The Prisoner of the Night Review

There aren’t many games that take their inspiration from the written page. There is of course the Metro series which was based on a novel. Then there are The Witcher and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series, but after that, it falls a bit short, although you could argue that the Bioshock worldview was based on the writings of Ann Rand’s quite right-wing ideals. 

But The Prisoner of the Night is another; based on the short story A Prisioneira da Noite by Lima Arrais. It’s nice to see a game based on a literary world, but let’s see how it plays out. 

In The Prisoner of the Night you play a young girl called Nartide. She lives happily with her family in a huge house, yet one night she ignores her mother’s advice and sleeps without her trusted blanket; it’s this which offers her protection. That evening the cold wind of the night – Cruviana – creeps into her bedroom and takes Nartide as her Prisoner of the Night. She then must do some platforming and survive horrors to try to find her way home…

The game has a lively set up and I liked the main character and the story. Based on the short story and Brazilian folklore there is something intriguing in the narrative. It creates a world of mystery and a fairytale setting that I enjoyed. But ultimately, it’s the platforming where the game’s heart and soul sit. 

Before we start, it must be mentioned that the menus at the beginning of the game are the slowest and clunkiest menus I’ve ever seen. I don’t know whether this was an artistic choice but it is a strange one. And from there, you’ll find some 159 platforming levels to complete in this game and even though they are short stages, it’s a lot, maybe a bit too much. 

Drop in though and the controls work like any normal platforming game and there aren’t any surprises in what you might have played before. You jump, climb and push things around to get to your goal. And so the creativity is found in the level design and what you action in each of the levels is good fun. The controls are not the best at times though and it takes a while to get used to the floaty jump system and accuracy found in The Prisoner of the Night. It’s not up there with the biggest platformers on the Xbox and so you’ll be best remembering that this is an indie game because you will die a lot and it becomes very challenging at times. 

Visually, The Prisoner of the Night has a lovely art style; one that mixes surrealism and an almost hand-crafted feel to the animations. Everything feels purposely out of proportion and it reminds of those weirdly creative games that appeared back in the day on the original Xbox and early PlayStations.

The sound design works well throughout though, keeping the strange atmosphere intact. It has some lovely guitar and string sounds that almost lure you into a trance. That is helped along by a very calming voiceover in Portuguese; it feels as if someone is telling you a night time story. 

I very much admire The Prisoner of the Night. It’s a small indie game that explores a culture and story that I never would have been aware of in normal day-to-day life. The creativity on display, in terms of the design and look of the world, as well as the music with a calming voice-over should be commended. But unfortunately, the platforming elements of the game (which are a big bulk) are fairly average and – at times – uninspiring. This is an extremely challenging game as well, taking place over a huge number of levels, so expect to be found dying a lot. 

But if you fancy taking on the cold wind, attempting to survive, then Prisoner of the Night could be for you.