Gamers Watch Takeover – Community Member Jordan, Reviews MADiSON

It’s always nice to have a takeover from time to time from a member of the Gamers Watch Crew, and this time it’s Jordan Moore’s turn, a highly thought of member from within the Gamers Watch Community.

Written by Jordan Moore,

I was very interested in this one from the moment I heard about it, especially since I’m an absolute sucker for a good survival horror game.

Looking at the screenshots and trailers on the Xbox Store, MADiSON looked fresh, and I was instantly intrigued and drawn to it, I simply couldn’t wait for launch day, and It’s safe to say the game did not disappoint.

As soon as you boot up Madison, you can feel the sense of dread, even at the main menu. Seriously impressive, especially since this game was created by a team of just two. A fact I only realised whilst playing the game.

MADiSON even has a surprise with an extra’s menu, where you can change your in-game camera skin (the camera plays a massive role in the game) and there’s quite a few options of red to blue and even gold, but I stuck with the basic black camera for the “authentic” experience.

Other options, accessibility wise are non-existent. The main one being volume, you can actually toggle the protagonists voice on/off depending on whether or not you want to hear him in-game. The subtitles will still show when he talks with this option turned off however, unless you also toggle off the subtitles and that’s it options wise with nothing else to fiddle around with.

Upon starting the game, you are placed in a dark room, with only the static from a nearby television set lighting up part of the room and what seemingly sounds like the protagonists farther, shouting at you from the other side of a locked door, already I felt uneasy, and I’ve only clicked “start game.”

As you progress through the game, you are quite literally terrorised down each and every hall, and new terrors await you in unexplored rooms, if you dare to enter.

Your main goal here is to explore your grandparents house and uncover the story about what happened to your family and the victims of what seems to be a demonic force.

The scares, tension and atmosphere all get progressively worse (or better depending on how you want to phrase it) as you progress on through MADiSON.

What I felt really shined through was the amazing sound design. You’ll be anxiously walking down a hallway within the house, anticipating something to jump out on you, when from behind (if you’re using headphones because the game supports 3D audio that is) you’ll hear an empty tin can rolling towards the back of your character. Even the way you hear a door that’s out of sight, slowly creak open, or viciously slam shut, is eerily scary and executed perfectly.

If you were to compare MADiSON to a game like Resident Evil, The Evil Within or even Alien Isolation, I’d definitely have to put it above those in the “scares” department, the developers have really set the scene here, with chilling audio effects.

The only gripes I had during my under 6 hours play-through (yup, there’s an achievement for that) is funnily enough, the game booting you to the main menu every single time you unlocked an achievement.

Now, for me, whilst it does break the immersion, it didn’t take me long to get settled back in and ready for scares soon after being booted back to the main menu. I’d have to excuse this, because overall, for a team of two developers, this game is mighty impressive on all other fronts.

Aside from that negative, I perhaps have another –

MADiSON the game is filled with plenty of puzzles, and in order to progress onto the next scares, it’s up to you to solve these carefully placed sections. However, I have to admit at certain points throughout the game, I found some of these solutions somewhat confusing. I felt the game didn’t explain what you had to do next clearly, or even give you something to go on, so I had to refer to a guide every now and then, in order to progress.

Overall, if you don’t like horrors or don’t have the stomach for them, I’d steer clear of MADiSON, it’ll keep you up for weeks! However, if you’re an avid horror fan like myself, and always on the hunt for the next best, biggest scares, MADiSON is a must play for fans of the genre.