It comes as no surprise that I absolutely love horror content, with a particular level of rose-tinted admiration for the campy horror of my childhood such as Are You Afraid of the Dark? or Goosebumps. I also love Dead By Daylight, and I certainly gave it my seal of approval in my article where I said who I’d love to see the Entity bribe next. Now, normally these two elements don’t mix well together; then you throw in Prophunt. Old gaming veterans may remember the game often played on Garry’s Mod servers or maybe in a modified Call of Duty lobby.
So you combine the gameplay of Dead By Daylight, the comedic value of Prophunt, and the campy tone of Goosebumps and here you have it - Propnight.
As a survivor, you and 3 comrades must repair generators and escape the area. As a killer, you have to stop this from happening. Now, the proverbial monkey wrench in the whole affair is the fact that players have the innate ability to transform into different inanimate objects to hide. But who will be ultimately successful?
I played this game in the closed beta.
Pros:
The art style and graphics are very reminiscent of a mobile game, and the bright colours available are nice and pretty. Normally the dissonance between the colour palette and the nature of the game would be cause for concern, however, it just adds to the comedy level of what the devs were clearly aiming to be campy horror fun.
The killers, of which only three are available (The Banshee, The Granny, The Impostor) all have nice simple designs and unique play styles to offer different ways to prevent those meddling kids from escaping. The Banshee is a full-frontal assault, The Granny sets traps, and The Impostor copies the survivors. I imagine that more will be added as the game progresses. On research, there was a fourth killer initially released called The Keymaster, but it wasn’t available for me to choose.
The survivors have a bit more variety, and each get their own item to use at the beginning of a round. However, they all function the same so you don’t have to learn a new mechanic if you want to try out a different character. I personally enjoy the fact that you can have 4 of the same character on a team.
The fact that voice chat is present in a game like this is refreshing, as the Killer also hears what the survivors are saying, so secret plans cannot be discussed.
The ability to transform into different objects is GENIUS. After one game, I actually posted an incredible outplay onto my TikTok. It makes the game so much more entertaining and is a breath of fresh air to the gruesome tones we normally see in horror games.
Cons:
The only distinct flaw I see in the game so far is balancing. Matches are stacked heavily against the Killers, which is in stark contrast to its counterpart Dead By Daylight. However, out of the 6/7 games I played, the Killer only won once. I do understand that it’s a tricky tightrope to walk across, but I think another mechanic or two that’s exclusive to Killers may permit a more 50:50 win rate.
This point is an extension of the above one, but the maps, in particular the Mansion, are extremely difficult for Killers to navigate. I don’t think the Farm is particularly bad for it, but having 2 floors to find 4 survivors that can disguise themselves is a little tricky, which is why I’d ask for a second mechanic or way of navigating for Killers. I think the maps are visually great, but something to level the playing field would be nice.
To Summarise:
If you want some spooky fun to play with your friends, this game will be the one for you. There’s a lot of unique elements to this that prevents the full stamp of “DBD Clone”, however if you like that game, it’s fair to say that you’ll probably like this. I very much did.
The game is scheduled to be released on the 30th of November - I’ll keep leaving knife mines around until it does - stay spooky!
Comments