Playing alongside friends when gaming is probably one of the best experiences you can have with your best pals. I say ‘probably’ because there are moments when the idea of cooperating sometimes goes south. It’s like when my wife and I talk about going to an escape room, and we suddenly realize that one of us wouldn’t make it out alive. I jest, but I’m sure she would murder me and my Type A personality.
Anyway, my point is that it can be fun playing a game with friends that is mainly an online experience. This is the case with Midnight Murder Club, developed by Velan Studios, which proves that running around a large mansion with only a flashlight, trying to murder your best friends, can be an exhilarating experience, albeit a short-lived one.
So, make sure your C batteries are good in your flashlight, and let’s get going with this review of Midnight Murder Club.
Gameplay
While the option to play this game and try it out solo is there, the real reason why you want to purchase Midnight Murder Club is to play the game with friends or the public. Honestly, the way that this one-dimensional game is presented and the concept for which it is built isn’t bad at all. In fact, it’s loaded with well-thought-through gameplay modes that are just enough to keep the gaming going.
Before we get to modes in this game, let’s talk about gameplay style. Essentially, you’re walking around a dark mansion armed with a gun and a flashlight (and the option for melee). Your goal in every aspect of this game, at a base level, is to take out other people before they take you out. It’s a simple goal with simple mechanics.
The strategy of this game, as you move through the multi-level mansion, is to be quiet, be cautious, and be as much out of sight as you possibly can be. To be quiet, you must strategically figure out when to open creaky doors, when to run, and when to pull down on a vending machine level that will play loud music and light up a room. This is Alien Isolation-type gameplay, where the slightest noise could alert the enemy to your presence.
That core gameplay aspect alone is creepy, intense, and everything you want in a ‘hide-and-seek’ type of game. Sneaking up on enemies and catching them off guard is breathtaking when done right. It gets the adrenaline pumping hard.
The other obvious way to be detected in the mansion is through your flashlight. You have the option to turn it on, which casts a huge circle out into the open (hey, but you can see), or you can leave it off and be engulfed in pitch black darkness. You would think the latter would work best in this game, but it doesn’t. A player can see you from very far away with their flashlight, which means you can be spotted and shot before you have a decent time to react. I went into this game thinking this would be the way to go, but it got me killed more times than not. It’s difficult to hide from players, even in pitch black corners of a large mansion.
Now, having said that, even with the flashlight, you don’t get the ease of killing people in the open. Unless you’re one of those folks who Halo-jump everywhere, and the rest of us hate you for it, the only way to easily kill someone is to be precise with your shooting. And the game doesn’t make that easy.
Midnight Murder Club doesn’t have an aiming down sights (ADS) option for gameplay. Not having that and having to depend on tiny crosshairs was frustrating at best. The inaccuracy, especially for noobs like me, just made for a random K/D ratio time. While I do appreciate putting all gamers on the same level playing field with this lack of ADS option, I still would have preferred it. It is familiar, and it seems like a natural move that belongs in a first-person shooter experience. The loosey-goosey nature of the aiming makes it harder to get into the game and forces a hard stop with strategy.
Overall, the game does its best to keep all murderers at the same level of play. Having a big space to play within and having the same core mechanics helps to make the game as balanced as it can get. The inclusion of buffs in vending machines and cards to manipulate rules, depending on modes, does help and prop up some players in an even more balanced and, at times, advantageous gaming situation.
Sadly, you’re always going to have players who have dedicated their entire day(s) to getting good at aiming, which throws off the balance. There are always some try-hard out there that will have logged 60+ hours online with games like these, who have precisely figured out the perfect way to aim/shoot. That can get frustrating, although you must accept that it will be the case with every online experience (except Fall Guys – that is a balanced competitive game), but for the most part, the rest of us will go in learning the same way at the same time. That does bring some balance without erasing some of the well-intended fun.
On that note, let’s talk about gameplay modes.
Modes
The modes in Midnight Murder Club come in five main flavors – free for all, team deathmatch, Thief in the Night, Headhunters, and Wildcards. The additional co-op mode that has you and your friends going up against demons storming the mansion is called Graveyard Shift, for those who enjoy Zombie-type experiences.
The main modes are broken down as follows:
Free for All: This is everyone against everyone, and it’s pure chaos when it comes to cramped spaces with lots of openings. If you want to show off skills, then this is the mode to do so. I enjoyed this mode briefly, as my crossplay option brought in more seasoned and skilled players to the mix. I’m not sure I killed anyone the first time through, and there was no comfortable place to hide during this mode. When you have six people after each other, armed with guns and flashlights, there’s no strategy you can use. Do you hide in a corner and wait to see a flashlight? Maybe, but that ended badly for me. Do you run and gun? Maybe, but that ended badly for me. Do you just run away? Maybe…you get the drift.
At the end of the day, this is the wild west of modes, and if you fall behind in getting better with the game, then you’re toast.
Team Deathmatch: Armed with a team of killers, you go after the other team in a challenge to see who can rack up the most bodies in a short time. This is honestly what you would expect from a TD mode. There’s a bit more strategic thought with this one in comparison to the previous mode, and it’s always good to have support from your fellow teammate, who can revive you when you take a slug.
I probably played this mode the most, as it was straightforward and somewhat more balanced because you could get paired with a seasoned veteran of MMC. It’s a good mode overall.
Thief in the Night: This might have been my favorite mode of the bunch. Thief in the Night pairs six players and sends them out searching for treasures in hopes of collecting the most money by the end of the round. Players must find safes, unlock them, and then piece together some valuables and bank them. The catch is that other teams can take your team out, take the valuables, and bank them. It’s good chaos that has you communicating with your team, which I love about online games, and throwing in more strategy to the adventure as you try to out-money other teams.
Out of all the modes, this one felt like it was more precise in its intentions and execution. It was a mode that was simple to get into and allowed for some good strategy. For example, the teammate I had with me for one match would always go head-first into a room, get shot, then claw their way out to bring in the enemy so that I could eliminate them. It worked 3-5 times in a row before the other teams caught on.
Anyway, the tension this game mode brings and the constant chaos of winning, losing, and then winning again is just pure adrenaline-driven fun.
Headhunters: There is a demon in the house (a player), and everyone must hunt them down before they hunt you down. It’s a simple game, not the best by any means, and with the wrong balance of players, a demon could really ransack the other team, or vice-versa. Thankfully, the game does a great job of pairing the appropriate level of players together, so this is far more fun than not. Still, there is a thin line between this mode working and not working. During my experience with it, I think I frustrated my teammates more than anything else. Whomever was playing the demon during my matches really knew what they were doing and took us out quickly and repeatedly.
Wildcards: At first, I was slightly annoyed by people constantly picking this mode, but as I played it repeatedly, I began to understand this was by far the most complicated of the bunch, if not the most fun.
At the beginning of the match, players select cards that alter the rules of the game. This could be a restriction to the first floor only, maybe more guns in vending machines, a speed boost, or anything else that could make the game easier/harder for all players. As the game begins, players can find new buff cards to collect and add to their collection for use in other matches. The catch? Players who win can add more cards at the end of the match, while losers can only add one. Lots of good motivation to keep playing and winning.
The few times I played this mode, one of the cards I chose at the beginning was to shrink down my team so that it would be harder to hit us. Not only was that hilarious, but it was wildly useful and made the game more challenging for the enemy team, which I appreciated.
Overall, this mode has the most dimensions of play to it and brings a complicated construct into the mode mix. There was a reason that this was chosen 75% of the time I played this game. The players love it, and I’m right there with them. It’s unpredictable and probably the fairest of the bunch because you make your own strategy of attack, which means you must learn cards, buffs, and the best way to approach a fight that works for you.
Protecting those ears
The above modes can be played with friends or through public matches. The latter of the bunch features active mics from everyone, but with a small twist. As much fun as it would be to have my kids walk into my gaming room and hear a stranger drop some F-bombs, it’s not practical nor appropriate. Thankfully, the game features a way to mute your stranger teammates and a way to garble their voices. Yes, you read that right, garble.
I must admit, I didn’t expect this option, as I had never heard of such a thing before, but it’s cool. Basically, you can turn on this feature, and player voices simply turn into gibberish. The genius of this option is that you can never tell how harshly idiots talk to you as you’re playing the game. For example, when I first started the Thief in the Night mode, I didn’t understand the purpose all that well. I could see my teammate getting slowly irritated at my ignorance as I played, even going so far as killing me (you can do that with your team). Thankfully, as they got more heated at my performance, all I could hear was garbled gibberish coming to my headset. While I could still pick up the angry tone, the words were nothing but…well…nothing.
Why is this option important? Well, there’s nothing more demeaning than having veteran players yell at you about a game you’re just learning. It’s a good protective option that will probably save people a lot of emotional stress when they should be having fun with the game. I absolutely commend Velan Studios for including this in the game, as it’s worth its weight in gold for a lot of players who go into games to have fun. There’s nothing fun about having another human being demean you for not immediately understanding a game mode.
Anyone who opposes that opinion is just wrong. Thanks for playing.
On that positive note, let’s wrap up this review.
Conclusion
Midnight Murder Club from developer Velan Studios is a cool idea that will have hardcore online gamers frothing at the mouth to show their stuff. While the entry point for novice players might be difficult, and the lack of longevity beyond modes is a tough sell, what you get with the price point you pay is enticing.
