Dead of Night Reviews

"I VANT TO SUCK YOUR BLOOOOOD!!!"

fun retro game & you get to be a vampire. what's not to love?

My Video Review for Dead Of Night: https://youtu.be/4m1dIUyXai8

I wish there was the option for a neutral review. But this game has the potential to be better if it didn't leave the player in such confusion on where to go. Everything you see is such a vague clue and you don't even know where to begin. The police are the biggest annoyance because they bludgeon you to death very quickly and there's very little you can do about it, once they hit you, you're pretty much trapped in an endless smack down before being sent all the way back to the castle.

Absolutely adorable little game. Reminiscent to how games were in 80s and early 90s where you could lose yourself in a cute pixel world and didn't need endless tutorials or a manual the size of encyclopedia or a dedication to invest 40 hours. You discover mechanics as you play and it is actually fun and not a chore. You will die a bunch but it's ok, because next time you will make it further. From more recent titles I would compare it to The Count Lucanor, Minit or The Last Door.

40 minutes in and I have tos ay the worst part of the game is the title screen. The rest of it is pretty excelent and looks visually interesting. The thumbnail does not do it justice. This game definitly deserves more attetion than it's currently receiving.

So I came back to this game to give it a try again after the developer made some updates. And, well, I'm giving up again. First off, the game does not have a Save feature, meaning you cannot quit the game and continue later. Further, the game has bugs in it that make that point even worse. I got two different "FATAL ERROR" crashes during 45 minutes. One time was when observing the game's map (which is small) on a billboard, and another was while randomly walking around the town. Because of these crashes, I had to restart again from the beginning each time. When it comes to the actual gameplay, it's really just a bunch of random guessing. You're searching for some items and just have to run around hoping to find a way somewhere. I ran around the entire town (as far as I could tell) and found 2 items for an inventory (which only holds 3 at a time, meaning you have to drop things), encountered a cat as well as a homeless guy who seemed to be an old friend, and also ate a few people including two police officers. The game is really "empty" in what you are doing, and you don't quite have a good idea of how to do anything. I saw some places where I knew I needed a specific item to get in, but just about everywhere else I went to was either locked up or closed. For instance, [spoiler]a party at a building probably required beer, but the game kept telling me that I could only get into a bar in town when it was closed... and it never seemed to close.[/spoiler] Therefore, I made no progress between the majority of the small map being locked off and having the game crash a couple of times. Hence, I decided to pull the plug and stop trying.

[i]Dead of Night[/i] reminds me those weird adventure games that you would find on old computers (not something you see a lot these days). Gameplay can be vaguely described as exploration game with elements of surviving and stealth. You have to look for items hidden around the map and match them to correct puzzles. Although I think it relies a lot on nostalgia so it is a little clunky because of it. The game had some issues but most of them have been fixed. I finally decided to rewrite this review because the developer has been doing constant updates and supported the game despite poor sales. You play as a vampire who can roam at night but must hide during a day. There is a day/night system which you will need to pay attention to. If you get killed by any means other than Sun you simply respawn next to your castle where you can regain your strength. When you kill people you might get a key to the store and then have to figure out where the heck you have to go. The puzzles can be a little difficult but I think that is part of what made those games special. You can also turn into a human for a limited time which allows you to move undetected.There is some forced backtracking especially if you get killed by the sun. Pixel art is decent in regards to what this game is going for. Still, I think some of the areas are too generic and there should be more variety. The swamp area looks really dull for example and those immortal animals that attack you are so annoying. Also, some of the music choices are a little off (like the town theme). Each area needs its own soundtrack.Perhaps the best part of the game is the sense of humor. Just the idea of you being a vampire running in and out of your castle is fun. Some of the events and puzzle solutions were hilarious. [h1] Final Thoughts: 7/10 [/h1] After couple recent updates I can finally recommend the game with confidence. If you ever played those clunky adventures for old systems I think you will find this nostalgic. It is a very faithful retro game so I hope it will find more audience. [code]For more hidden gems: http://store.steampowered.com/curator/31294838-Hidden-Gem-Discovery/[/code]