Growing up in the late 90s and early 2000s, I had an obsession with the Goosebumps franchise. My favorite type of media format to experience it, was the television series. Cheesy acting, dialogue, and music made the show just so memorable for me. The one thing the series always did perfectly, was making the monsters or story actually scary. The show was my first experience with the horror genre and to this day, I can rewatch the episodes and still have my attention caught.
Cosmic Forces recently released Goosebumps: Dead of Night, with their goal of bringing a new generation of players into the world that author R.L. Stine created. The game is a bigger and newer console version of a game that came out on mobile in 2015 called Goosebumps: Night of Scares. It was released alongside the Goosebumps (2015) movie starring Jack Black who portrays both Stine and Slappy, who’s most known as the antagonist from the “Night of the Living Dummy” books. Black returns for the game to lend his voice to the characters once more.
Story
The story starts with Slappy trapping Stine in his own typewriter and unleashes the monsters from his books into the real world. You’ll play as Twist, a character who seemingly appears in Stine’s study without any explanation, after his entrapment. Next, Mr. Stine explains to Twist who he is and what needs to be done to get things back to normal. The goal is to collect the pages of the book to trap Slappy and the rest of the creatures lurking around. The characters are very entertaining, and the story is serviceable overall. It falls in the same vein as the two movies, where Slappy is the bad guy, we have to chase him down and stuff him back into the book. It’s not a bad thing and in fact, they add certain aspects that we don’t get from the films that I wish had made their way into them.
Gameplay
The game is played in a third-person point of view and sets itself up as survival horror. There are three locations that we get to rummage through on our way to apprehend Slappy. The locations include Stine’s House, Dr. Brewer’s Conservatory, and Tesla’s Tower. When you aren’t searching or solving puzzles, you’ll be hiding from enemies. As you won’t have a weapon for most of the game, hiding is usually the route to go.
When monsters start chasing you, the screen will start to rumble and won’t stop until the monster has given up on finding you. You can hide in closets, under beds, and many other places. It doesn’t take long after hiding, that the monster gives up and walks away.
Most monsters play the same, with only a handful of the ones that chase you differing in what brings them around. The clown, who’s name is Murder, seems to be the coolest one. If you’re in rooms with the lights off for too long, he’ll magically appear and chase you down. Many of them just patrol the halls and corridors looking or waiting for you, but he really sticks out and I wish there were more like him.
The gameplay doesn’t get too shaken up past that. The second location gives you the power to push boxes, which is just as fun as it sounds and the third level gives you a coil gun that shoots bolts of electricity. It’s an ok weapon but gets overheated really quickly and recharges slowly. I found myself getting killed so many times because it takes all of the gun’s power to kill one enemy. The gun gets overheated very easily, so if you miss it’s best to just run away and come back to the enemy or suffer the consequences.
Getting down to the controls, walking in the game feels a bit clunky and slow. Although you get to sprint, it’s only for a short bit as the meter it has is depleted almost instantaneously. Hiding is done by pressing the corresponding button when near a hiding spot and interacting with game items is the same button as well. You can’t jump, so the button scheme is simple, move, look, sprint, crouch, shoot, and interact.
I played it on PlayStation 4 and it allowed me to use the touchpad once, during a puzzle. It was nice to shake up the controls for a moment, and it was implemented in a smart way. There’s no inventory to worry about or keep track of here either. The mission objectives are located on the right side of the pause menu for quick access.
There are three locations to search around, all three were easy to maneuver, and the puzzles were enjoyable enough to keep me entertained. It’s simple, clean, and understandable from start to finish.
Visuals
The game does a good job with the character designs. They all had a look that fit neatly with the game and made me feel like they had done the franchise justice. The look and feel of the house and the conservatory felt perfect for the Goosebumps style as well. That being said, Tesla’s Tower just absolutely did not feel in any way connected to the series or even just the game. I know that the tower is depicted in the second film, but here it’s executed poorly. It’s plain and just doesn’t look like it belongs in the same game as the other locations, as beautiful pallets of color were traded for dull grays. I know that it’s supposed to feel industrial, but it felt more like I was in an underground military bunker. It just felt very empty and uninspired, sadly. They could’ve done more to get that spooky vibe that the other two locations nailed.
The graphics themselves are pretty antiquated, most rooms in the levels reuse the same assets. There isn’t much detail to some characters, locations, and items leaving them with a rough look. At a distance, they may look good, but once you’re face to face with them they just look bad. It didn’t bother me too much as the cartoony art style helped cover it up most of the time. I did appreciate the fact that in one area, in particular, they pulled images right out of a specific episode of the Goosebumps television show. It felt nostalgic to have something from the show brought together with the movies.
Audio
The cast did a great job in their line delivery for the characters, Jack Black especially. It was hammed up but didn’t feel too cheesy. The sounds used in the game were passable but I hardly paid them attention most of the time. Walking did sound a little off to me though. It was really loud and didn’t sound anything like actual footsteps. That’s really my only complaint in the sound design department.
Different things that happen will impact the music, causing it to change. If you’re being chased by a monster it’ll turn into a quicker, more intense track and switch back to the whimsically dark score once you’ve evaded them. There’s a puzzle where you’re supposed to brew up a concoction, and the music that plays along really nails that 90s sound. The music in the game was extremely well done. It all sounds like stuff you would’ve heard in the old show and to me, it was one of the more enjoyable aspects of the game.
Replayability
The game really only warrants one playthrough. Most achievements can be nabbed on the first go around. I beat the game in under three hours, and that includes going back into a couple of the levels and doing what was needed to get 100% for the trophies.
For an adult, this would be a one and done type of game, but I think a child who really loves Goosebumps, would play this game and enjoy it! I played many games as a kid that I’m sure older people wouldn’t find as appealing as I did, but that didn’t stop me from replaying and enjoying them many times.
There really aren’t a lot, if any, survival horror games made for kids. The game has scary enough moments without it being a scarring experience. There were actually times that I got spooked myself, and maybe I’m a wimp but it did its job nonetheless. It always gave me some sort of an adrenaline rush when I was being chased by a monster because I was frantically searching for a hiding spot.
What It Could Have Done Better
The first thing that comes to mind is the length of the game. It could’ve been twice the time, as there’s so much for them to play with from the Goosebumps library. The conservatory almost felt like a tease, because I wish that we got to explore other side stories that could’ve been woven into the game.
That leads me to the story, and honestly, there isn’t too much here. It’s barebones and doesn’t have much of a payoff at the end of the game. There could’ve been a lot more dialogue and characters to keep the story relevant to what was going on.
The graphics felt so outdated for a game that was released in 2020 and it shouldn’t have been overlooked. Just because a game doesn’t have good graphics, doesn’t mean it’s bad but it’s something that could’ve been refined to present a cleaner look. They weren’t horrible, it’s just the simplicity of what’s put together made me tilt my head in confusion.
The speed in which you walk could be tweaked a little bit, and the sprint meter needs to be longer. The same can be said for the coil gun too as the overheating aspect made it almost seem unfair at times. The ending boss battle was far too easy and feels anticlimactic for being the last hurrah. It kind of felt like it was just thrown together without thinking of different ideas.
Verdict
Dead of Night filled a Goosebumps void I’d been missing for a while. Although it was a short foray, it was a decent one. The game isn’t going to revolutionize the way we look at survival horror but it allows the younger generation to experience it. I didn’t want to go into this game with rose-colored glasses because, at the end of the day, it’s a game for children.
There are nostalgic callbacks to specific books and episodes that genuinely made me smile, and that’s the one thing I wanted to see for sure. This is a game for a fan who grew up with the franchise that now has children who get the opportunity to share the experience that is Goosebumps together.
A kid would most likely rate this game differently from myself, as they can overlook the missteps. Going from a technical standpoint this game did have some things to iron out. These are the bullet points that a parent should be aware of because the price of the game is going to be coming out of their wallets. The price point for the game is a far cry from what is logical for what is presented.
