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Madison REVIEW



 MADISON

    Madison is a bear hug of barbed wire. The amount of tension that lays on your shoulders as you experience the journey of unveiling the story of Madison Hale's serial murders, never eases. Playing as teenage, sixteen-year old, Luca, you explore your grandparents' home using your newly gifted Polaroid camera. As the evidence begins to pile, you'll sink further into your chair, because there's no escaping this nightmare.

  It should be noted that this game is not for the faint of heart. Through my playthrough, I encountered multiple representations of mutilation, corpses, gore, and disturbing scenes. If you have a hearty stomach (and mind), then you should be okay. 




  If you were a fan of Visage, then this game is right up your alley. It mirrors a walkthrough playstyle that tells us a story, all the while, making us clench our teeth, hoping the next jump scare is not awaiting us right around the corner. I will admit, the navigation of progressing, left me hopeless a handful of times, and I had to look up a few hints to help me out, but beyond navigational issues, I found the playthrough quite enjoyable. A feature that presented itself well was being able to take as many photos as you wanted for the sake of documenting or enjoying photography. Granted, if you take too many, you will have to sift through your photos to find key items, unless you wrote them done elsewhere. It mimicked the use of a polaroid camera very well, and at times, its functionality added to the tension of a dark room when you don't have a flashlight.

  The duration of the game lasted me a little over 7 hours in total, but could vary depending on your guidance skills and either wanting to take the scene in, or wanting to get the hell out of there as fast as possible. Though, the game does have an achievement for beating the game in as little as 2 hours. The puzzles offered a challenge, but not too difficult for you to quit. I was less apprehensive to the actual objective, than I was to trying to figure out the next step to progress the story. 


  Overall, Madison was a rollercoaster of jump scares that never let up, beyond the timespan of 2 minutes, but I found the story engaging, and wanted to keep pursuing to figure out what actually happened to Madison and her victims. It wasn't until the last story arc, that I felt myself come out of the story a bit, since it got a little too cheesy for me, both narratively and through character design. It felt like I went from a spooky house that was inspired by P.T. and was now in a game directed by Poppy's Playtime. Although all 3 games are good in their own respect, I feel like they all have their own place to shine in the genre. The ending for me seemed like it was predictable, and I was personally hoping for something a little more shocking, but nonetheless, it was a decent closure to close out the game. Looking back, I felt like I had a genuine nightmare experience in Madison, that I rarely get from modern horror games, and for that, I give it, its roses. I would definitely recommend this game to my friends, and would encourage you to share it with your more "reactive" friends, for a great laugh at their demise.

MADISON

7.5/10








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