Madison was released back in 2022 for PC and received high praise as one of the scariest horror games ever made. Developer Bloodious Games then worked on a port that was brought to PlayStation 5’s PS VR2 in January 2023, just a few months after the main release. How will Cubed3 fare as it is bombarded by scares with only a camera to hide behind?
Strap in, gamers! Plopping on the PS VR2, calibrating and relaxing, ready for a new experience, Madison VR loads up, immersion growing with the sombre menu screen. Loading into the first area, an immediate threat. Who’s banging on the door? How does one escape this room? This start introduces players to the close feeling of the game; definitely not one for claustrophobics.
Step into the shoes of Luca, a teenage boy with a love of old-fashioned cameras. Upon receiving a new instant camera, he is pulled into a world of horror as the previous owner’s spirit starts haunting him and his family. He is part of some sort of ritual. Something has happened that is criminally horrible, but what was it? How does he escape? What is the end goal of this restless spirit? This is the core of the Madison story and it is presented amazingly.
There are loads of notes, spoken dialogue, and cool world-integrated ways of presenting the story. Messages play on the TV, writing is scrawled on the walls, weird calls come on the house phone. It’s very cool and does a lot to keep the player grounded. Some of the story moments are so intense; however, some players may scrabble to remove their headset to avoid a scare.
This is probably the best mansion-based horror game in years, utilising some sort of pocket dimension to make the mansion seem otherworldly and strange. There are lots of liminal spaces. The flooded basement is probably the most well-known scene in the game. This masterclass of storytelling with police reports, changing and shifting environments alongside the liminal area, all with focussed intense sound design, is an absolute killer. This is where players will learn what Madison can provide: absolute unfettered terror.
Utilising the power of PS VR2, players have free movement, two usable hands, and really detailed visuals with intense darkness and shining highlights thanks to the OLED screens. Players have access to a limited inventory, but their main tool is the camera, which will reveal all sorts of secrets, allow them to use the flash to see in the dark, and scare off monsters. This is proof that a series like Project Zero / Fatal Frame would be immense in VR.
The gameplay is heavily puzzle focused with a few short action scenes interspersed sparingly. These puzzles range from simpler “Use item A with object B” scenarios to more mind-bending puzzles that require spatial logic to complete. There is an early puzzle that requires the player to look away and then back at different items, which took a while to figure out, as it doesn’t really guide the player’s view in an obvious fashion. However, something about holding items and using them in each puzzle makes them all the more satisfying to solve. That said, the tension in some of these puzzle areas can make them extra stressful.
There are save points and item boxes, and these are very limited in appearance, so players will need to play carefully or risk having to redo difficult sections. The real tour de force is the way Madison presents its environmental storytelling; this is something that can change during hauntings and be quite visceral at times. It really has this deliberate and unique feeling that a lot of these first-person horror games can miss.
The visual design is based on realism, which, for better and for worse, means that some areas are quite true to life. There is something about the clutter in, for example, the dining room that grounds the place in reality like nothing else can, and this is then juxtaposed against the liminal otherworldly spaces like the well that exists in a vacuum, the flooded basement car park, and the long, thin corridors that go on forever. It allows for a unique visual and atmosphere that makes Madison stick as an experience.
Horror would be nothing without great sound and Madison is no slouch in that area either. Utilising positional audio, players will feel like they are actually in some of these spaces. The way noises echo or fill the space is convincing, and the voice acting, in particular, is excellent and immersive. There is some music, but it’s used sparingly to add tension or emphasise points.
It’s almost a shame there isn’t more, but it’s a decently long title that somehow keeps the tension and spooks ramped up from start to end. With a visceral and unpleasant core story, there is plenty to be frightened of in Madison.
