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The Midnight Walkers Early Access Review: Not a Death Sentence, But Concerns Linger

The video game industry regularly spawns trends that quickly gain popularity and are just as rapidly followed by clones and (un)successful imitators. In recent years, the extraction shooter genre has taken center stage, where players must not only defeat enemies but also risk their lives to extract valuable loot from a location. It seemed like the perfect field for experimentation. Oneway Ticket Studio decided to challenge the established canons formed by a titan like Escape from Tarkov and add a zombie apocalypse to the formula. The result of their courage is the project The Midnight Walkers, released in Early Access.

The author adheres to the dogma that Early Access is equivalent to a full release in terms of forming a first impression, as you can't make a first impression twice. However, many players believe Early Access is a kind of beta test and should be approached with a greater degree of optimism. What if the developers, receiving negative feedback, rush to quickly redo everything? I agree such examples exist, but firstly, they are one-offs, and secondly, there often simply aren't enough funds for such overhauls if the game in Early Access didn't immediately generate significant revenue. I think you've already guessed: The Midnight Walkers has a number of serious shortcomings, and without urgent fixes, the game is headed for rapid obscurity.

Conceptual Failure: Lost in the "Megacomplex"

The idea of pitting harsh military realism against hordes of insatiable undead seemed quite fresh and promising, despite the worn-out zombie setting. Instead of the usual forests and industrial zones, there's a multi-level "megacomplex" combining offices, hospitals, and construction sites under one roof. This approach, intended to diversify gameplay without creating many maps, in practice becomes one of the key problems.

The game's location is a soulless labyrinth, devoid of both architectural logic and a genuine atmosphere of horror. The levels are connected chaotically, creating a feeling not of a cohesive world but of a random assortment of assets. Empty corridors, identical loot rooms, and flat visual design quickly extinguish any curiosity. The realization that some decorative elements were apparently created using generative AI merely completes the picture of creative laziness.

The initial thrill of descending or ascending to a new floor, which was supposed to extend the raid, turns into irritation after just a few sessions. This is felt especially acutely in tight stairwells, which regularly become claustrophobic, unfair arenas for sudden clashes with other players.

Navigational confusion reaches absurdity in the genre's key mechanic—extraction. The process of leaving the location is so unintuitively complex that it requires repeatedly consulting guides. Although it seems simple: here's a hole in the floor, wait for the timing, and exit. However, the developers, striving to be original, complicated the simple, refined mechanic used by other games, leading only to frustration.

Gameplay: The Burden of Unbearable Sluggishness

If the environment in The Midnight Walkers is simply boring, then the core mechanics—movement and combat—are outright failures. In a genre where every second counts and the price of a mistake is losing all your gear, an unnatural, suffocating sluggishness reigns here.

The character, regardless of the chosen class, moves through the location at an unacceptably low speed. The expectation that flesh-hungry zombies would add dynamism is not met. Even the "Assassin" with a katana in hand (how original!) swings as if trying to move a boulder. The progression system, which increases speed only after a long grind, makes the initial hours of the game a real torture. This sluggishness permeates everything: even a simple action like opening a door is burdened by a wait of several seconds, and interacting with loot containers is painfully slow.

The combat system exacerbates these problems. To land a melee hit, you need to get right up close to the enemy, which, given the overall clumsiness, almost guarantees a quick death from a couple of counterattacks. In an extraction shooter, where every life is valuable, such imbalance seems like a glaring oversight. Add to this regular "freezes" (and this is on my RTX 5080!) and frequent hit registration issues. You can guess the outcome.

The only ray of light in this kingdom of tedium was the ranged combat class "Hunter," armed with a bow and spear. Distance at least allowed for some control over the situation, but even that couldn't save the overall impression of a dull and monotonous grind.

The game's technical state only adds fuel to the fire. Basic quests, like using a medkit and a drink, may not register due to bugs, blocking the already meager progress. Dozens of missions with strangely worded, and sometimes grammatically incorrect, titles do not motivate continued play. I would be happy to write something truly good about this game, something that would set it apart from the already numerous competitors, but I simply can't name anything. Even the visuals raise many questions in 2026.

In Conclusion

The Midnight Walkers in its current state is doomed to rapid obscurity in an overcrowded genre. Although reviews are currently "Mixed"—62% recommend trying the novelty—this is only with the caveat that the game is still in Early Access, and players hope for quick fixes to the key problems. Nevertheless, the low price of the game largely justifies its shortcomings, although the in-game store clearly hints at a P2W direction (hello, paid stash!).

It's too early to talk about missed opportunities, but I'll repeat the key thought from the beginning of the review: you can't create a first impression twice. So far, instead of a tense run across roofs and hospitals surrounded by the living dead, we've gotten a dull wander through a faceless labyrinth, where the main enemies are not zombies but short-sighted game design and technical shortcomings. I sincerely hope the developers have already planned radical changes to the gameplay to save this game.