Game Review: MADiSON (2022)

Madison has been on my radar for some time, as it’s frequently compared to the possibly-peerless Visage, and through some methodology that you probably shouldn’t scrutinize too closely, has been deemed the scariest game of all time by an organization that studies the fear factor of media. Knowing how buggy horror games can be, I decided to let the title cook and patch for a few years before picking it up. I’m pleased to say that paid off: Madison was impressively optimized when I finally picked it up in mid 2024, and in my time with it I encountered neither a crash nor bug.

But first, I should probably give you a quick overview of the story, which is pretty simple while also being creatively elegant as the layers peel back. The player takes on the role of Luca, a sixteen-year-old boy who starts out fleeing his father and escaping between the walls to reach the attached home of his deceased grandparents. Not exactly subtle: the story kind of drops you right into a nightmare as Luca wanders the derelict home looking for a way out.

This would all be pretty straightforward if Luca’s grandparents were normal people, but no, his grandmother was Madison Hale, infamous serial killer who butchered dozens of strangers and threw their bodies into an old well in her basement. His grandfather, Maxwell, while a picture of normalcy by comparison, spent his life as an eccentric clockmaker. That’s right: you escaped your father to hide out in the sealed-off home of a murderer and her husband horologist. Old dad better have literally been Shit Demon-Vampire Hitler, or I’d say we’ve gone over the edge of the frying pan right from the top.

Madison Hale was caught in 1987, but the camera she used to photograph her victims has passed to you, her grandson, and her ultimate legacy within the family is far from settled. As he wanders the house, Luca learns that his grandmother may have been under the influence of a demonic entity in her last days, and that it may still be around.

…that’s all intentionally vague, as the story presented is an excellent one in my evaluation, and many of the mysteries and developments need to be experienced to be appreciated. While some people may not love the piecemeal and ultimately fractured narrative, I thought it was an excellent example of non-linear storytelling in video games.

So going in, I strapped on my headphones and got to it, stepping into the shoes of Luca and fleeing into the old house, escaping my father and running headlong into the arms of something much, much worse. 

Unfortunately, my initial impression of the game was a poor one. With no explanation of core mechanics, the initial tension abated as I flailed at inscrutable puzzles, including a combination lock that you encounter early on but can’t actually open until the end of the game (only searching the internet will tell you this). It felt like every door was locked, and no real hints were forthcoming about how to unlock them. Eventually a story event occurs and inexplicably unlocks a desk drawer that contained the critical path key a few rooms back, but why this happened and how to make sense of it is beyond me.

Regrettably, this was only a taste of the obtuseness of Madison’s puzzles that are the game’s biggest weakness. But let’s not talk about that just now, there’s a lot of positives to cover first.

The Devil and Madison Hale

Bewildering puzzles aside, the vibe of Madison caught me right away. From the outset, I felt like I was being lured into something very dark, something that was doing a great job of staying out of sight and watching me unknowingly tight-rope into the middle of its web. The game has constant haunted house auditory ambiance–squeaking hinges, distant knocks, was-that-a-footstep bumps, and while this is effective early on, I quickly grew accustomed to the almost constant barrage of sounds intended to scare me and filtered them out, at least until something very direct spiked my adrenaline, and then every distant creek set me on edge. These sounds intensify as the story progresses, signaling that Luca is either descending deeper into either madness or demonic possession–a dilemma the game presents to you early on and leaves you to figure out which path you’re walking.

As a player, you use the old polaroid camera to see things as they were, and trigger events that shed light on both the past and Luca’s present. Snapping a shot of the basement door at the appropriate instance shows it covered in police tape, and allows Luca to walk into the reality that was the day after his grandmother was killed by law enforcement. Here and later in the story we will see present-day locations blend pretty seamlessly with the nightmare world of Madison Hale’s story, as stairways give way to cyclopean tunnels of impossible construction which lead us back to another time and place when a critical piece of the narrative fell into place. Surrealist elements can be hard to do in horror, but Madison tells its story masterfully, and while you’re rarely in real danger during the game, the blend of unreliable presentation and the horror of wrangling with something you can’t realistically hope to combat creates a unparalleled oppressive atmosphere that will likely cause even the most stoic of horror gamers to take the occasional break.

“I’m sick of your sh*t, Madison!”

Jumpscares are something this game does exceptionally well, regularly using both misdirection and steadily-crafted dread to lead into them, but not using the somewhat maligned technique too often as to become annoying (such a comparable title, Layers of Fear, is notorious for). The atmosphere is wickedly oppressive, but in the way you can talk yourself through if you keep reminding yourself it’s a game with mechanics and it needs you to be scared to be effective. When it is go-time, Madison moves very elegantly from stretches of building dread to chapter crescendos, frying nerves and creating a relentless feeling of suffocation. When you do finally see that progress-saving icon pop up, there’s a real feeling of triumph, a milestone marking that you’re one step closer to completing this truly terror-laden journey.

To its great credit, this is the only game I’ve played that regularly created moments where I didn’t want to turn around. Having revealed some new horrific clue about the story and knowing that the spirits were due to react induced some very tangible dread. At one point I did start yelling ‘I’m sick of your shit, Madison!’ as I charged down a darkened hallway, firing off my camera in an attempt to see what was ahead of me.

If there’s a shortcoming in the horror elements, it’s that Madison relies too much on visual cues to be scary. More audio interactivity would have gone a long way as few things scare me as much as hearing the character’s name whispered in the basement

Riddles in the Dark

I hate to do it, but I have to significantly downgrade this title for the simple fact that I had to use a guide almost constantly to solve puzzles in the latter half of the game. Between creating an intensely oppressive atmosphere and decidedly obtuse puzzle design, it was too hard to make progress trying to figure out everything independently.

I feel I have above-average patience for trying to piece out what a game wants me to do, and lean in to searching for hints in the environment. Even when I thought I had the puzzle figured out, I was often slightly wrong about a small element despite a reasonable level of competency and a willingness to engage. Perhaps this was fatigue–I’d been burned trying to solve puzzles before and as a result, set expectations low, but I would argue that most of these puzzles could use some tweaking.

Final Thoughts

All in all, Madison is one of the most intense horror experiences in gaming. The excellent writing and detailed setting provide near-unparalleled atmosphere and experience. Unfortunately, the puzzle elements are more obtuse than the average player can manage, and coupling this with the oppressive atmosphere that intensifies as the game progresses, I was caught in a cycle of being drawn in and repelled, seduced and frustrated. While distinctly memorable and providing a unique and lasting experience, it falls just short of the top tier of horror games.

Score: 7.6

Strengths

  • Powerful atmosphere with a consistent theme

  • Individual moments are among the most terrifying in horror gaming today

  • Strong story with many layers that build on each other

  • Well-optimized with solid graphics and excellent sound design

Weaknesses

  • Latter half of the game is weaker and becomes over-reliant on jumpscares

  • Only one possible ending

  • Obtuse puzzles and poor signposting keep this title below it should be in the pantheon of modern horror gaming

You can play Madison on Steam, Playstation, Xbox, or Nintendo DS.

You may also like : Visage, The Beast Within, Amnesia: The Bunker

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