‘The Midnight Walk’ Hands-on Reveals Artfully Twisted Horrors, Coming to PSVR 2 & PC VR in May

The Midnight Walk is coming to PSVR 2 and PC VR headsets on May 8th, offering up a twisted adventure featuring a massive number of models built out of clay, scanned and rendered in the game’s environment.

MoonHood, the Sweden-based studio founded by developers behind Lost in Random (2021) and Ghost Giant (2019), sat down with GameSpot for a 30-minute preview The Midnight Walk’s non-VR mode. You can see the hands-on below:

In The Midnight Walk, you step into the shoes of ‘The Burnt One’, who has an unknown past. Coming out a tunnel, and offered a set of eyes to see better, you move into a world that interestingly mimics the sort of stop-motion animation you’d see in clay.

“Sound play a bit role in the gam […] the game is binaural, it has binaural sounds to it,” says MoonHood CEO Klaus Lyngeled, as he picks up a pair of ears in-game and places them on his head to hear better.

The studio says it has over 700 models, which were built in clay, papier-mâché, as well as physical books, and 3D scanned for both the game’s geometry and the characters within it.

In the hands-on, MoonHood shows off a eye-closing feature in the flatscreen version, which heightens your sense of hearing. This was originally ideated for PSVR 2, the studio reveals, owing to the headset’s onboard eye-tracking. To boot, closing your eyes in the PSVR 2 version will also be a key element in defeating some enemies, the studio says.

We also get a look at some light puzzling, using the game’s consumable matches to light candles and open up pathways, as well as narrative elements presented as found audio notes via the ‘shell-phone’.

As for combat, the studio reveals it’s not about shooting and killing things, but rather distracting and outsmarting enemies using the environment.

While described as a “cozy horror game” there so seem to be a few jumpscares waiting for you, although periodic safe areas are meant to let you cool down and take a break.

While we’re still waiting for VR gameplay, you’ll find The Midnight Walk over on the PlayStation Store for PSVR 2 and Steam for PC VR headsets, priced at $40 and releasing on May 8th.