Developer: Liquid Static Studio, Snapping Turtle
Publisher: New Tales
Platforms: PC
Release Date: Out Now
Key Provided: Yes
Many years ago, I wrote a short story called Fear Of Flying. In it, I recounted my terror during a flight to Spain, living vicariously through the many movies and TV programmes in which I'd witnessed terrifying plane crashes. The next time I board a flight, I may experience this again, via the traumatic opening to this horror game from Liquid Static Studio and Snapping Turtle.
It's a fantastic scene, following that mundane experience of an airport flight lounge. It also borrows heavily from that famous episode of The Twilight Zone where William Shatner spots something devilish on the wing of his plane. Bother. Took me years to get over that one.
In Night Plane, you're an unnamed flight attendant, working for Plane Airlines, ensuring passengers are boarded safely, and then looked after once the aircraft's in the air and on its way to Wellington, New Zealand. Taking place in 1999, the game inevitably uses the PSX-style display, accurately replicating the look and feel of a real aircraft, and even poking fun at how much laxer airport security was before 9/11.
After a short while, the flight goes wrong. Very wrong. The demon appears. The captain is seemingly possessed. The plane crashes. And this is just the start of the weird shit. From the TV show Lost to movies such as Passengers (2008) and Stephen King adaptation, The Langoliers (1995), media has often explored the possibility of alternate dimensions after an air disaster. Night Plane does the same, placing the player's newbie flight attendant in the middle of a battle between two mysterious creatures: the angular gremlin on the wing and Sam, the apparent benefactor in this weird afterlife/alternate dimension. Using the aircraft and its passengers, Sam tries to correct events. But things are never quite as they appear, as matters get stranger, and the player ventures into a haunted forest that bleeds into the airport lounge.
After its stunning start, Night Plane settles into a slow, story-based adventure, mixing the anomaly-spotting boarding procedure with job sim horror once in flight. Throughout the game, the player is accompanied by fellow employee Tofa as they perform the required tasks and deliver souls to the demanding Sam. There's no combat, but the voice acting is excellent, with the jovial antipodean tone at odds with the dark horror unfolding outside the aircraft. Second-guessing the plot is not difficult, and while there's never a creepy environment too far away, there's little threat to your sanity save some quickly-predictable jump scares.
Unfortunately, after that exciting start, Night Plane chugs a little too sluggishly, putting the player through slow, boring and inconsequential anomaly-spotting, before repeating the process on board, albeit with some tense moments. The story and weirdness just about keep it all stitched together, and there's clearly a lot of love sunk into the game by its devs—it just doesn't quite form into the uniquely spine-tingling experience hinted at in the game's introduction.
Pros: Great intro, solid story and mystery, good VO acting.
Cons: Repetitive and dull in places, and the anomaly spotting is too subtle and vague.
CONCLUSION
A decent story-led horror for Halloween that doesn't quite reach the heights promised in its dramatic introduction.
