“Welcome to a new dimension of horror. Welcome to Midnight Scenes.” – Octavi Navarro
Midnight Scenes – Overview
Midnight Scenes is a series of four short point-and-click horror games by Octavi Navarro. They can be enjoyed as a collection or as stand-alone experiences.
Midnight Scenes: The Highway
Midnight Scenes: The Highway follows Claire Barnes as she discovers what kind of horrors lurk on a deserted road late at night. It will take around 15 minutes to complete.
Developer: Octavi Navarro
Released: 15th July 2020
Price: £2.49
Platforms: Windows, Mac
Available on: Steam, itch.io
Engine: Unity
Midnight Scenes: Episode 2
The second episode of Midnight Scenes follows Doctor Richard P. Griffin as he embarks on the scariest journey of his life and will take around 30 minutes to play.
Developer: Octavi Navarro
Released: 8th September 2020
Price: £3.39
Platforms: Windows, Mac
Available on: Steam, itch.io
Engine: Unity
Mightnight Scenes: The Nanny
In Midnight Scenes: The Nanny players accompany two young children, Tina and Oliver as they venture into the woods to find their missing nanny. It will take around 40 minutes to complete.
Developer: Octavi Navarro
Released: 27th October 2021
Price: £3.39
Platforms: Windows
Available on: Steam, itch.io
Engine: Unity
Midnight Scenes: From the Woods
Midnight Scenes: From the Woods looks at the disturbing incidents that begin to occur after a new patient arrives at Fernwood Creek Mental Health Center. It will take between 60 and 90 minutes to complete.
Developer: Octavi Navarro
Released: 9th February 2023
Price: £4.29
Platforms: Windows
Available on: Steam, itch.io
Engine: Unity
Gameplay
Midnight Scenes are primarily point-and-click games, the interactivity consists of dialogue choices, exploration, and puzzles. These are mostly inventory-based or environmental in nature and manage to be very engaging despite the relative lack of challenge. There is a good mix of narrative and gameplay and the different player actions help provide an extra level of immersion in the gripping horror stories.
Narrative
Each of the Midnight Scenes games has its own separate story and can be enjoyed in its own right. However, they are linked in their supernatural horror themes, spooky content and 1980s setting. The games vary in length but whether one hour long or just fifteen minutes they all tell intriguing, creepy tales with satisfying conclusions. The horror ranges from psychological to supernatural to otherworldly with the occasional jump scare providing a nice amount of variety across the four titles. Some of the stories do get rather dark in places and the latter two games come with content warnings that should be observed before playing.
Styling
Midnight Scenes utilises pixel art with a moderate amount of detail and effects to make the visuals appear to be on an old CRT screen giving the game a 1980s aesthetic. The first two games are in black and white whereas the latter two introduces a mostly muted colour palette. Both styles are effective at conveying the spooky and gory elements of the narrative. The digital music also has a retro feel with the series’ main theme consisting of eerie twinkling and droning sounds. Other tracks match the tone and content of the various scenes and help create a sense of atmosphere and drama. There is some variety in styling across the different games but enough consistency to tie them together as a comprehensive collection.
Midnight Scenes Summary
Midnight Scenes can be enjoyed singularly but are best enjoyed as a collection, with each game getting progressively longer and darker. They offer stylised retro visuals and sound design that perfectly matches the well-written and thoroughly eerie stories and their settings. Each game also features fun and engaging gameplay with a good level of interactivity that is satisfying without distracting from the highlight of each game – its narrative. They are all short games that are about as casual as horror can be and are definitely worth their low prices. I highly recommend these titles to fans of horror and point-and-click games or to anyone that has enjoyed any of Octavi Navarro’s other games. I can’t wait to see if there will be more games in the series!
Midnight Scenes: The Highway – Playthrough
You can watch a full playthrough of Midnight Scenes: The Highway on the Indie Hive YouTube channel:
If you want to hear about more Octavi Navarro games you can read our review of The Librarian.
Additionally, the following playthroughs are available on our YouTube channel:
The Supper – The Librarian
