Night Call Review

Paris is a wonderful place, isn’t it? When you play Night Call, you will have a slightly different view of France’s capital – and for good reason.

Night Call’s story revolves around a lone taxi driver, one who is just trying to make a living in this beautiful city. Sadly, all doesn’t go his way when he appears to be the latest victim of a notorious serial killer, barely escaping the encounter with his life. As the only known survivor of the killer, you’re the police department’s only lead.

As if being attacked by a deadly serial killer wasn’t bad enough, you are bribed by the police; you either be a mole to them and help find/catch the killer or all those deaths will be pinned on you, meaning you will spend the rest of your days behind bars. You have seven nights to gather evidence and piece together the clues.

To do this, you must talk to people. Luckily, you have the perfect job for this endeavour. As a taxi driver, people trust you – not only to get them to their destination, but people also trust that what they say to you won’t go any further than the taxi. I guess they chose the wrong taxi! Complete your night shift as normal, choose who you pick up, and be mindful of what you say to them – all whilst trying to earn enough money to pay your bills and keep your car on the road.

Upon starting your shift, you will be required to select from numerous ‘jobs’ to pick up and drop off, hoping that not only will you make some money but get a step ahead on the investigation as well. You don’t have much to go on – only the distance you will travel and a brief image of the customer. Along the journey, you will be given various dialogue options to select; these can just be little snippets of a story or something vital to your investigation.

You don’t have much time to gather your clues before your shift is over. When you have clocked out and returned to your apartment, you will then be able to look through all the evidence you have found and piece all parts of the puzzle together. When you have gathered your thoughts, it’s off to bed to do it all again tomorrow. It’s also worth noting that there are five different scenarios to play through, each with a different killer and outcome.

Night Call features a noir art-style that has been hand-drawn in its entirety, which allows me to appreciate it just that much more. Each character and location differs from the last, and there is a vast range of interesting characters to give rides to – including a cat. One of my favourite parts of the game though was the soundtrack, purely because I didn’t expect to enjoy the songs and sounds as much as I did. There’s nothing better than hearing pouring rain bounce off the cab whilst there was some extremely chill music in the background.

With Night Call, you get out of it as much as you put into it. You want it to be a nice, relaxing pick-up-and-play game? Sure, that’s fine. If you prefer to get invested and read into everything and everyone you come across, piecing together all the clues, that’s okay too. It’s a great game that deserves to be experienced.