Midnight Scenes: The Goodbye Note

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A doctor's goodbye, a night flight, and the future of humanity in his hands.

Platforms: PC
Stores: Steam, GOG, itch.io
Price: Paid
Rated: Very Positive on Steam (154 of 158 reviews positive); 4.6 of 5 from 378 ratings on itch.io
Length: about 30 minutes
Players: 1
Controls: Mouse only
Made by: White Blanket Games (Octavi Navarro and Susanna Granell)
Released: 2018

Get it on Steam GOG itch.io White Blanket Games (maker's page)

What frightens The second Midnight Scenes tale, styled after 1960s horror anthologies like The Twilight Zone: Dr. Richard P. Griffin says goodbye at home and boards a flight on which the future of humanity falls on his shoulders, in what the store calls the scariest journey of his life, told in black and white pixel art with an eerie soundtrack.

Midnight Scenes: The Goodbye Note is the second episode of Octavi Navarro's Midnight Scenes, short horror tales told as point-and-click adventures in black and white pixel art. You follow Dr. Richard P. Griffin on what the store calls the scariest journey of his life. It takes about 30 minutes.

About Midnight Scenes: The Goodbye Note

Midnight Scenes: The Goodbye Note is the second in a series of short horror tales with adventure elements by Octavi Navarro, an artist on Thimbleweed Park and the maker of Photographs, and Susanna Granell; as White Blanket Games they also made The Supper, The Librarian and Unwelcome. Their site dates it to October 2018, and it came to Steam in September 2020, with an art book and the soundtrack in the game's files.

Like every Midnight Scenes episode it opens like an episode of a TV anthology. Tonight, the future of humanity will fall on the shoulders of Dr. Richard P. Griffin. The scenes move between a quiet family home, his lab of dials and computers telling someone to go to bed because he will be home soon, and at an airfield at night, where an air hostess wishes him a nice flight.

You explore, interact with what is around you and solve puzzles in a story-driven point-and-click adventure played with the mouse. The art is black and white pixel work inspired by 1960s horror and mystery shows such as The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits, with an eerie soundtrack and atmospheric sound, and the key art shows a man in a glass helmet with a green clawed hand closing over it.

It takes about 30 minutes and stands on its own; you do not need the first episode, The Highway, to follow it. It suits players who want a quick, old-fashioned horror story to play in one sitting with the lights off.

How to play Midnight Scenes: The Goodbye Note

Buy the game on Steam, GOG or itch.io and install it on Windows.
Start the episode and follow Dr. Griffin from home to the airfield.
Move him through each scene and click on people and objects to look, talk and pick things up.
Use items from the inventory at the bottom of the screen on the world to get past what blocks you.
Follow the story to its end in about half an hour.