Game Review: Madison (2022)

I went ahead and got myself a handful of horror games in the Halloween sales but, since I was busy with Oblivion and then Tainted Grail, I put off playing most of them. I was just getting ready to make a start – but then Xbox had another big sale!

Whoops. Lol.

(By Bloodious Games – https://madisongame.com, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=71754452)

My favourite type of game is first-person horror and, though it wasn’t what I’d been expecting, Madison still delivers on that front. Especially the horror! Madison is relentless with jump-scares and believe me when I tell you it got me every. Freaking. Time.

Jay had a riot watching me play this one, by the way. Lol. He spent eight hours giggling while I spent it trying not to have a heart attack! (Like, seriously, every time.)

In addition to being chock full of frights, Madison included many challenging puzzles reminiscent of an old Resident Evil game. They often had little twists that threw me, though. I’d see a clock face with a missing dial and think, ‘I know what I have to do here!’ which usually gave me a place to start. The puzzles were never as straightforward as I expected them to be, though.

Nothing about Madison was straightforward. It kept the game interesting, for sure. Unfortunately, it sometimes made the game a little too tricky for a lazy gamer like me. Starting a new game, I was asked to choose between normal or hard gameplay, but I really think it would have benefited from an easy mode, too, with a bit more direction.

That was the thing that kept tripping me up while I was playing Madison, not getting enough direction. There were so many times I had to wander all the way back through the house, checking every room until I found what triggered the next step because there wasn’t enough information to go on. It was so frustrating to have to waste so much time looking for what should have been obvious.

All you have to do to progress is go into that room and open that door? Cool, cool. Freaking give me a reason to go into that room and I’ll figure the rest out. You don’t have to have a big, flashing sign or anything, just give me some kind of nudge. The total lack of direction really let this one down.

The controls were also an issue for me. They didn’t feel natural and, unfortunately, the game didn’t offer a way to change them. It wouldn’t have been as much of an issue if the interactions weren’t so damned finnicky. You have to be very precise, which you can’t exactly do in a hurry sometimes.

Did I enjoy playing Madison? Yeah, I did. It’s a good 1^st person horror with clever puzzles. Would I recommend it? Yeah, definitely. It’s worth a playthrough for the jumps, if nothing else. Would I play it again? Nah. I’m not a trophy hunter and I don’t think subsequent playthroughs would offer anything new.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4/5 stars)