White Night is an interesting game on many levels. Its black-and-white visuals and survival horror setting invoke a sense of horror but they also impede gameplay. The story is great even though it is rather stereotypical. The music is what creates the tension and transports you into this unique and harrowing world. White Night begins with a man crashing his car near a remote mansion after seeing a spirit. He rushes into the dwelling and begins uncovering the mystery behind the cursed home. The controller setup is similar to that of the Resident Evil reboot due to the fixed camera angles. The player must solve a multitude of puzzles and collect various items to progress further. Unfortunately, finicky controls and difficult exploration and interaction detract from the enjoyment and make playing this game cumbersome at times. Overall, White Night is a good experience that is let down by its story and mechanics.
White Night’s story unfolds on two fronts. The main mystery is conveyed through the actions of the player and the ghosts. However, all other pieces to the puzzle can be found by reading newspaper clippings and diary entries. The purpose of the game can be distilled down to uncovering why the mansion is haunted and helping the suffering spirit of a young woman. While this seems like an interesting topic, it falls into the same cliches that have plagued horror stories since their inception. One expects the title to give us something unique, but the story feels like a tale from one of those Lifetime horror movie. The newspaper clippings and diary entries are a great touch and elevate the experience even though the central theme fails to deliver. Many players will miss this because current trends favor games that require little reading and examining. Without this text, the game become difficult to comprehend. Hopefully individuals who purchase White Night will invest the time to browse through the countless writings because it adds to the experience.
The game’s black-and-white visuals are a sight to behold. White Night is visually distinctive and stands apart from other titles due to this. The music is also fantastic and enhances the mood. The player feels like they are part of this time period when they hear jazz in the background. The game is supposed to be similar to an old noir thriller and the lighting adds to this feeling. Film noir emphasizes shadows and harsh lighting to create a sense of depth and volume. Cinematographers working in the classical film noir era sought to do the same by trying to overcome the flatness that black-and-white film could have if there was not much contrast. White Night employs these same techniques by using only two colors to create the world.
The title’s visuals also create some problems with the gameplay. Objects are difficult to track down because they are hard to see. While this might be something the developers intended because the player explores an unfamiliar area, it leads to frustrating moments. Aimless wandering seems pointless and often leads to running into a vengeful spirit. That leads to certain death. Illuminated objects also behave oddly because even some well-lit chests need additional light to be opened. Tiny grievances like these add up and detract from the enjoyment. For example, towards the beginning of the game, the player searches for two logs to light a fireplace. The placement of these blocks of wood seems random and one stumbles upon them by accident through button mashing. The developers probably did not intend for this to happen. The logs are hard to see and searching for them in actuality would not be so difficult, even with some matches. At times it feels more like one of those point-and-click treasure hunt games. The player fumbles around in the dark, going up to paintings and tables, hoping to find an item of interest, but not really knowing what it is.
The player can only save the game if they find an armchair and rest. This is similar to Resident Evil’s typewriter system except you can perform the action any number of times. While this seems like a perfect balance for a survival horror game, it runs into some unexpected issues. There are not a lot of these chairs in the mansion and it is hard to find them. Saving often is necessary due to the fact that ghosts stalks the player throughout the game. There is no way to fight back and running away does not always work. It is rather annoying to walk all the way back just to save the game.
A title that implements save stations successfully is Alien: Isolation. Whenever there is an important section, there is a clearly visible area where you can preserve your progress. It never feels like an unnecessary task. There is a lot going on in White Night like the countless news clippings and diary entries, finding a chair instead of just focusing on the immediate experience takes the player out of the story.
Rooms inside the mansion are shrouded in darkness and the player needs to constantly light matches to survive. If one explores unlit areas, a terrifying thumping sound starts and forces the player to light a match. Matches are needed to navigate the multitude of rooms and avoid the vicious ghosts to some extent. Turning on light fixtures is the only way to properly repel nearby spirits. There are matchbooks scattered around the mansion but one only lasts a few seconds. This becomes an annoyance especially when searching for quest items or avoiding spirits. It is necessary to maintain difficulty and present players with a challenge, but surely there could be other ways than making them light a match every few seconds.
The spirits in White Night are both fascinating and frustrating. They appear as beings made of distorted energy. The way they move and deform is genuinely terrifying and conveys torment. However, if one spots the player, it chases after them. The game provides little leeway when it comes to eluding these specters and, more often than not, the encounter leads to death. On many occasions, the player end up walking straight into one due to the fixed camera angles. Maybe having the ability to repel them by lighting multiple matches at once would have been an interesting gameplay mechanic. That would have kept the tension going without these encounters becoming repetitive and tiresome. There would also be a cost associated with the action as matchbooks need to be found throughout the game.
The black-and-white visuals and survival horror elements make White Night a good game even though it is let down by its mechanics and story. The title should have been an elegant experience but ends up being a peculiar treasure hunt of sorts. It is an enjoyable title that will instill fear in players but many may find the save stations, fixed camera angles and ghost encounters frustrating. It is a shame that these flaws damage the game to this extent. White Night is a treat due to its visuals but lacks substance. The title should be experienced more like a work of art rather than for its story and gameplay. While the game represents good value because of its low price, individuals expecting excellent mechanics and an excellent story to accompany the stunning visuals will be disappointed.
Asher is a games journalist, former News Writer (Gaming) at Windows Central. They contributed 1110 articles to ICXM between 2015–2017, focused on opinion pieces, game reviews, Windows and PC, and Xbox news: wrote over 1,100 ICXM pieces on Xbox news, hardware reviews, and platform commentary before joining Future plc’s Windows Central in 2017.