Midnight Ghost Hunt brings ghouls to the prop hunt with flavors of BioShock and Prey

I've reached the second phase of a Midnight Ghost Hunt match, and I'm being chased around an abandoned museum by the disembodied skull of a tyrannosaurus rex. As if this isn't terrifying enough, my skeletal stalker glows red like an Elden Ring phantom, and is, quite literally, snapping at my heels. With my chances of survival looking slim, I about-turn, sprint along a darkened corridor, and throw myself down a small flight of stairs. In search of higher ground, I mount a towering diplodocus exhibit, ease my way up its curving tail and clamber onto its back. I've barely made it to my feet before an antique pot, possessed by the same T-Rex-skull host from before, hurtles through the air and cracks me on the side of the head. I'm down and out and the ghosts have won. 

It's only when the in-game action subsides that I realize I'm on my feet in real life. I'm halfway across my living room and I'm clutching my control pad like a two-handed stress ball. I've stood on a pile of my son's Lego bricks barefoot and only now recognise the pain shooting up my heel. Midnight Ghost Hunt is a frantic, all-consuming, prop hunting trip that echoes everything from Dead By Daylight to Phasmophobia, Garry's Mod, Spy Party, Prey, BioShock, and childhood games of hide-and-seek. And, having now entered Steam's Early Access initiative, it's a trip I really think you should make.

Props to the ghosts

Given the vast number of games that have implemented mods or modes in a similar vein over the last 20+ years, there's a good chance you'll have heard of the term 'prop hunt'. If you haven't, the ground rules are simple: players are split into two teams, with one side tasked with taking the form of inanimate objects and hiding within the bounds of a map; and the other assuming the role of hunter, tasked with uncovering said props. If memory serves, 1998's Quake 2 was the first FPS to feature the idea in mod form, and it was certainly popularised proper a decade later among the likes of Half-Life 2: Deathmatch, Team Fortress 2, and Garry's Mod. Variations on the theme have appeared in everything from Call of Duty to Fortnite since, but what stands Midnight Ghost Hunt apart is its penchant for the supernatural – and its scope for hilariously frenzied retribution in turn. 

Every Midnight Ghost Hunt match of 4v4 kicks off at 11:55pm, you see, whereby hunters have five minutes to locate and kill all four ghost members of the opposite team. It's up to the ghosts to shapeshift as props, stay hidden and/or avoid being blasted and vacuumed Ghostbusters-style during this time, before, at the stroke of midnight, the roles are reversed. At this point in matches, the ghosts become overpowered, the hunters become the hunted, and total chaos ensues for a further four minutes. If the ghosts wipe out the hunters during this time, they win. If the hunters manage to survive, the honor is theirs.

I grew up idolizing The Ghostbusters, therefore, at face value, Midnight Ghost Hunt is a stick-on for me. And while ghost-hunting itself here is great fun – tracking the location of a ghoul with your EMF radar, before blasting it with a harpoon gun never gets old – Midnight Ghost Hunt is definitely at its best with the shoe (boo?) on the other foot. Watching hapless hunters fail to find your location while you pose as an ornate grandfather clock is the absolute best feeling; as is getting spotted, and then slaloming between inanimate objects, dodging furious waves of gunfire as you make your great ethereal escape. 

Better still, a suite of unlockable paranormal abilities makes the ordeal even more entertaining. During the minute-long planning phase of one ghost run (where ghosts are given time to organize their hiding places before the arrival of hunters), one team-mate cast 'Poltergeist' on a number of tables and chairs – causing the furniture to float and attack nearby enemies. Before being activated by pursuing hunters, I also cast corruption on the same tables and chairs, causing them to explode on impact. The results were mouthwateringly devastating, and the scope to combine and experiment with abilities reminded me of BioShock's Plasmid system and Prey's Mimic Matter typhon neuromod, with the added boon of co-op conspiracy.

Dead again  

For the sake of balance, idling while in ghostly prop form fills a plasma bar which, once full, makes your presence extra alert-able to hunters. Simply moving around allows the bar to empty, which means it's not uncommon to see candlesticks making bizarre shuttle runs the length of second-floor banisters, or alarm clocks running circuits atop bedside cabinets when no one is looking. The more you play Midnight Ghost Hunt, the more obvious these observations become – but the more I became aware of these player-driven quirks, the more I found myself second-guessing everything. Did that old television just move? Did that candlestick twirl? Am I losing the plot? The answer to all three was, more often than not, yes. 

Which is all part of Midnight Ghost Hunt's beauty. It plays unashamedly into its inspirations, and gives players the tools and the playgrounds to create their own desperate tales of cat-and-mouse and hide-and-seek – each of which unfolds in real-time. I must have spent my first dozen or so matches getting my arse kicked in Midnight Ghost Hunt's museum, shipwreck, theater, and mansion levels, as a hunter and a ghost, while trying to learn the unwritten rules that present themselves on the fly. The fact that I kept returning for more speaks volumes for the game, and once it all clicks into place, it really is out of the world. 

According to the game's Steam page, developer Vaulted Sky Games reckons Midnight Ghost Hunt will remain in Early Access for the next "1-2 years". It's already great in its current state, and I can't wait to see where it's at come full release.

Need more scares in your life? Our best horror games list will have you scuttling behind the sofa.