Midnight Scenes: The Highway

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A short road trip at night, and what waits on the deserted highway.

Platforms: PC, Mac
Stores: Steam, GOG, itch.io
Price: Paid
Rated: Very Positive on Steam (89% of 319 reviews)
Length: about 30 minutes
Players: 1
Controls: Mouse only
Made by: White Blanket Games
Released: 2017

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

What frightens What should have been a short road trip turns into a journey into darkness: Claire Barnes stops on a deserted road at night, a fallen log across the way and a wrecked truck nearby, and finds out what horrors lurk in the dark there, in black and white pixel art and an eerie soundtrack styled after The Twilight Zone.
Content: mild horror, cartoon blood.

Midnight Scenes: The Highway is the first episode of Octavi Navarro's Midnight Scenes, a series of short horror tales told as point-and-click adventures. In about 30 minutes of black and white pixel art, Claire Barnes finds out what lurks in the darkness of a deserted road.

About Midnight Scenes: The Highway

Midnight Scenes: The Highway is the first of a series of short horror tales with adventure elements by Octavi Navarro, an artist on Thimbleweed Park and the maker of Photographs, with Susanna Granell; as White Blanket Games they also made The Supper, The Librarian and Unwelcome. It was first released in September 2017 and remastered in 2026 with better visuals, sounds and extra content. The Steam package holds both the 2017 original and the 2026 remaster, an art book and the soundtrack.

Each Midnight Scenes episode is introduced like an episode of a TV anthology. In this one, what had to be a short road trip becomes a journey into darkness for Claire Barnes, who stops on a deserted road at night and discovers what kind of horrors lurk there.

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. The scenes show an old car on a highway between telegraph poles, a log fallen across the road, a wrecked truck, a gate with a missing-child poster and a dead tree by a fence.

The store warns of mild horror and cartoon blood. It takes about 30 minutes and suits players who want a quick, old-fashioned horror story to play with the lights off.

How to play Midnight Scenes: The Highway

Start the episode as Claire drives the deserted highway at night.
Explore each scene by moving Claire and clicking on what you see.
Pick up items and use them on the world to get past what blocks your way.
Solve the puzzles that open the next part of the road.
Follow the story to its end in about half an hour.

Screenshots

Midnight Scenes: The Highway screenshot: Claire standing by a log fallen across the road, her car parked beside a fence

Midnight Scenes: The Highway screenshot: Claire beside a wrecked, smoking pickup truck at night

Midnight Scenes: The Highway screenshot: a wooden gate with a missing-child poster pinned to it

Midnight Scenes: The Highway screenshot: Claire standing under a dead tree beside a picket fence

Midnight Scenes: The Highway screenshot: a close-up of a torn photograph lying on a dark, stained surface

Tips

Play it in one sitting with the lights off, as the store suggests.
Look closely at posters and notes; they tell you what has happened on this road.
Try the 2026 remaster first, then the 2017 original included with it if you want to compare.