Night Book | Xbox Review
Horror films centered around watching people summon demons through their webcams are quickly becoming a huge cinematic draw. They allow us to voyeuristically look into others’ lives while also getting a first-hand view of the terror they’re experiencing. Games haven’t delved into this trend…until now. Wales Interactive’s and Good Gate Media’s FMV title Night Book fully embraces this format and succeeds. This is the perfect tonic for anyone yearning for a fresh, spooky experience.
Don’t Read From the Book
Night Book sees a woman named Loralyn (Julie Dray) working as an interpreter. She’s heavily pregnant and caring for her father (Mark Wingett), who is considered to be unwell. He stays locked in his bedroom that is full of creepy drawings and pounds on the walls constantly. He warns her of a mysterious curse that is said to be tied to the island that her fiance Pearce (Akie Kotabe) is currently staying on for a business trip. She brushes this off, but after coming into contact with, and reading from, a foreboding book written in the island’s native language of Kannar. She starts to believe that his ramblings are indeed real and that they’ve conjured up something horrific.
The acting is fantastic and the story is excellently written. The visual design echoes that of films such as Unfriended and Host, only showing the characters through their webcams, phones, and security cameras. I personally adored this style and felt like I was living through this terrifying ordeal right alongside them. Seeing something creepy happening in the background before the character does is a chilling thrill. The developers should be commended for making this such a seamless and realistic experience.
Living Through a Nightmare
The game features fifteen different endings and over two hundred scenes to watch. I highly recommend playing through Night Book at least twice to see how the story connects through its different pathways. Each time I played I encountered new scares, more information, and ended up piecing together more of the overarching story. I was hungry to find out even more, and the replay value is high.
The gameplay itself is minimal, only allowing you to select from different options at certain story points. This might be disappointing for some players who are expecting more of a gameplay-oriented experience, but if you’re going in knowing this is more akin to an interactive film you’ll have a blast. The choices are never clear cut and I often questioned if I had made the right decision. This was refreshing and not knowing the outcome of each option kept me on my toes. 
My first playthrough only took me about an hour to complete, and subsequent sessions were even shorter. After completing the game for the first time, you’re given the option to press RB to skip past previously watched scenes. This is a nice touch that prevents becoming fatigued by watching the same sequences multiple times, but does significantly shorten your time each cycle. This was a pro for me, but will be a con for others.
The End Is Nigh
Night Book is a refreshing, original entry into the FMV genre and is a scarily fun treat. Multiple endings, great performances, realistic visual design, and choices that weren’t purely black and white had me enraptured and yearning to find out more through multiple playthroughs. It’s a genuinely unnerving game that comes with a content warning as soon as you boot it up, and I nearly dropped my controller multiple times due to being shocked by what I saw on the screen. Some of these scenes may be too disturbing for some players, and the short runtimes may also be a deterrent for others. If you can handle the material and don’t mind a brief experience, you’re going to encounter something special with this title.
This review is based on an Xbox copy of Night Book provided by Heaven Media for coverage purposes. It is also available on PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, iOS, and PC via Steam.
Night Book
$12.99
Pros
- Great Story
- Genuinely Scary
- High Replay Value
- Fantastic Acting
Cons
- May Be Too Intense for Some
- Very Short Playthroughs
