Midnight Ghost Hunt is a very special type of multiplayer experience. Ostensibly it’s a game about, er, hunting ghosts at midnight. To be more specific, it’s a chaotic multiplayer hide ‘em up where the balance of power switches between two teams of four: the ghosts, and the hunters trying to bust ‘em.
It’s a fun multiplayer romp: the hunters wade into the map at a few minutes to midnight, clutching gadgets and a variety of ghost-blasting weapons. The ghosts will disguise themselves as a variety of things in the maps: bumper cars, toilets, beds, doors and even occasionally other hunters, mounting guerilla attacks against lone hunters that split off from the back and generally just trying to survive until midnight. Hunters will blast ghosts and then store their soul shards – bear with it – in a vacuum to take them out of the game.
If the clock hits midnight and there are still ghosts in play, the power dynamic shifts. Every “dead” ghost gets brought back to life and the whole squad of phantoms gets a dose of the ghost-roids, going on the offensive. Now, the hunters are the ones trying desperately to survive as they hide for long enough to beat a hasty retreat. These hunters don’t have the ability to disguise themselves as a toaster though, so if you get to that point it’s nearly impossible for the hunters to survive. They had their chance.
This newest update offers up a new map for players to charge around on: the carnival is full of wide open sight lines for hunters to keep track of the ghosts, but in exchange the ghosts get several level objects to possess and turn on their would-be predators: whether it’s a cannon, jack in the box or even just a bumper car, the carnival is full of things that could hurt a careless human. Hell, there was no one to blame but myself when I charged into a haunted house and got twatted with an axe by an animatronic knight.
That wasn’t even controlled by a ghost. I’m just bad at avoiding traps.
Ghosts are given a cool new ability too, getting the ability to put up a “deflector” shield, this gives you five seconds of immunity to all ranged attacks – but nothing melee. It can create some interesting opportunities for new gameplay loops, but it’s surprising how effective it is at flummoxing hunters.
This was my first real experience with Midnight Ghost Hunt, and I’m really impressed with it. It’s a horror game that’s low on the horror and big on hijinks, offering up a mix of Scooby-Doo-level peril and first-person shooter (FPS) mechanics. It’s a blast, and the asymmetrical multiplayer feels fresh as there are a host of different weapons and ghost abilities that can keep things interesting. If you’re looking for something to dig into with pals this Halloween, Midnight Ghost Hunt‘s new bag of tricks makes it a real treat that’s worth a shout.
Midnight Ghost Hunt is available on PC.
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