The Midnight Walk

The Midnight Walk
Information
VR/AR	Virtual Reality
Developer	MoonHood
Publisher	Fast Travel Games
Platform	PlayStation VR2, SteamVR (PC VR), PlayStation 5 (flatscreen), Nintendo Switch 2 (flatscreen)
Device	PlayStation VR2, PC VR headsets via SteamVR
Operating System	PlayStation 5, Windows, Nintendo Switch 2
Type	Game
Genre	Adventure, Narrative, Horror
Input Device	Tracked motion controllers (VR), gamepad (flatscreen)
Play Area	Seated, Standing
Game Mode	Single-player
Release Date	PS5 / PS VR2 / PC: May 8, 2025; Nintendo Switch 2: March 26, 2026
Price	US $39.99
App Store	Steam, PlayStation Store
Website	https://www.themidnightwalk.com

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See also: VR Apps and VR Games

The Midnight Walk is a 2025 first-person dark-fantasy adventure game developed by the Swedish studio MoonHood and published by Fast Travel Games. It is a hybrid title playable both in Virtual Reality and on a flat screen: the VR version supports PlayStation VR2 and PC VR headsets through SteamVR, while the same game runs in flatscreen mode on PlayStation 5, PC, and Nintendo Switch 2. The game's environments and characters were sculpted by hand from clay, papier-mache, and other physical materials, then 3D scanned into Unreal Engine 5 to give the world a stop-motion appearance.

Players control a character called the Burnt One, who wakes in a grave and revives a small fire-headed creature named Potboy. The two travel together through five self-contained tales of fire and darkness, lighting candles and outsmarting monsters that are drawn to Potboy's flame. The game won Best VR/AR Game at The Game Awards 2025 and VR Game of the Year at the 2025 Steam Awards.

Gameplay

The Midnight Walk is a slow-paced first-person adventure built around exploration, light puzzle-solving, and stealth rather than combat. The player guides the Burnt One on foot through linear chapters and commands the companion Potboy, who can be carried or sent ahead to light fires and candles. Progress relies on managing flame: the player collects matches and uses tools such as a matchlock, a match-firing device that can ignite candles at a distance, to open paths and solve environmental puzzles.

A central mechanic lets the player close their eyes. On flatscreen the effect is triggered by holding a button, which raises the volume of nearby important objects; in VR on PlayStation VR2 the headset's eye-tracking detects when the player physically shuts their eyes, activating heightened hearing or environment-altering powers used to navigate and to deal with certain enemies. Binaural audio is used throughout to make these audio cues directional.

Encounters emphasise avoidance over violence: rather than fighting, the player typically distracts, hides from, or outmaneuvers the creatures that hunt Potboy, with some sequences forcing a quick choice to fight or flee. In its VR form the game uses smooth locomotion with optional smooth-turn and snap-turn; it does not offer teleport movement. Road to VR rated it 7 out of 10 for comfort, noting that movement is slow but that camera control is taken away during some scripted moments. Reviewers reported a main story of roughly five hours, extending to about ten hours when collecting optional items.

Development

MoonHood is a studio in Sweden founded by Olov Redmalm and Klaus Lyngeled, who previously worked at Zoink on the games Fe, Ghost Giant, and Lost in Random. Redmalm and Lyngeled directed The Midnight Walk, with Joel Bille as composer; the game runs on Unreal Engine 5.

The visual style was produced by physically building the game's world. MoonHood handcrafted the models, sets, and characters out of clay and papier-mache, alongside physical books and other props, then 3D scanned them into the engine. The studio has said it built more than 700 physical models for the project. The hand-sculpted assets and stop-motion-style animation give the finished game an appearance that several outlets compared to claymation and to the work of Tim Burton.

Release

The Midnight Walk launched on May 8, 2025 for PlayStation 5 (including PlayStation VR2) and for PC, where it supports PC VR headsets through SteamVR and Steam as well as a flatscreen mode. Fast Travel Games priced the game at US $39.99 at launch. A flatscreen version for Nintendo Switch 2 was released on March 26, 2026; the Switch 2 edition does not include a VR mode.

Platform	Format	Release date
PlayStation 5 / PlayStation VR2	Flatscreen and VR	May 8, 2025
PC (Steam)	Flatscreen and PC VR via SteamVR	May 8, 2025
Nintendo Switch 2	Flatscreen only	March 26, 2026

Reception

The Midnight Walk received generally favorable reviews. On Metacritic the PC version holds a score of 79 out of 100 from 16 critics, and the PlayStation 5 version holds 77 out of 100 from 33 critics.

Push Square reviewed the PlayStation VR2 version and scored it 8 out of 10, praising its claymation visuals, soundtrack, and emotional storytelling while noting rough character models and some early technical glitches in the VR version. Road to VR was more reserved, scoring it 6.5 out of 10 ("Good"): it called the world visually distinct and immersive but criticised the lack of VR-native interactions, finding that the game felt designed for a flat screen and that the eye-closing mechanic was underused.

The game won Best VR/AR Game at The Game Awards 2025, held on December 12, 2025, where the overall Game of the Year went to Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. It also won VR Game of the Year at the 2025 Steam Awards, announced in January 2026.