Suffer The Night

Review

The year 1989 was quite an extraordinary year. The main event that changed the world was the so-called “Revolutions of 1989”, which saw the end of communism in the Eastern Bloc of Europe. But for Stacey Linden, a peaceful citizen of Sleepy Woods, life went by as if nothing had happened at all. Until one night when a violent storm developed. A lightning bolt struck a power pole, cutting off her electricity, including her telephone connection. Despite the reassurance of having a generator, the next event was alarming in an altogether different way. A freaky character named Mister Tops slid something under her front door . . . a floppy disk containing a game, with instructions that she had to play the game right through until the end, or Mr Tops would harass her all night long and find a way inside her house! What would you do if you were confronted with the same predicament that Stacey Linden was facing? What was the name of the game? Suffer the night!

Suffer the Night is a first-person puzzle game with horror elements developed by Tainted Pact and published by Assemble Entertainment on the 18^th of April, 2023, on the Steam Platform.

I found the start of the game quite slow.  Even though there were a few startling moments while moving around the Stacey house, I thought to myself, “This game feels more like a visual novel than anything else”.  Most of the action takes place in front of Stacey’s computer, reading and playing the story on Mr. Tops’ floppy disk, with options to search the room, choose your direction and use objects found in the room. But frequent breaks where the first-person aspect took over, and you had to look around the house for objects elevated my experience. It really came to life when Stacey was taken away from her place and entered the strange environment of Mister Tops’ game.

It took me around six hours to finish my first playthrough, and as I hadn’t collected all the tarot cards, I witnessed the game’s bad ending. I believe there is a good ending if you collect all the taro cards. I don’t think the game is scary, but the level designs, puzzles, and some of the bosses you have to kill are pretty good. Yes, Mister Tops intrudes here and there, but the reading component is fairly minor after leaving Stacey’s house, which I personally like.

As you progress through the game, you’ll find different weapons, some of which will be more powerful than others. However, your ammunition will be on the low side all the way through the game. Fortunately, you will be given a scanner at the start of the game, which will show you where the tarot cards, switches and hidden doors are.

To me, this is the downside of the game.  By using the scanner, you get a wide shot so you can see the whole room, but as the scanner shows everything in black and white, you miss the pleasure of seeing the graphics. On the other hand, you can use a lighter or torch to see colour and enjoy more graphics, but the vision is very narrow.  It didn’t make sense to me.  Towards the end, you have to use the scanner and the flashlight to push back invisible enemies.

Most levels of Suffer The Night contain obstacles, which are not that hard to avoid, but I didn’t manage to collect one Tarot card where the hammers came down every five seconds or so. One of the taro cards is located at the epicentre of one of the hammer hits! You have to stop, zoom in, and wait X number of seconds before the card is scanned. There must have been a switch or door that would have allowed me to disable the hammer, but if there was, I missed it, despite some serious searching. Good luck to you with that one!

There are bosses to fight, including Mr Tops.  The fights are fun and well done, but the bosses are too easy to beat.

Although the start of the game inside Stacey’s house required a lot of reading and felt a bit boring, the transition between being in the house and actually being inside the game that Stacey was playing brought the game to life.

I am still sitting on the fence with this game; it’s not bad, but it’s not great. The graphics are ok, as are the voice-overs and sound effects. The story is interesting, with two endings, and is worth playing. In terms of gameplay, I didn’t encounter any issues whatsoever, which is always a positive.

Review written by THE CPT FROGGY for Zeepond.com

Suffer The Night Steam Store Page