It’s been almost two years since Visage was released to terrify the masses. It was an all-out assault on the senses that really was one of the most terrifying bits of media I had ever consumed, and now, MADiSON is here hoping to follow in its footsteps. In the time since SadSquare Studios’ outstanding release, I have played a number of horror titles trying to compete to fill that void left in the wake of the ill-fated P.T./Silent Hills cancellation, only to fall short for one reason or another.

The game wastes absolutely no time throwing you into your own psychological Hellscape right at the start. There is no “Everything is fine and normal” segment to wade through to get into the meat of the horror elements. It’s just you waking up in an escape room style setting to your father screaming like a madman while banging on the door. This is a mood that continues throughout the game’s five-hour runtime and rarely lets up – even looking back a few days after completing the game, I am haunted by the images that blurred the line between surrealism and reality flawlessly. You would struggle to explore the game and not find something not quite right at any given time, even if it’s in the small details: the walls are literally wallpapered with the same photo of a woman with her eyes whited out in a trance-like gaze, the discarded Polaroid photo papers that pepper the floor, and the objects that just seem out of place for no obvious reason.

If you choose to embark on this journey, you’ll be placed in the shoes of 16-year-old Luca, who woke up on his birthday expecting a party. He’s going to get just that, but instead of cake and ice cream, he’s getting torment and suffering. The one nice thing he has coming is his gift, a standard Polaroid camera, which is his Swiss Army Knife that is used as a key to open some of the more otherworldly doors, light the way in some of the darker areas, and discourage the small cast of creatures that stalk you. Luca is not only written in a way that he comes across as a scared teenager that never wavers in terms of his attitude, but he never comes across as whiney or overly angsty. I found him to be a relatable protagonist who was voiced so well that I had a hard time believing this was developed by a team of two.

Luca’s primary goal is to get the Hell out of… well… Hell, or his own personal version of it that is comprised of his home that is somehow connected to his grandfather’s house, as well as a few otherworldly locations here and there. Overlapping with this goal is the need to figure out how or why his family ties into a series of murders committed by a woman named Madison, who was obsessed with her camera. So much so, that asking for her camera was rumored to be her final words. The mystery is one that unravels nicely but does require some careful exploration and attention to detail to fully uncover by reading news clippings and notes, paying attention to your surroundings, and reviewing evidence. I would say that if this doesn’t interest you or you think that it’s something you’d struggle with, you probably will and might just want to stop reading at this point and play something else entirely. This is very much a slow burn of a game and if you miss anything, it could send you wandering the same small area for hours until it clicks. In the early areas, I personally struggled for about an hour trying to figure out a code for a lock that as it turns out, is actually the final puzzle of the game, while I was ignoring the clear path forward a few rooms over.

While the trailer will clearly give off P.T. vibes, this is more akin to the first-person segments from Silent Hill 4: The Room, which may or may not be one of your favorite titles in the series. I personally loved it, so this gently tickled my nostalgia. Even if that wasn’t your preference, there is some clear inspiration from other realms of horror, for better or worse. At its best, you’ll notice the static blaring through a radio as you creep up on a monster, as well as a lot of visuals that would feel right at home in the town of Silent Hill, the 4th or otherwise, that it would be easy to pretend this is the best release in the franchise post Team Silent leaving Konami. You’ll also notice the way Layers of Fear manages to manipulate the world around you seamlessly, but on a smaller scale to where it feels more of a tribute and less like a senseless rip-off. I hate to spoil anything and apologize in advance if it does, but there also appears to be a small nod to the outstanding film The Babadook , which if you’ve seen it, you probably get where this is going, despite the fact that this relies on other themes as well.

In circling back to the whole “worst” part from other games is the inclusion of a storage box from Resident Evil. Luca can carry a whopping eight items in total, and three of them can’t be stored, so you’ll likely have to make frequent trips back to one of the few storage boxes that are placed within the game at regular intervals. Outside of this, my complaints are very minimal, largely due to the save system which is strictly limited to the auto variety, and these points are occasionally in really weird spots. This resulted in some lost progress, as the early Xbox Series X release had a minor issue where it would boot you back to the main menu every time you unlocked an achievement. This was patched quickly but was something that the community was quick to point out in the user reviews on the Xbox Store.

Outside of one short maze around the midpoint that would tear in a weird cross pattern on my screen and my personal pet peeve, items that float in front of you as you use them, the game looks and sounds flawless. This is a title where I would say playing alone in the dark with headphones on is going to be the only correct way to play it, preferably alone solely for safety reasons. I was so immersed and on edge that on two separate occasions I fell out of my seat when someone in my home snuck up behind me, and I may or may not have had to throw out my shorts after the second instance. The horror elements are smart and rely on the “less is more” school of thought. This leans heavily on the psychological horror that hammers home the feeling that all is not well, something is in the dark and it clearly wants to eat you, and less on actual creatures or jump scares, which are here but used in randomly placed locations. This makes the actual threats you encounter even more disturbing.

I hate to gatekeep or provide too many prerequisites for something I love, but I feel like it needs to be said – this is not a game that will hold your hand outside of the early tutorial area. If you remember that lock I mentioned earlier that is the final puzzle, I went to Google during the early hours for guidance, only to learn that most of the somewhat complex puzzles in this title are randomized, so if walkthroughs are something you rely on, this probably isn’t for you. If you enjoyed Visage,  missing MADiSON would be a disservice to yourself. As a Freshman offering, BLOODIOUS GAMES has delivered what I am sure will be a cult classic that adds them to my short list of favorite horror developers with the ranks of the folks at SadSquare, Frictional Games, and Red Barrels.

9 out of 10

Pros

• From Top to Bottom, an Outstanding Presentation
• Plenty of Nods to Horror Greats
• Complex Puzzles

Cons

• Floating Items
• Storage Limitations
• Auto-Saves at Weird Points

MADiSON was developed and published by BLOODIOUS GAMES. It is available on PC, PS4, PS5, X1, and XSX. The game was not provided to us, but was played and reviewed on XSX. If you’d like to see more of MADiSON , check out the official site.

 

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