Nightfall: Escape

Dang. I was actually fairly excited for this one, to the point where I nearly bought it full price while it was still in Early Access. Thank the Gods I didn't, as it's barely worth HALF price upon full release. Why did I bother gettin' so excited, you ask? Well, 'cause...y'know...screenshots 'n' stuff. Sigh. When will I learn?
My first question to all the non-English speaking indie devs of the world (and a good number of English-speaking ones, for that matter): do none of you live in cities with universities? And do these universities not have Drama courses? Because I can tell you right now, if a brave Brisbane dev was currently looking for perfectly talented people to do some voice acting FOR FREE, they'd have about five hundred eager young (and sometimes not so young) people to choose from. Why do these devs always seem to insist upon them and their mates voicing their games, especially when none of them seem to speak English even semi-fluently?
Even if there's no one in their neighbourhood who can speak the Queen's language with anything approximating conviction, there's this brand-new thing they invented a few years ago called, y'know..."the internet". There's an international community out there, for fuck's sake. YOU DON'T HAVE TO DO IT ALL YOURSELVES. That's why we have specialisation of professions in our societies: so not everyone has to be good at everything.
Anyway, first rant over. After an appallingly long and painful drive to the "mansion" where our story's main events will take place, we thankfully ditch the dire dialogue for a while, and instead spend ten minutes walking in circles trying to find our way into the mansion. I mean, there's clever map design and there's just plain old obscure, and this first environment firmly falls into the latter category. It's not TOO much longer, then, before we're entering an especially sinister-looking basement via some cellar doors which do an awfully good job of blending in with the block-y scenery all around them, and shortly after this we encounter our first "enemy".
Now I say "enemy", in inverted commas, because for a while there he was so seemingly disinterested in trying to find me that I just assumed he'd crawled out of his little hidey-hole to stretch his legs for a bit. But hey, he got me eventually, and when he did: whoa, spiffy-city! Definitely one of the most underwhelming death scenes I have had the exquisite displeasure to experience (thankfully though, my last save point was mere metres away, and the monster had in the meantime considerately retreated back to his hidey-hole, so I didn't bother disturbing him again).
Now, before you start getting the idea that there's absolutely nothing I liked about this game, think again. It has its fairly spooky moments: an oversized centipede not far past the area I just described was very nicely realised, even if it turned out to be completely harmless; and there's this thing called "bloodlight", where you can switch between your normal white flashlight beam and a murkier red one, revealing secrets which can't otherwise be seen. Now, sure...for the vast majority of the game you don't really NEED to switch between the two, because the red-tinged flashlight is frankly bright enough to see by at virtually all times...but it's a nice thought/idea, just the same.
Actually, if I'm completely honest, I liked a lot of the "ideas" in this game, so that's definitely not my beef with it. It's the EXECUTION and POLISH of the game which is mostly lacking. All told, there's much, much better horror games out there, and unless you've already played those, there's probably not much point paying fifteen bucks for this one. But hey...there's also far WORSE horror games, especially in the increasingly deep cesspool known as the Steam Store. Only recommended to those who play so many horror games per year that they can no longer tell the shit from the shine.
Verdict: 6.5/10.

One of the few Philippine horror games available, Nightfall pushes really hard to use all the possible disturbing creatures from Philippine folklore to create the definitive horror experience. The main plot of the game is exploring a haunted mansion deep in the woods to write an article about people disappearing. But the plot is merely an excuse, because Nightfall is basically like a giant haunted house from an amusement park, where each corridor is part of an anxious journey, and each room is a new scare.
The exploration is always interesting and rewarding. Each room is a completely new threat and a surprise, usually involving a disturbing creature from Philippine folklore. There are very few safe places in the house, and every corridor could be patrolled by a demon, or a room could be housing a malevolent spirit. Seriously, Nightfall is a festival of creatures from folklore, with more than 10 monsters roaming the house, each different from the others for the threat or the way to be defeated. For example, the obese Batibat will seat on the chest of the main characters sending her in a nightmarish maze of random portals, while to defeat the disturbing headless priest Paring Pugot, not only it will be necessary to collect the correct skull, but then bones must be crushed while avoiding the deadly spirit. Being touched by a monster means instant death, but this is also interesting because every creature will have a special death scene, usually quite brutal and elaborated. The creatures are really the core of the game, and also the collectibles scattered around the house will be a reward in this direction, providing information to fill the Bestiary, or to unlock models in the Gallery.
Gameplay-wise, Nightfall is a classic first-person horror adventure, including satisfying puzzles, exploration, and a bit of stealth. A flashlight can be used to light the environment but also to reveal hidden secrets, after unlocking a mysterious red light.
It is quite sad to see Nightfall with a negative score on STEAM. If it is true that the graphic is a bit empty for the environments, the creatures are really well modeled and always interesting, and the death scenes are a nice touch. It is also true that the game is quite buggy, especially being stuck in the environment or item disappearing back to their original location, but I never had an issue that completely broke the game or that couldn’t be solved by simply reloading.
Nightfall is a game that deserves a try, especially since it is the best representation of the most disturbing creatures from Philippine folklore, a parade of deadly monsters that are interesting to see and defeat.
More horror games inspired by Asian folklore here:

I really wasn't sure if I can recommend this or not.
The graphics are so ugly you could believe the game is from the ps2 era.
The game can be quite frustrating at times, either because you don't know where to go or what to do, or because of some bugs or because of the very limited save system and doing parts all over again.
But the game can also be a lot of fun. Also the synchronisation is good.
So I would give this game a neutral rating, but I can't and in this case I give a thumbs up.

Nightfall Escape looks and plays like a mid-tier PS2/Xbox era horror game. That is either a good or bad thing depending on your personal taste. By modern standards the graphics look dated, gameplay somewhat clunky and the voice acting is a bit cheesy at times. Personally I like traditional style horror games and this is a decent one, worth checking out at least when it is on sale.

Nightfall: Escape is an indie horror game based on Philippine folklore. It is currently in the Early Access program and the latest version is Pre-Alpha 0.0.6, updated on June 10th 2015 (It’s been a few months since the last patch.) At its current state, the game is more like a demo, with only <1 hour worth of gameplay, depending on how fast or slow you solve the few uncomplicated puzzles Nightfall throws at you. This “review” will be updated later on again when a newer build is available.
The game starts us off in front of an abandoned mansion, where our main protagonist, Ara Cruz, comments on how “there’s something strange about this tree.” I thought nothing abnormal about the nearby tree but lo and behold, there was indeed something sus about the seemingly normal tree…There was a hidden backdoor close it apparently. (Sorry I just had to get that out of my system. I thought her commenting on the tree was funny. Call me strange…)
*ahem*
Anyways, Ara Cruz is an aspiring journalist, who wants to investigate the aforementioned mansion after hearing reports of people disappearing in the vicinity (The girl is ambitious). We can already tell Ara gives no hoot as she delves right into the dark, desolated area with only a flashlight at hand. Anything for a story, I guess.
Later on, we will find an item called a mirror shard. The shard modifies our torch and allows us to use Bloodlight, a type of fluorescent light that can detect hidden objects around the world and at times, hidden messages and clues on otherwise clean surfaces.
The threat, so far, is minimal. I encountered only a zombie like creature and a monster who likes to bang…his head on the wall. The latter creep me out since as I entered the room resembling a prison ward, I could hear loud thumping and his soft groaning. The ambient sounds are unsettling, whether it’s the soft, distant murmurs of garbled voices or abrupt metal clanking on metal; the whole place kind of put me on edge.
What drew me to this game is the fact that Nightfall is advertising that the creatures from the Philippine folklore will make their presence known to the player but in the current build, the mythical creatures are absent and that disappointed me. I’m looking for the Aswang (a shapeshifting monster) and maybe the Tiyanak (It’s basically an evil spirit manifested from a baby that died before it was baptized) will make its appearance?
I found this website and it has information about the monsters that will be included in the final product.
For now, I recommend it only because I do like the concept but if you’re looking for a complete or even an almost complete game, this isn’t something you should buy. However, you should keep an on Nightfall.
Here's a look-see at Nightfall:Escape
Nightfall:Escape Video

I had some....... fun?
I was quite excited to learn that the creators/developers are pinoy.
With the sudden increase in horror games with similar mechanics (flashlights, no combat, run and hide)
I can say that this was nothing new. Although it is good, it's still far from the standards today.
honest opinion/review
To be honest, i felt like i was playing a PS1 game.
The voice acting is poor. The map/level design is average.
For a game with low quality textures it loads too slow. (I can load other games faster than this)
It has good framerate though. It executes it's events very smoothly.
This is not for the gamers who want High quality graphics and gameplay.
It's for those players who want something to play. (If you get me)
overall 7/10
again, i dont recommend it to some gamers who want HQ games.
i recommend it to casual gamers.
this wasn't meant to degrade the game @developers. keep up the good work.

Very harsh game! Its very hard to progress continuously on it, there’s no auto save which consequently makes you lose progress a lot of times on certain levels. You have to strugle to keep going with the game till the very end, its quite challenging to say the least.
Despite of that, Visuals are very neat, lots of characters very well designed, with pretty decent cut scenes.
I love the extras of the game, there’s a gallery where you can pay attention to the details of the monsters more closely, its a nice detail to have in such a game.