NIGHT BOOK GAME PC

Instead, you always start a new game and must make liberal use of a skip-scene button to rush through. Unfortunately, this slow opening half is a major impediment to replays, exacerbated by the lack of a timeline feature that might allow you to drop into the story along a specific branch. There’s an early jump scare that’s played as a joke and a major decision that places you on one of two distinct story paths that result in Loralyn encountering the ancient Kannar book (the common thread in every playthrough).

Unfortunately, the opening 30 minutes feel bland in comparison. This system works fine in the second half of Night Book when events pick up and the player is asked to make frequent decisions under pressure and watch the consequences play out sooner. Watching events play out is the real draw. Unfortunately, simple binary choices like this are as complex as gameplay gets. Despite all this functionality, the player’s interactions extend no further than a contextual binary prompt, which pops up at the bottom of the screen at key moments. Aside from the usual suspects – think email and messaging apps – she also has access to the Glossa Lingua app she uses for work and a security feed to every room in her house (including her webcam for the office).

NIGHT BOOK GAME PC

The player is limited to observing Loralyn’s PC screen, which uses the slick (and sadly fictional) BlackSky OS. The interface for Night Book is fantastic.

Your decisions over that hour directly or inadvertently determine her fate and the survival of secondary characters. This setup is perfect for an intense, roughly hour-long interactive movie, in which Loralyn finds herself asked to translate a passage from an ancient Kannar book and inadvertently summon spirits (not the friendly kind) into her home. You’d think decades of pop culture would have taught us not to read passages out of ancient books. Her unhinged father – who previously worked on the islands – is staying in the flat with her, mumbling to himself while hiding in his room. However, she’s also started learning an ancient language known as “Kannar”, from the fictional “Godshand Archipelago” in the North Pacific, where her fiancé is preparing to travel to conclude a deal to open a holiday resort. She uses a fictional app called Glossa Lingua to link video calls between clients, translating between French and English. Night Book puts you in the shoes of the heavily-pregnant Loralyn, a native French speaker working evening shifts as an interpreter from her flat in London.

Night book game