Night Book review

Night Book tells the story of Loralyn, a mom-to-be, who’s currently working remote night shifts at her job while her fiancé is away handling a development project on an island. Unfortunately, she needs to care for her mentally ill dad who’s apparently being haunted and warn his daughter of incoming danger. Who will she save? Her fiancé, baby, father, or herself?

Night Book is Wales Interactive’s latest entry in the interactive movie genre where players watch the game as a movie where they’ll be prompted to make the choice between 2 options as the “movie” progresses and guide the story towards one of the many endings. Each decision will impact the path taken; sometimes it might be noticeable right away, while other choices will have an impact at a later time.

Given the genre has limited gameplay, they do counter this by offering a lot of replay value. The game has a whopping 15 possible endings depending on the choices you made, so completionists or die-hard fans of the genre will have a field day trying to explore every path leading to every possible ending. Given the game’s length (the first run took me about 30 minutes; feels shorter than previous Wales projects), replay value is key.

The biggest problem obviously is the occasional inconsistency as a whole. While story-wise, things do remain consistent, but players can easily notice things in the background of it all. For example, I made the choice to lock my father into his room; Loralyn leaves the keys in the lock. But a few scenes later, she passes the door, but the keys aren’t there anymore. A few scenes later, she hears her dad and heads for his room, and the keys are back in the lock.

Not much to report on the presentation side. It’s an interactive movie. The claustrophobic apartment is a perfect tense setting for such a thriller; adds a bit of stress and what-ifs possibilities. Although when looking at the various security cams, the constant static, breaking up gets annoying after a while as it happens often and not necessarily when something creepy is going on. Surprisingly, the voice acting is pretty solid. One of the characters does sound a bit dry, but I believe this was part of her character.

Night Book is another great, tense entry in Wales Interactive’s portfolio of interactive thriller movies. The actors are believable, the apartment setting is perfect for the synopsis. While this one feels pretty short compared to other Wales projects, they make up for it with the various paths leading to 15 possible endings. If you’re looking for some quick spooky fun, Night Book is definitely worth it.