pacing, and a number of influences from classic survival horror games. The switch version desperately requires resolution and texture optimizations and sitting at 45.99 Canadian, the devs/publisher are asking for far too much while providing too little, especially considering you can purchase RE7 for that price and RE8 when it’s on sale.
@XenoShaun I was afraid that would be the case. That's okay, I've been eyeing MOBW for my next horror game, I'll stick with that as it seems to offer much more than this one for not much more money.
I think we can just make a blanket statement that games of a higher graphical prowess that are also on other consoles are going to take a frame rate hit on switch.
Only partially true. Silent hill 1 and 2 were low budget entries that by chance exceeded sales expectations and they raised the budget for 3/4. Team silent was originally a studio by Konami that was put together by the "under performing" workers in the company that were "on their way out" if their next game failed.
Regardless, it doesn't matter. Indie studios despite being low budget should still try to be original. All these horror games ever since slender released have all been the same carbon copies of each other. Steam is infested with these games as well.
@cammers1995 I’m not an avid steam horror gamer so I don’t have much of an idea of how many times this Camera mechanic has been used in indie titles but I feel like this title did it well. Obviously they were influenced by Fatal Frame but I never found that franchise to be scary rather nerve racking and tense. I find the modern horror game industry to be pretty similar to the modern horror film industry. Studios have run out of ideas minus the one rare hidden gem and very rarely a big budget company releasing an original and effective title. It’s kind of sad honestly.
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