10 Best Video Games Set In A Single Night | WhatCulture Gaming
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00There's a lot of games out there that narratively take place in a single 24-hour period, even
00:05though it may take you 40 or so hours to play through them.
00:08But what might be even more surprising is the amount of games that take place in a single
00:13night.
00:14From sundown to sunrise, these games only take up to 12 hours or less for the heroes
00:19you control.
00:20So let's waste no time and get on with this list, as I'm Jules, this is WhatCulture.com,
00:25and these are the 10 Best Video Games Set in a Single Night.
00:28And by the way, we'll give a pass to flashbacks or opening cutscenes that may give backstory,
00:33just to get in there before some people fire up their keyboards with THIS DOESN'T COUNT.
00:36Yes it does, and let's get on with it.
00:3910.
00:40Observer
00:41One way to really get players into the mindset of your cyberpunk futuristic game is to hire
00:45Rutger Hauer of Blade Runner fame to voice the main character.
00:49And Bloober Team did just that with their 2017 release, Observer, which sees you playing
00:54as Detective Daniel Lazarski, who uses his cybernetic augmentations to act as a police
00:59observer, which is somebody who can hack into people's minds in order to interrogate them.
01:04The game starts with Lazarski sitting in his car daydreaming during a rainy night, when
01:09he then gets a call from his estranged son Adam.
01:12Lazarski heads to a tenement building in a slum district known as The Stacks.
01:16After investigating several murders, possibly including his own sons, Lazarski comes out
01:20of The Stacks in either of the two endings while it's still dark.
01:24Considering the whole game can be played in a 4-5 hour period, if you decide to pick up
01:28the upgraded and expanded re-release Observer system redux, just imagine you're investigating
01:33in real time for that extra added kick to this psychological techno-horror.
01:389.
01:39Batman Arkham Asylum
01:41A running theme of the pivotal Arkham series put out by Rocksteady is that each game basically
01:46takes place over the course of a single night.
01:49The second title, Arkham City, occurs one night about a year and a half after the first
01:53game, Arkham Origins takes place on Christmas Eve of Bruce Wayne's second year of vigilantism,
01:59and Arkham Knight takes place on Halloween, nine months after City.
02:03It's hard to reconcile that fact with the dozens of hours, hundreds of Riddler trophies
02:07and various side quests that we can all get caught up in in the course of those games,
02:11but it is true.
02:12And while we could talk about all of them, we're going to highlight the first game
02:14in the series today, which was initially designed to be played over an 8-10 hour period.
02:19Therefore, you can conceivably imagine the first game, Arkham Asylum, as being in real
02:24time for that purpose.
02:25From Joker being delivered to the asylum, to stopping Victor Zsasz, escaping Killer
02:29Croc's sewer lair, the battles against Scarecrow, all the way to the final battle with a titan-fueled
02:34Joker on a rooftop, it is all taking place over the course of a single night for the
02:39greatest detective.
02:40And what's more is that the ending of this game implies that he's going to go on to
02:43stop Two-Face before morning, which is impressive even by Batman's standards.
02:488.
02:49Aragami
02:50If you've been feeling the press for a new Tenchu game, then Aragami is a solid choice.
02:55What it lacks in the fluidity of its mechanics, it more than makes up for in a compelling
02:59storyline and fantastical musical score.
03:02The game opens with the main character's birth as a shadow spirit, an Aragami, that
03:07is then tasked with rescuing your summoner, the young priestess Yamiko.
03:11Yamiko explains that you've got a time limit, which comes from the fact that you
03:14are a shadow spirit, so of course you will cease to exist when the sun rises in the morning.
03:19Light weakens you, and intense light, such as the projectiles that your enemies can shoot
03:23from their swords if they spot you, will kill you instantly.
03:26Creeping through the shadows will empower you and restore the energy you need to use
03:30your special abilities.
03:32And you'll do just that, sneak from shadow to shadow all night, resulting in a final
03:36boss battle and touching cutscene that ends just as the sun rises.
03:41Discovering the truth about your identity before becoming an Aragami and completing
03:45your mission before daybreak sure is one hell of a ride.
03:487.
03:49Metal Gear Solid
03:50Ah, the distant future of 2005, or so it was in 1998 when the original Metal Gear Solid
03:57was released.
03:58Forced out of retirement by Colonel Roy Campbell, Solid Snake is tasked with infiltrating Shadow
04:03Moses Island in Alaska and thwarting a terrorist attack by new members of his old commando
04:08unit, Foxhound.
04:09The game opens dramatically to Snake swimming up to the dock and rising to the surface under
04:14the cover of nightfall, and it's still night when you first fight Vulcan Raven, and again
04:18is still very dark when you have to save Merle from Sniper Wolf.
04:22And it isn't any less night when you shoot down a helicopter or confront the final boss
04:27on top of Metal Gear Rex.
04:29Whether you escape with Otacon or Merle, the ending occurs just as the sun is rising the
04:34following day.
04:35Congratulations, you've saved the world, got the Secretary of Defense arrested, and
04:39got the guy or girl, depending on your ending, of your dreams.
04:42All in a night's work.
04:436.
04:44Resident Evil
04:45Like the Arkham entry before this, we could include either of the first two Resident Evil
04:49games on this list, because Resident Evil 2 takes place entirely on poor Leon S. Kennedy's
04:54first day on the job as a Raccoon City police officer, where he must team up with Claire
04:58Redfield and Ada Wong to save Sherry Birkin and escape the zombie-infested Raccoon City.
05:03If not for the three-day period that Jill is suffering from the T-Virus infection while
05:07her new friend Carlos has to find her a cure, Resident Evil 3 could also qualify as well.
05:12But for sure, the adventures of Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine in the first game are the
05:16ones we're talking about today.
05:18And the game begins with Raccoon PD's very own elite SWAT team, STARS, getting thrashed
05:23by an unknown menace.
05:25Of course, that menace is zombies and biologically altered people and animals.
05:29Through a single and terrifying night, Jill and Chris have to endeavour to navigate through
05:34the trap-ridden Spencer Mansion, thwart a betrayal, survive so bad it's good voice
05:39acting, and defeat a massive tyrant enemy.
05:41Regardless of good or bad results, because the original had multiple endings, the surviving
05:46member zzzz question mark escape the mansion as the sun begins to rise.
05:515.
05:52Murdered Soul Suspect
05:542014's ghostly mystery action game Murdered Soul Suspect opens with the main character,
06:00Ronan O'Connor, being, well, as the title suggests, murdered.
06:03He's thrown out of a window on a brisk night in the witchy town of Salem, and for good
06:08measure, his killer puts a whole clip into his chest.
06:11The rest of the game plays out as Ronan's ghost tries to solve his own murder mystery,
06:15as well as who the murderer actually is, and will take you to various locales of Salem.
06:20From a church to a museum, a police station to an asylum.
06:23But for all the travelling, investigation, and deathly flashbacks of our ghostly anti-hero
06:27witness, it all takes place over the course of a single night.
06:31From Ronan's murder to his eventual resolution of the bell killer case, the sun never rises
06:35on his adventures.
06:37The ending has a positive note, with his long-dead wife Julia possibly opening a portal to heaven
06:42so that he can join her.
06:43Or it could also be the developers leaving open sequel bait that never came because the
06:47game unfortunately didn't sell well enough for Square Enix to give it another night.
06:514.
06:52Inside
06:53Much like Limbo before it, Playdead's 2016 game Inside is a dark, spooky, atmospheric
06:58adventure.
06:59But unlike Limbo, there are actually colours in this one, which if you've seen the gross
07:03ball of human flesh in the end stages of this game, you might wish it didn't.
07:07Inside opens, surprisingly, on the outside, with the unnamed main character sliding down
07:12a hill and running from flashlight-armed guards searching for him.
07:15A major aspect of the opening stages of this game is that it's nighttime, which is presumably
07:19your only chance to escape.
07:20By the time our underage, unnamed fellow joins the disgusting mass of bodies called the Huddle,
07:25he has travelled through much of a farm, a scientific facility, and a flooded underwater
07:30city.
07:31But as the Huddle comes to rest, completing its absorption of the poor boy and escaping
07:35the facility, the sun begins to rise, bathing the coast and the Huddle in the light of morning
07:40as the end credits begin to roll.
07:423.
07:43Hotel Dusk, Room 212
07:46With the exception of an opening cutscene and a few flashback memories, the entirety
07:50of the 2007 DS detective game Hotel Dusk, Room 212 occurs during the evening of the
07:56night of December 28th, 1979, into December 29th.
08:00The main character, Carl Hyde, arrives at the titular hotel at 5pm, and finally solves
08:05a mystery at 2am the following morning.
08:08During that time, it's a little hard to tell if it's nighttime outside, because the game
08:11is played entirely within the confines of the hotel's interior, but each chapter is
08:16designed to express a block of time between 5pm and 2am.
08:20By 2 in the morning, Hyde is in the last stages of solving multiple mysteries for the hotel
08:24staff and customers, as well as for himself.
08:27Then he presumably just goes to bed.
08:29Waking later in the morning, he departs in the ending cutscene, possibly with his new
08:33partner enjoying the sunlight on her face from the passenger side of his car.
08:37Unfortunately due to the developer's bankruptcy in 2010, the sequel Last Window, The Secret
08:42of Cape West never got a North American release, and who knows how quickly Hyde solves the
08:46mystery in that one.
08:472.
08:48Luigi's Mansion
08:49How lucky for Luigi, finally getting his chance to shine back in 2001, and again in 2018 for
08:55the 3DS re-release.
08:57Not only does he get to star in his own game, but he also wins a bloody mansion.
09:00He doesn't actually remember entering the contest, but that's detail shmeetails, right?
09:04Luigi and Mario decide to meet up and check out Luigi's new home that evening, but unfortunately
09:09Mario gets captured by King Boo, and Luigi must use a flashlight and a special ghost-sucking
09:14vacuum cleaner to clear the mansion of spectres and save his brother.
09:18All four stages of the game take place across one night, and ends with Luigi's new ally
09:23Professor E. Gadd helping him release Mario from his prison inside of a painting.
09:27Of course, with King Boo's illusionary mansion disappearing, E. Gadd builds Luigi a new house
09:32on the spot, based on how much treasure Luigi brought back to him.
09:36What a nice guy.
09:371.
09:38Night Trap
09:39Night Trap, the 1992 controversy-laden interactive film that helped to get the US Senate to create
09:45the ESRB, is, by modern standards, pretty tame, honestly.
09:49You can see wilder stuff on primetime TV nowadays.
09:51Regardless of whether or not you're entertained by the B-movie antics of some girls being
09:56kidnapped by dudes in terrible rubber suits, or the fact that you play as a member of an
09:59elite police force known as SCAT, or even the fact that Night Trap is technically a
10:04vampire game by theme, like I say, there's a lot going on, and what really matters is
10:08the plot, for what it's worth is that you have to save a group of teens from getting
10:12kidnapped by the aforementioned dudes in rubber suits, called Augurs, who are basically vampire
10:17drones.
10:18From the time the girls begin getting picked off to the end of the game, it's all played
10:21in real time, with roughly 30 minutes going by.
10:25That's right, Night Trap only lasts 30 minutes, and that's still 29 minutes too long for
10:30some people.
10:31And there we go my friends, those were the 10 best video games set in a single night,
10:34I hope that you enjoyed that, and please let me know what you thought about it down in
10:37the comments section below.
10:39As always I've been Jules, you can go follow me over on Twitter at RetroJ but the O is
10:43a zero, or you can swing by Instagram where it's the same handle, RetroJ but the O is
10:48a zero, hope to see you over there.
10:50But before I go, I just want to say one thing, I hope that you're treating yourself well
10:53with love and respect my friends because you deserve all the best things in life alright?
10:58Like love, happiness and success, and I want you to go out there and absolutely smash your
11:01life goals today, because I believe in you, and you need to believe in yourself as well.
11:06As always I've been Jules, you have been awesome, never forget that, and I'll speak to you soon,
11:10bye.