R. L. Stine has, once again, been careless with his Goosebumps novels.

The chilling novels from R. L Stine have come out with another family-friendly game that has jump scares, puzzles, and adventure. Goosebumps: Dead of Night brings many of the famous characters from the R.L. Stine novels to life, in a survival horror game that can entertain the whole family. The last Goosebumps game released in 2015 as a point-and-click adventure with a little animation. Dead of Night is a nice change of pace, granting players the freedom to explore semi-open environments that provide challenges along the way. Goosebumps: Dead of Night provides a first-person, spooky survival adventure game for consoles and PC. Players have fun exploring three chapters of stealth and puzzle-solving. With a good selection of villains to pull from Goosebumps’ back-log, Dead of Night continuously finds ways to keep players entertained.

Viva La Revolution

Every enemy has different features, such as Gnomes turning off lights in the room, allowing Murder the Clown to chase players until they get to a room with the lights on. The zombie woman walks around upstairs while the wolfman takes the lower floor. Finding keys to unlock doors and book pages to find Slappy the doll who started this whole thing. The following levels after that are basically going from point A to point B while avoiding obstacles such as bees, venus fly traps, gummy bears, and electrified floors. Walking around seems very seamless, forcing the player to exercise caution while walking about the whole environment. l There are a plethora of puzzles to solve in Dead of Night, providing the player with several hours of fun. The story is centered around Slappy escaping from the pages of Goosebumps, bringing his favorite monsters along with him to keep the player busy while R. L. Stine is trapped inside of a typewriter. It’s up to the player to stop Slappy’s plan to unleash the Goosebumps monsters into the world. To accomplish the task of defeating Slappy, players will have to solve puzzles while avoiding R. L. Stine’s other creations. By traveling through different worlds to gain the upper hand over Slappy, players will encounter unique individuals that will aid them in their quest. One such individual is Nikola Tesla, who helps the player gather specific weapons that will allow them to stop along the way who helps you out to get certain weapons and stop Slappy from turning Nikola Tesla’s greatest invention into the machine of evil and releasing it into the world.  

When Things Go Bump in the Night

With only a 2-gigabyte installation size, Goosebumps: Dead of Night doesn’t waste time in allowing players to experience the frights and thrills. The title is family-friendly, as monsters are observable from a distance, providing the right amount of fear and tension along with time allotted to problem-solving. Most of the game’s difficulty is found at the start, as players might be overly cautious when exploring to avoid as many jumps scare as possible.  From then on, the game begins to hold the player’s hand, allowing them to navigate the monsters and easily complete missions. Once audiences understand the game’s mechanics, the jump scares become less effective and more enjoyable. Goosebumps: Dead of Night provides an excellent experience for family game night, regardless if one is playing or simply watching. The level of immersion provided by the game allows all present members to work together and overcome the frights that Slappy brings to life. Goosebumps: Dead of Night can also provide a complete experience for those who like to collect achievements or trophies. The majority of them require specific interactions with the various monsters of R.L. Stine’s catalog, encouraging players to experience everything the game has to offer.  

Follow the Yellow Brick Road

With the game exhibiting so much potential in the beginning, it is odd how the subsequent chapters force players through linear levels. While the linear sections introduce more interactivity amongst the game’s mechanics, having little freedom to explore eliminates the sense of agency the title was just beginning to introduce. Enemies are easier to spot and avoid in these sections, compared to the tension that the earlier chapters introduced with jump scares. Once the first portion of the game is completed, players can unfortunately turn on autopilot for the remainder of its run-time. After each chapter is done players are able to replay them in a chapter select, allowing those who would like to experience the frights once more to do so at their leisure.

Family Fun for Everyone

For those looking for a family-friendly experience, Goosebumps: Dead of Night provides a satisfactory time for everyone involved. Players will have a blast with the title, but find that it is extremely short. For many of those who play Dead of Night, it is possible to complete the game in an evening’s time. The game seems to be directed more towards children than adults, however, true Goosebumps fans will appreciate this title nonetheless. For more reviews, check out our previous article on  The Last of Us Part 2.   Reviewed on Xbox One