Developer: Maxim Moore
Publisher: Black Shell Media
Platforms: PC
Tested on: PC
Naninights – Review
When Five Nights At Freddy’s hit the gaming masses, no one could have predicted it to become a smashing hit. Naninights is a take on the same survival horror gameplay and plays similarly but with a different story. Get ready to play the game with your volume maxed and in complete darkness if you want to be dragged out of your house with a cardiac arrest or in broad daylight with the sound settings to a minimum if you are of the faint of heart.
Story
Imagine there are beings in the world that have super powers. Imagine they aren’t super heroes, yet. They are children with powers. They are baptised: The Gifted. But seeing as they are still kids, no one has taught them right from wrong yet. The worst place for a kid to grow up in is in the cold environment of a top secret lab and being tested upon. All of that, with a slight hitch… Someone left a door open and one of them got away. Naninight is out, wandering the hallways, hiding just in plain sight. So keep an eye out and make sure it doesn’t get to you. The A.L.I.F.A mask that lets your mind see where the horror lurks and the mirror and night light to keep it in check.
Graphics
What surprised me about it was the small amount of data needed for the game. It’s only 73 megabyte large. Yet with that low amount of data, the visuals are surprisingly detailed and sharp. There aren’t any motions and the visuals are all static screens so there isn’t really any way the game shouldn’t have the visual quality it currently has. What’s cumbersome is that the game can’t be full screened. This is jarring as you won’t fully be immersed when you are looking the game amidst the desktop icons, which is distracting.
Sound
The sound is what often makes horror games creepy and give them a distinct vibe. Whether or not it’s the complete lack of sound or a jumble of sounds to accompany something strange and unnatural. Naninights has chosen for the minimalistic approach. A slightly unsettling melody plays as you try to make it through the time periods. This sets the mood just right. What it somehow fails to do is what it’s supposed to do. A jump scare is most effective when a loud noise accompanies it. This is whenever you see a vision of Naninight that doesn’t kill you. Here you’ll have the sound of a cat landing on piano keys and this lets you know that you’ve narrowly avoided death. This will boost your adrenaline and make your heart race faster. When he does reach you, the game takes off its gloves and throws the jump scare straight at you and does a great job of it, scaring the living snot out of you.
Gameplay
Naninights is a point and click survival horror game. You have two meters, one is mind and the other is power. The mind meter lets you access various key points on the map and what’s going on there. The power meter is so you can lock the door and keep Naninight out. It’s a fairly simple concept and it’s not really difficult to figure things out. Knowing when Naninight is coming is key to survival. Apart from the camera’s to check whether or not which room it’s in, you also have a mirror at your disposal.
You see, Naninight won’t only come for you through the hatch. It can also come from the bedroom. If you want to keep it at bay, you’ll have to check the mirror from time to time, making sure it doesn’t sneak up on you. It will however and mainly in the last section of the game where the difficulty jumps. Naninight doesn’t really become active in the first two sections of the game and thus you aren’t really prepared for the onslaught of jump scares that will be thrown at you every single time.Whenever you’ve bridge a certain time span, usually two hours you’ll get some information and your Mind and Power meters are replenished. If you want to make it through the levels, just making it until that hour isn’t just going to cut it. You see, you have to be sane of mind enough to make it through. The first level you can pass when you’ve 10% mind left, the second 25% and for the third you’ll need a whopping 35%.
The first two are easy… The last one, is another story altogether. You use up mind switching from room to room, and you have to keep checking every room to make sure it doesn’t get to you. In the last phase Naninight throws everything it has at you. If you don’t make it however, the game mercifully gives you a ‘continue’ option, so you don’t have to start all over again, which is a saving grace.
Conclusion
When Five Nights at Freddy’s burst through the door, no one could have foreseen the success it was. Whenever there is success, there are those who wish to copy it. Naninights is such a copy. It takes the idea and staples on another story. This isn’t bad at all. It’s about half the price of Five Nights at Freddy’s, yet still delivers the full shock. If you’ve enjoyed Five Nights at Freddy’s, you’ll enjoy this.
If you didn’t enjoy it, then don’t bother buying this game. If you are new to this kind of game, or aren’t into jump scares then you better pass this one up, because… You’ll jump out of your seat. From the strange melody to the gargling sounds, Naninights emits a weird vibe. Up to the point where the little monstrosity waves its arms at you and makes that weird cry.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5iUGZtqR9g
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