The 7th Night Review (PC VR)

It’s a figment of my imagination—a hallucination that serves only to torment me with psychological omens and anxious thoughts. I’m not entirely sure if there is anything in the room with me, or even if a porcelain statue of a spiritual concierge is capable of shielding me from whatever looms in the darkness. Heck, I’m not even sure if two thin layers of cotton are enough to barricade me from the outside world. But, what I do know is that, come Friday the 13th, things will take form for better or worse, and if I don’t muster up the courage to wage war with these twilight demons, then I won’t be here on Saturday. It’s The 7th Night, and the blanket is the only thing that I have left to keep me from harm.

The shift starts out like any other: a luminous moon embraces the nearby curtains, and the blackness of the night gradually swallows the room whole. The witching hour eventually arrives, and a sudden sense of panic breaches the heart. A thin blanket; a clock; a holy heirloom; and a presence that yearns to be found. It’s just another night in bed, though, I cannot leave the comfort of the duvet, because I don’t know what waits on the other side of the room. No, the bed, really, is the only fort I can rely on to keep me safe and the harrowing omens at bay. I’m just not sure if I’ll still be here this time tomorrow.

Sleep Tight

The 7th Night is, to some extent, sleep paralysis in a VR format. As such, it isn’t a game that requires you to plod around your room and engage in activities and other household chores, but rather, to keep to the safe side of your bed and to survive whatever curveballs that the night hurls at you. You cannot move, and you cannot see. There’s a blanket, a bedside table with a clock and a spiritual guide, and a vague outline as to what you should be looking to accomplish. Context-wise, there isn’t much there to enlighten you. No, what you have, really, is a simple objective that is, like a good book, left at your bedside table. “Survive the night.”

There are no puzzles to solve in The 7th Night, nor are there any opportunities for you to disembark from your bedroom to openly explore the house. A “seated” experience at heart, it invites you to fill the slippers of a young child who, in an attempt to make it through till morning, decides to embrace the bad omens that come to visit during the eleventh hour. The only catch here is that, despite having access to various items on your bedside table, you cannot move. It’s a bit like Five Nights at Freddy’s, in that you spend your time analyzing small details whilst remaining glued to the same anchor point. If, of course, something occurs, the you can retreat to your blanket. However, if you happen to overlook or misjudge certain things, then even the blanket won’t save you.

It goes like this: the room contains numerous items that each have a “good state” and a “bad state.” It’s your job, in short, to identify the bad omens and, through the use of a paper dial, keep the good ones active. Simply put, if the dial reaches zero, and the “good state” items deplete, then the night ends, and the blanket more or less consumes you before asking if you would like to repeat the same process in a Baby Mode. A simple task, but one that also brings quite a lot of baggage, weirdly.

One Foot Out of the Covers

Herein lies a pretty straightforward gameplay loop, and one that, frankly, you won’t need an in-depth tutorial to understand. All in all, The 7th Night is a simple game that leans heavily toward tension and atmospherical enhancement over strenuous gameplay and puzzle-solving. And on that note, it captures the thrill of the witching hour incredibly well. Maybe it’s the VR perspective that does it. Maybe, just maybe, it’s that it makes the simple act of sitting in bed oddly immersive. It’s still a little basic I’ll admit, but at least it leans into its core strengths and weaknesses to provide an authentic experience.

Let it be said that, while there are some great bones to pick away at here, The 7th Night isn’t a VR game that will keep you coming back for the eighth, ninth, or tenth sleepover. Removing the Nightmare Mode from the formula for a moment, I’d say that the game, as a whole, is a one-and-done affair that you could easily sweep beneath the bedsheets in a single sitting. Could it do with a few more sheep for you to count? Yes. But for the asking price, I’d say that you should be able to get your money’s worth here.

Verdict

The 7th Night has some great ideas of its own, which are made all the more accessible thanks to the game’s simple yet effective gameplay mechanics and VR interface. Granted, it doesn’t push the boat out to incorporate a ton of innovative elements, and it doesn’t really do a lot to broaden its vanilla appeal, either. Having said that, it does make a commendable effort to keep you plugging away in the short time it engulfs you in its twilight tale. It’s still short, and it doesn’t do much to make you want to stick around after the final stretch. A Nightmare Mode, perhaps — but that’s about it.

Of course, if you enjoy anomaly-hunting games and atmospheric experiences that don’t require rigorous input, then it’s likely that you’ll get a kick out of The 7th Night and its casket of sleep paralysis demons. If you’re looking for something with a little more depth—puzzles, exploration, and a web of plot points, for example—then you might want to consider laying your sleeping bag in another dorm room. For as little as a few bucks, though, I’d say that a few night terrors more than justify the price tag.