A Night Alone

Having a pet is quite a responsibility, regardless of whether it’s a cat, a dog or anything else. Naturally, some animals are a bit more stubborn than others, and they can defy their owners with every chance they get. Just like people, however, they can learn not to do things that are too risky, mainly because they can end up with no home, or some kind of injury.

A Night Alone is a basic action-platformer in which you have to explore various levels and avoid all sorts of monsters in order to rescue your cat. There are no new mechanics at work, so it should be very easy to get into the groove of things if you are a veteran platformer player. However, that doesn’t mean it’s not a challenging game, especially since it’s very easy to die because of the numerous foes.

The plot is fairly simple as well, since your only goal is to find and rescue your cat after it runs away in the dark. Unfortunately for you, the outside world is full of terrible monsters and many traps that must be avoided, so the journey is anything but easy. Your character can sort of attack the enemies, but it takes a long time to put them down, so it’s better to avoid them entirely.

Gameplay-wise, there’s not much to do other than run around and watch out for the monsters. It can sometimes be difficult to see the platforms you can jump on, but it gets easier once you understand the underlying principles. The controls are very refined and responsive, making it easy to perform last second adjustments when your jump does not seem to end as intended.

Lastly, the graphics are not particularly impressive, but they are decent, and they actually manage to create a fairly creepy atmosphere. Everything is mostly dark and brown, which is to be expected given the theme of the game, but it can also get a tad repetitive sometimes. Not much can be said about the music, but it’s also in tune with the atmosphere, which is nice.

All things considered, you shouldn’t expect too much from A Night Alone, but then again it can keep you busy for a while and provide you with a challenge, which is enough under the circumstances. However, it would be even nicer if the game featured more content and more original gameplay mechanics.