From the description alone White Night is either going to be wonderful or disappointing:
White Night is a third person adventure game that combines puzzle and survival horror elements while taking its inspiration from the cult game Alone in the Dark 1.
Lots of games have advertised themselves along those lines and lots of games utterly fail to live up to their own vision. “Survival horror” usually means “action horror” and “inspired by Alone in the Dark” usually means “third-person shotgun-fest”. But OSome Studio look like they might actually be able to follow through on their ambitions.
The art style they use suits the genre very well and the stark contrast creates an eerie environment that I suspect will prove very effective at conveying the sense of atmosphere they’re looking for, if nothing else by forcing them to rely on non-graphical cues to convey information, something a lot of studios do very badly.
The music too is effective; melding a slow tension with a urgent intensity, layering fear of the unknown with the fear of the moment.
Set in America during the early thirties White Night sees the player injured and trapped, exploring an old manor and unveiling its dark history – a true noir story. Gameplay revolves around solving puzzles using dark and light and the player’s very survival, never mind progress, depends on finding the precious few light sources scattered throughout the manor.
Melancholic, psychological and haunting, I truly hope White Night lives up to its promises. It’s been too long since a good survival horror came along. OSome Studio are looking at a 2014 release, so what this space…