Night Trap may not be everyone's cup of tea, but some may find it campy fun.

User Rating: 7.4 | Night Trap SCD
By TheSerafen | Review Date:
I have to admit that I am a glutton for different types of games. After playing through countless titles in the conventional genres, I do enjoy to play a game that deviates from the norm. Back when Full Motion Video (FMV) games were en vogue, I thought I would try a few games out since they looked to provide a different game experience. Night Trap wasn’t the first FMV game I played (it was actually Double Switch starring Corey Haim, don’t ask). I did enjoy the novelty that these games provided, but I do admit they did have some significant shortcomings. I tried to get Night Trap around the time it was “banned”, which made the game difficult and expensive to find. I did pay a significant sum for it, but I was happy to have the game. Even today, I still regard Night Trap as one of my coveted games. It isn’t one of the best and deepest games out there, but I enjoyed Night Trap for what it was, a campy B-movie.

Since the Sega CD came out during the height of the 16-bit era, anything game that featured FMV looked light years ahead of any other game. By today’s standards, the FMV looks grainy and void of a variety of colors. Still, Night Trap had the best quality at the time. The sound is full CD quality. It sounds a little low and has some distortion, but overall it is of good quality.

FMV may look great on paper for a game with its excellent graphics and sound, but in practice, game play is limited because of the scripted nature of FMV. Night Trap does do a decent job of integrating FMV into a playable format. The player is basically manning a series of cameras and can view what is going on in different parts of a mansion. If an important event is occurring in a particular part, the player needs to intervene by activating a trap. This is done by watching a meter and when it turns red, the player needs to press a button to trap the intruder. At first, this seemed a little confusing to me, but it isn’t hard to figure out while playing the game, which really breaks down to trial and error.

Night Trap is really just an excuse to showcase FMV capabilities of CD’s of the time when it is all said and done. Night Trap really isn’t groundbreaking other than that and the controversy it stirred. About the controversy, it really was just the work of overzealous activists and senators and really wasn’t warranted because Night Trap really isn’t that violent of a game. If you want to collect a piece of gaming history, Night Trap is relevant only because of the controversy and not because of breakthrough game play.

Other Helpful Reviews for Night Trap

Load Comments (0)