Midnight Ghost Hunt is a cat-and-mouse game all about a team of four ghost hunters chasing down a team of four devious and spooky ghosts. However, once the clock strikes midnight, the ghost hunters become the prey with the ghosts now chasing them out of their haunted place of residence. This incredibly unique and downright fun horror-adjacent multiplayer game offers lots to enjoy, however, it's not all wonderful.
Many players have been flocking to Midnight Ghost Hunt because it's a relatively easy game to pick up and play but it does hide a lot of nuance and depth. This game is even a good one for people who like things that go "bump in the night," but without the outright horror that games from many similar, single-player-focused titles. Here are the things we love and dislike about Midnight Ghost Hunt.
7 Love: The Excellent Tutorials
Midnight Ghost Hunt features highly simple, yet entirely effective tutorials to get players up to speed with being a ghost hunter or a ghost. While the tutorials are optional, it's encouraged to go through them right away, especially before hopping into an online match. The best reason to go through the tutorials is that the game allows players to try out each and every weapon, ability, gadget, haunt, and perk in free play spaces.
Considering ghost hunters and ghosts start out with default equipment, with the rest needing to be purchased via in-game ghost shards, it's a nice accessibility thing to let players try before they buy, so to speak. For those that are on the fence about buying a new item, simply head to the tutorial areas to give them a spin first.
6 Dislike: The Early Access Issues
For better or for worse, Midnight Ghost Hunt is a PC-exclusive early access game. By nature, early access games are not in their full 1.0 release state, something that typically means bugs, performance problems, server issues, and gameplay imbalances. Fortunately, Midnight Ghost Hunt is quite polished, even with its early access moniker.
However, it's not all perfect as the matchmaking can be spotty, often kicking players out, or worse yet, making a game freeze during an intense ghost hunter versus ghost matchup. The developers are constantly updating the game so it's likely only a matter of time before most of these issues are squashed, but it's something players don't like as they get used to the game.
5 Love: Teamwork-Focused Gameplay
Midnight Ghost Hunt is a game that encourages teamwork around each and every corner, no matter the team you are on. While lone wolves can play and enjoy the game to some extent, it's much harder for a team to win without proper communication. Fortunately, for those that don't like to play with voice communication, the game has great ping and callout systems.
Budding ghost hunters and ghosts really seem to love how intricately woven teamwork is in a game like this. Much of this comes down to the various abilities, gadgets, and haunts working well alongside each other. For example, a ghost hunter can track a ghostly trail while another ghost hunter can track the ghost's location. In terms of the ghosts, they can possess an item while having a trap set up elsewhere by another ghost.
4 Dislike: Ghost Hunters Feel Overpowered
The majority of competitive online multiplayer games will have some imbalances, especially during the early days, weeks, and months, and especially so in an early access game. Currently, many players don't enjoy how overpowered the ghost hunters are. A lot of this comes down to the hunters' weapons and gadgets.
A Midnight Ghost Hunt match is split into two parts. The first half is pre-midnight and is where the ghost hunters try to catch all the ghosts. The second half (post-midnight) is where the ghosts are powered up and now chase down the hunters. In either scenario, the ghost hunters seem to have more power given their weapons, with one, in particular, the flamethrower, able to devastate an entire room of ghosts.
3 Love: Intricate And Beautifully Haunting Maps
Midnight Ghost Hunt features some truly beautiful and hauntingly macabre maps. From haunted mansions to asylums to graveyards, there is likely a map that will send shivers down your spine. For a small indie game created by a smaller indie team, it's incredibly impressive to see the level of detail and intricacy in the game's maps.
Each map feels lived in, and not only by those in the corporeal state. There is a certain derelict feel to each of the maps yet each one has a strong sense of coziness and warmth. It's a strange dichotomy that makes the game's locations feel distinct, spooky, and highly explorable. Of particular note is the lighting, specifically in the haunted mansion map. Candles, lanterns, and ghostly lights all make this location stand out from the pack.
2 Dislike: Feels A Bit Barebones
Despite Midnight Ghost Hunt feeling like a fun competitive hide-and-seek game, many players aren't happy with how barebones the title feels overall. A lot of this might come down to the fact that the game really only has one gameplay mode. This standard mode is a lot of fun, however, it's likely that players will want some other distractions down the line.
There also aren't really many rewards to work for or unlock along the way. Apart from some cosmetics for the ghost hunters and ghosts, as well as the unlockable weapons, abilities, gadgets, haunts, and perks, the game sort of falls flat when it comes to extra surprises. Hopefully, as the early access title progresses, more and more meaningful content will be added to remove the barebones feel.
1 Love: Playing As Ghosts And Ghost Hunters Feels Vastly Different
Hands down the best part of Midnight Ghost Hunt that players really seem to love is just how different both teams feel. The ghost hunters' role is essentially that of an investigator but with a dash of first-person shooting thrown in for good measure. On the other side of the spectrum is the ghosts, with their role mostly consisting of hiding, using stealth to move from object to object, and occasionally hitting a hunter to stun them.
However, after a few minutes pass and the midnight bell tolls, the roles completely reverse and the previous hunter now becomes the prey. no matter which side players are on, it's a sure thing that each match will play out completely differently, giving the game a fantastic sense of longevity, even with only one game mode.