Between Me and The Night

Ever since I can remember, I've always been a night owl. As a kid, I would sneak out of my room to watch late night talk shows, and even now, as an adult, I still find it virtually impossible to go to bed early. In that regard, I had an easy time connecting with the nameless star of Between Me and The Night. Here is a guy who stays up late, has an active imagination and loves old school video games. Aside from the bright red hair and crippling mental issues, I see a lot of myself in this character.

Presented as a 2D side-scrolling graphic adventure game, Between Me and The Night tells the story of a kid dealing with the demons of childhood. He's rattled by things outside of his control, something that seems to manifest itself in scary creatures and ghoulish apparitions. The boy has been left alone in a large, three story house, where his memories and fears seem to have gotten the better of him.

Although it's not immediately clear, this game checks in with the boy at random moments in his life. We start out as a boy in the 1980s, but, after some puzzle solving, we're hurled forward into the 1990s and beyond. While each time period comes with its own locations and story beats, the core mechanics remain the same. We wander around the limited area picking up items that will be used to solve puzzles and keep the adventure moving.

The structure will be familiar to anybody who has played a point and click adventure game in the past. The boy will be able to interact with all kinds of objects and pick up important items for puzzles. Unlike most games in the genre, we have a very limited amount of space in the inventory. We can pick up a lot more items than we actually need, so part of the challenge is figuring out what is useful and what is not. You'll definitely need to grab that Metallica record to advance the story, but you probably don't need to raid the fridge for puzzle supplies.

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When not combining items to solve puzzles, our hero gets sucked into an arcade machine and is forced to fight as his alter ego -- a sword-wielding knight stuck on a snowy mountainside. It's here where the game ditches the puzzles and becomes a typical side-scrolling action game. There isn't much to these stages, just climbing stairs and mashing buttons to kill enemies.

Beyond the puzzle solving and hacking and slashing, we're also given a chance to play a couple different fake retro games. One of the first things we do is try our hand at a Wizards 'N Warriors style action game on a fake Nintendo Entertainment System, and then later we get to play a portable version on a fake Game Boy Color. While these games are far from fleshed out, they are a fun distraction to the gloomy story and setting.

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Despite connecting with this character, I found a lot of his adventure to feel a bit aimless. With the exception of a note on the fridge, we aren't given much direction. There are a lot of times when it wasn't especially clear where I was supposed to go or what I needed to do. This is made worse when you start digging through all of the useless items. There are plenty of items that looked important when I picked them up, but proved to not play any role in the story.

Visually, Between Me and The Night has a simple look that fits the mood perfectly. I enjoyed the monster designs and how many objects were crammed into each stage. That said, I got bored wandering through the same hallways hunting for items I might have missed. Typically, the fun of this style of adventure game is clicking on every object and reading a funny quip, but there isn't much of that here. The writing is very matter-of-fact and didn't do much to stick with me. There are a lot of times when the game is brimming with personality, while other times feel strangely cold and distant.

Even though it's easy to get stuck and aimlessly wander the halls, the adventure is short and comes with some late-game thrills. I was especially fond of the way it wrapped up, and it made me rush to the internet and see how other people interpreted it. Between Me and The Night is a compelling journey that loses its way from time to time, but fans of the genre should be able to overlook some of the problems and discover an emotionally satisfying adventure.