The design is
super stylish.
Night Call
PREVIEW
RELEASE
2019DEVELOPER
Monkey Moon, Black MuffinPUBLISHER
Raw FuryLINK
http://www.nightcall-game.comNEED TO KNOWPresented with a top-down map of Paris, I
click on a man’s face, and find myself
driving over to him. Well, I watch the yellow
arrow representing my cab automatically
head in his direction. He wants to go to
Issy, a suburb in the southwest of Paris,
and I’ll receive €16 for the pleasure.
The camera switches to inside the
cab as the passenger taps away on a
laptop, completely uninterested in his
driver. I’m given the option to start a
conversation with him, but he seems like
he’d rather do anything else—at least until,
noticing the way he’s typing, I ask if he’s a
programmer.
Suddenly we’re having a deep
conversation about religion. He asks if I
believe in God. I can remain silent, but I
decide to share. I tell him I used to, but I
don’t anymore. He tells me he believes the
world is a computer simulation. The way
the text flows and dialogue choices are
presented in Night Call give it the feel of a
visual novel. I can click through our
conversation, or I can sit back and watch it
unfold automatically until it’s my turn to
respond. We finally reach Issy, and I drop
the man off. He gives me a nice tip anddisappears into the night. I feel like I
wanted to talk to him more, but I suppose
these kinds of fleeting relationships are
part of the deal as a taxi driver.
I’m back on the map, and I pick up
another passenger. He wants to go to the
Charles de Gaulle Airport, insisting that I
get there promptly. However, this guy isn’t
nearly as charming as my previous
passenger. He’s a self-proclaimed pickup
artist. As he boasts about his successes
he preens himself in the mirror. I’m given
the opportunity to call him an asshole, and
I take it. He’s stunned, and when I drop
him off he doesn’t leave me a tip.
I really love Night Call’s presentation.
The monochrome art, understated
ambient music, and the sound of the rain
falling make for a palpable atmosphere. I
also love how, as you engage in
conversations, the view switches to show,
say, the taxi driving along from above, or a
view through the window of the city
streaking past. Taxi Driver is a clear
influence on the direction. There’s a little
Michael Mann in there too, in how it
evokes the oppressive, claustrophobic
feeling of a big city at night.TALKIN’ TO ME?
The night ends, and I’m given a tally
of how much I earned, minus my
employer’s cut, taxes, and other
expenses. I finish my shift with just €18,
and I wonder if I should’ve been nicer to
the airport creep. Nah. Before I turn in for
the night, I look through a pile of evidence
from the Judge murders, which was given
to me by the detective I met earlier. This
aspect of the game hasn’t been
implemented in my preview build, but it
seems that piecing clues together to
unmask the killer will be a big part of the
game. But for now all I can do is go to bed.
Night Call makes a great first
impression. The developer has nailed the
feeling of driving through a city at night,
and I love the anticipation of what each
person you pick up will be like. It’s also
cool how the story feeds into the systems,
such as the jerk I offended not giving me a
tip. The real test of the game will be the
detective stuff, however. I’d have been
happy with a game purely about the
everyday life of a taxi driver, but the
murder mystery element is intriguing.
Andy KellyP
ainted in shades of black and white, this
stylish noir murder mystery is set on the
perpetually rain-soaked streets of Paris.
You, a taxi driver, fall prey to a serial
killer the police call The Judge. But against all odds
you survive, and soon find yourself hunting for the
killer at the request of a desperate detective. She
has dirt on you, she says.A moody murder mystery set
on the streets of ParisNIGHT CALL
THE DEVELOPER HAS NAILED
THE FEELING OF DRIVING
THROUGH A CITY AT NIGHTPLAYED
IT