Despite the rich history of multiplayer games to look back on, developers are always coming up with new and exciting competitive ways to game. There are few things better than finding that next big multiplayer game that your friends will jump into, be it something with a bit of betrayal like Among Us or something more team based like Rocket League. For some people that next multiplayer hit will be Midnight Murder Club, but only if they can handle the tension it brings.
Midnight Murder Club has a simple concept, but a hell of an impactful one. In a pitch black mansion, players find themselves armed with a torch and a pistol. The aim is (usually) to kill as many other people as possible, but due to the lighting that’s not exactly easy. You could easily turn your torch on to try and find your opponents, but you’ll immediately reveal exactly where you are to anyone watching in a dark corner. It’ll only take one shot to end your life, so once someone knows where you are it’s usually too late to do anything about it. It’s a hell of a cool idea for a multiplayer game, although fighting in the dark takes some getting used to.
There are a few handy things you can use to get the advantage of the lighting. For example when bullets are fired they leave a streak of light for a moment, so you can get an idea of who fired them and where from. This means just shooting wildly isn’t a good idea, unless you want to get filled with lead rather quickly. Instead I found carefully using grates or other small gaps carefully placed around the map worked best for me, providing a safer spot to shine a torch and potentially spot a foe. You can also rely on audio to locate people, with proximity voice chat enabled to ensure sound is an important factor.
All you really need to succeed in Midnight Murder Club is the pistol and torch you’re provided with, but there are other items up for grabs too. Little slot machines around the map contain helpful additions to your arsenal, from life scanners to light grenades. These can be used with devastating effect once you work out the best way to do so, and although some are easier to use than others effectively (like the machine gun and bear trap), they’re all seriously helpful when it comes to murdering in the dark.
While at first I was content playing the usual death match options that Midnight Murder Club had to offer, I soon found myself eager to test out the other modes available. There’s a nice variety of different objectives based modes to choose from involving totems, but my absolute favourite is Wildcard mode. By choosing cards at the start of a round each player can change the game entirely, with ridiculous modifiers like making people set on fire if they stand still, or shrinking them to half their size. The tension is replaced somewhat with hilarity in this mode, which I appreciated.
Whichever mode you end up enjoying the most, it’s made better with friends than with random players. Thankfully this is easily done, because of the guest pass. Owners of the Guest Pass edition of the game can invite five friends to play the game alongside them without buying it for themselves, which is as many as you can have in a match. This is a seriously cool feature which means you don’t have to rely on the luck of the random lobby, as long as you have a squad of murderable friends at your disposal anyway.
There are so many cool things about Midnight Murder Club that make it a fun multiplayer experience, but one of the most impressive is the visuals. When you click that torch button the mansion becomes a really gorgeous place to look at between gunshots, but even the dust floating in the dark is impressive. The dust serves a function too, because it actually makes it possible to tell you’re moving even when it’s pitch black.
I really enjoyed my time with Midnight Murder Club, but in this early access form it does feel a little lacking. The one mansion map starts to get a bit old after a few hours, and it also sometimes feels a bit big for only six players. Perhaps when the game releases in full these map issues will no longer be present, but for now they do detract from the experience somewhat.
Midnight Murder Club is an inventive and entertaining multiplayer game, which will provide plenty of pitch black fun for the squad. If you can handle the tension and don’t mind a slight lack of variety in its early access form it’s a great time to jump on board the murder train, just make sure to eat your carrots first.
Midnight Murder Club is in early access on PC (Steam), and PlayStation 5 now.