The author of the game has asked me to add a disclaimer that this review was based on an older version of the game (one I downloaded and played in May 2010) than the version that is apparently now available. This is that disclaimer.

As an introductory note, this review will mark the beginning of a departure from my previous review methods on two levels.

1. I am raising my standards/lowering my numerical scores in order to better conform to the metric(s) used by the majority of this site's more respected reviewers. This is a service to all of the site's users who will no longer need to struggle to correlate a Max McGee 3 with a Solitayre 2, etc. Roughly, assume that by my old rubric, all of my subsequent reviews should be treated as one star higher, and by my new rubric, all of my previous reviews should be treated as one star lower.
2. I am breaking my long-standing policy of doing everything within my power to play a game to completion before reviewing it. The reason is simply that there are just too many games I need to play and review, and too little time to try to beat all of them, particularly if it becomes a chore or something I don't even want to attempt. For instance, the knowledge that I had to beat Outlaw City first before playing/reviewing other games has delayed this next edition of Max McGee's playlist by literally months. Correspondingly, reviews of games I've spent less time on will be less in-depth.

Of course, One Night did not trigger either of these decisions. These were each things I'd decided a month or more ago. But as this is the first game to which I'll be applying the new policies, it seemed worth noting.

As another introductory note, I decided to play the "Special Edition" of the game. I took this to mean that I would be playing a highly polished and bug-free master copy, but if that was the case mistakes like this really shouldn't have been happening.



As a final note, I could not help myself from comparing One Night with my own Backstage, and anyone who has played both games will surely see why...seeing as they both have the same essential flow and "battle" system, comprising a subgenre not seen anywhere else in amateur or professional games. In fact, my experience of One Night was that if it had not been influenced by Backstage, then it must have been a truly strange coincidence that caused such strikingly similar games to develop in isolation from one another, a spooky possibility I will gladly accept.

Story

If Backstage is like Silent Hill, than One Night is like Resident Evil. The former category involves a shattered reality where supernatural and psychological forces make anything possible. The latter is a rational, physical horror- a SURVIVAL horror- where the terrors that plague the protagonist can be both summoned and dispelled by the trappings of science and technology.



The story is the first of two areas in One Night where poor flow of information significantly damaged my enjoyment of the game. Ignore for a moment that the story is (probably) derivative, and is certainly poorly written and rife with spelling mistakes, grammar mistakes, and typos. What I want to talk about is the rate with which the story is parceled out to the player.

Because, you see, I learned more about the story of One Night from its GAME PAGE than I did from actually playing the game.

The implications of "meta-story" on a narrative are deep and broad and lasting ,and the topic probably deserves an article all of its own. In this case however, as this is a review, suffice to say that this worked against the game. Because I did not READ the game page until I had already given up on the game, in part because I had not been given enough hooks to become interested in the story or characters.

All the game tells you is that you wake up, not knowing where you are or how you got there. It's not clear whether you can remember WHO you are or not...perhaps you can remember and the game simply isn't telling you. Where you are appears to be a prison...or a research lab...or a military base...or perhaps all three! It is referred to as different things in different in-game documents. In-game documents which give little to no really compelling information on the setting. Some kind of science research project has gone horribly wrong. *yawn* I couldn't glean much of the particulars from what I played, except that prisoners were being used as test subjects for some kind of extradimensional something a la Half Life that resulted in lots of zombie/ghost/monster thingies appearing. While a few of the in-game documents began taking baby steps in the right direction in terms of mood or tone, they were overly preoccupied with providing information on how to progress, and it wasn't enough "flavor" to keep me interested.

Now, from the game page:

The Complex... At one point, it was obviously some sort of bustling, busy epicentre of human activity, the nerve center of all sorts of scientific endevours and the military stronghold of an entire armed force. This can be evidenced by the sheer complexity of the place...Buildings sprawling over each other, subterranian levels, airfields, hangars, vast underground laboratories...But then again, if it ever was those things, it surely isn't now. Something happened there long ago, and now The Complex is abandoned, crumbling, and eerily silent, it's inhabitants seemingly vanished into nothing in the blink of an eye. It seems like The Complex is just... no longer there. It's never been heard from since that day when... whatever went wrong went wrong, and nobody who has set out looking for it has ever returned. No maps seem to mark it's location anymore, and not even GPS surveilance can sight anything in the endless expanse of forest it once called it's home. Some have even gone so far as saying the place doesn't exist. There's some sort of secret behind that place... And what happened there. The Complex holds many such surprises, and a treasure trove of mysteries too. But it also holds a strangling atmosphere of terror, and a horrific fate which has changed it into a world of dread and danger. You have just opened your eyes from a long period of unconsciousness, finding yourself sprawled on the cracked stone floor of one of The Complex's many abandoned rooms. Remembering only your name, you must now set out into the darkness that has infested this place, and discover who you are, why you are there, and what terrible catastrophy turned the once bustling Complex into what you are about to experience.

Still pretty vague but at least there's something! 50% of the reason I gave up on the game early on was that I had no idea what was happening or why I should care. Creating a mystery is one thing, but you need the initial HOOK to capture the player's attention and make them want to find out what went horribly wrong here. This game is all enigma, without nearly enough tantalizing clues.

Another way of saying this is that the game's story failed because it failed to make me care about the main character or his situation, and without caring, there can be no fear. At least, not with simple 2D graphics.

Another way of saying this is that the game's writing was exactly as good as the writing in any Resident Evil game, without the OTHER things that make Resident Evil games great to support it.

Story Score: 4/10

Gameplay

One Night has almost exactly the same battle system as Backstage with one important difference. In Backstage when you repel an enemy with a defensive item, the enemy dies. In One Night the enemy is only briefly knocked back-- little to no help if you find yourself trapped. Initially I thought that in spite of the numerous enemies which Shinan made such a big deal of in his review, they are all so slow moving that, giving my own experience sprite-dodging while playing Backstage, I could easily avoid them all and laugh at this game's difficulty curve. Then I discovered that unlike in Backstage, defensive items don't kill enemies. Then I discovered that unlike in Backstage, you only have three health. And unlike in Backstage, there is no clear way to restore health. Then I got trapped in a blind corridor and died.

Then I quit the game.



Over reaction? Maybe. But I was given only one chance to save and it was over twenty minutes of long, boring messages and totally unengaging puzzles back (enormous design flaw!). So maybe not!

But enough about the battle system. It's not so great. So what! You see, like Backstage, One Night's battle system ISN'T REALLY A BATTLE SYSTEM AT ALL. It is a hastily cobbled together mechanism for making death possible and one of the classic Survival Horror tropes- resource management- necessary. Just because a game doesn't have a great battle system- or a battle system at all- doesn't mean it can't be a great game. If I thought that, I'd never have made Backstage. So what else does One Night have goin' on?

Well its puzzles...which aren't really puzzles. This again is a problem with the flow of information. Because, you see...the real purpose of ALL in-game documents in One Night is to convey information to the player in overly obvious and hamfisted ways about how to solve the next puzzle, no matter how much it breaks immersion.



Because documents are lying around for you spelling out how to do absolutely EVERYTHING in the game, there is no point where you ever need to think about anything. At one point right next to a combination lock, I found a journal that said the combination was "The number of the month of November added to the sum of 19 and 37 halved." The most thinking I ever had to do in my (admittedly short) time with One Night was trying to figure out that EXTREMELY FUCKING POORLY WORDED mathematical statement. The puzzles are Resident Evil puzzles- total non-puzzles that just involve inserting Key A in Lock A until you get Key B to insert in Lock B, rinse and repeat. The reason that Resident Evil and Devil May Cry can get away with having such mind-numbingly obvious "puzzles" is that it has a battle system.

One Night, as mentioned above, doesn't. It is almost as if Dark Gaia was afraid that if the puzzles were too hard, people would get frustrated and give up on the game, so he spelled absolutely everything out so it could be done without even a flicker of neural activity. This is a valid fear, but unfortunately he has overcompensated in the other direction.

Gameplay Score: 3/10

Atmosphere

I have really few complaints here! Dark Gaia has done a really good job using VX RTP (styled) tiles for a purpose they're really not designed for...building a (totally convincing) creepy, decaying, overgrown prison. (Okay, the indoor trees were a bit much.) Sound effects and music are used passably to create a spooky atmosphere...the music is for the most part well chosen if a bit cliched and overdone. The lighting effect (effect, SINGULAR) is nice enough but the fact that there was always the same one and the screen tone/brightness never changed or shifted made it a bit monotonous to look at...it could have been modulated to create anxiety in the player.

The main problem with the atmosphere is that the available monster graphics were not in the slightest bit scary. They were shown too much and too often (although not too soon) and did not inspire the slightest bit of fear in me. The same can't be said for the door opening on its own and the bottle falling off the shelf on its own, the little stylistic flourishes that were a really, really nice touch!

Atmosphere Score: 6/10

Bottom Line

The flow of story information in One Night is held back from the player and the flow of hints on how-to-proceed is piped straight down the player's throat. What results is a game that is easy to progress in (if not for the unforgiving "battle system" and annoyingly rare save game spots) but leaves the player with little MOTIVATION to progress. I quit playing after my first death because I hadn't been given enough to go on to have any interest in exploring the mysteries of either the Complex or my character.

Random moment of WTF:



Final Score: 4/10 (not an average)