The Night is Grey – A Dark and Disturbing Point-and-Click Adventure

“Melancholy were the sounds on a winter’s night.” –Virginia Woolf

Overview

The Night is Grey is a classic point-and-click game that follows Graham, who, while fleeing wolves finds a lost girl in the forest. Together they must find their way to safety and reunite her with her family, and he must fight against the dark elements of his past that keep trying to surface.

Narrative

The Night is Grey is set in the late 1970s and features a troubled protagonist, Graham. It does not shy away from the heavier, darker aspects of the narrative, with potentially triggering content present right from the start. There is adequate warning for this content on the game’s store page so this should not be a surprise to players.

The game begins with Graham fleeing some wolves, after which he stumbles across a house and finds Hannah, a young girl who is on her own and does not know where her mother has gone. He gains a bit of trust with her and agrees to help her get to the nearby village where she can be with her grandparents, and so, they embark on a journey through the forest.

The narrative is delivered largely through dialogue between the protagonist and a few NPCs, Graham’s soliloquies, as well as various documents that can be found and read. The player learns about the history of the area, its abandoned mine and business problems alongside tidbits of Graham’s unsettling past, and that of Hannah and her family. It is a well-rounded story, presented in a satisfying way, and does not overwhelm the player with the themes of abuse and violence whilst managing to convey that they are integral to the narrative and the characters’ development. Graham displays odd behaviour throughout the game and is clearly tormented by his dark past, he has frequent and intense headaches and loses sections of time.

The narrative takes an unexpected turn towards the end, with a dramatic shift of focus and a surprising twist that feels a bit unearned. While it is not an unsatisfying conclusion, and it does wrap the narrative up nicely, it feels sudden and may have benefitted from a more gradual build-up or more emphasis on the foreshadowing elements of the story.

Gameplay

The Night is Grey uses typical point-and-click gameplay, with almost entirely mouse-only controls and no controller support. The player controls Graham as he explores various scenes, interacts with, or inspects objects, and talks to Hannah and the few other NPCs. As expected from this genre, there are various puzzles that need to be solved in order to progress. While there are many examples of typical inventory-based puzzles, there are also a wide variety of puzzles that rely heavily on logic, observation, exploration, and even in some cases, existing knowledge (for example trying to replicate a substance with ‘Fe’ in its formula, requires the use of rusty nails).

Most of the puzzles are very satisfying, though they can be quite tricky at times. The game offers some assistance however as the player can view all clickable objects in a scene with the press of a button, and most puzzles have 3 levels of hints available to help solve them with no penalty. A couple of puzzles appear to have an element of trial and error, such as answering the wolves’ questions, this is a little frustrating, especially as failure instigates a ‘game over’ state causing the player to reload. Autosaves occur somewhat regularly, and after significant progress is made, but players can choose to save manually at any time.

Text appears on the screen quite slowly when an object is inspected, or a conversation occurs, it is also progressed by clicks and does not progress automatically. This is not problematic for the most part, but if a repeat click occurs by mistake there is no way to skip or speed up the text and the player is forced to wait and repeat the encounter.

Overall, the gameplay is a lot of fun and works in tandem with the narrative as well as the game’s aesthetics. It is clear in most instances how a particular solution is reached, especially with a little hindsight which ensures the challenges are gratifying and not too frustrating.

Styling

The Night is Grey boasts fantastic stylised visuals with cartoon-style characters in solid colours with no linework atop more detailed scenery depicted in a noticeably different, more painterly style creating an interesting contrast. The art utilises a muted, cool colour palette and uses very atmospheric lighting effects that really elevate each scene and help create a sense of drama. The animations are smooth and well-implemented, adding to the overall aesthetic in a positive way.

The game’s original soundtrack is a highlight of The Night is Grey and was written and performed by Bruno Brôa. The piano is dominant across the OST with some strings, guitar, and synth provided by other artists on a few tracks. The music is very emotive and ranges from relaxing background tracks with subtle suspense to more imposing songs that are undeniably foreboding. The music is used well to convey the emotions of the characters and more serious and darker aspects of the narrative, really immersing the player within each scene. Players are further immersed in the game world by the intricate and often subtle sound effects that give different scenes a sense of life and realism.

Summary

The Night is Grey has a lot to offer, from its unique stylised artwork, and the emotive and immersive soundtrack to the satisfying puzzles, and intriguing and progressively disturbing narrative. It will take around 8-11 hours to complete and is a brilliant example of a point-and-click game, and while not entirely without flaws, such as its somewhat abrupt ending, it is an engaging and enjoyable experience. It handles its heavier subject matter with tact and does not surprise or bombard the player with triggering content, giving the narrative a more subtly sinister feel as opposed to going for the shock factor in a tacky or hamfisted way. I had a great time playing The Night is Grey and I’d happily recommend it to fans of this type of game.

Enjoy point-and-clicks with a dark side? You may also like these reviews:
Birth – A Delightfully Gruesome Point-and-Click Puzzle Game – PRIM – Adventures in the Afterlife as the Daughter of Death – Midnight Scenes – 4 Short Horror Games by Octavi Navarro

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