Midnight Ghost Hunt’s first update includes a terrifying doll factory

Midnight Ghost Hunt‘s first major update includes a new map full of chaotic props: baby dolls with knives and scuttling little legs, lethal forklifts, and soda machines that chase ghost hunters around the map while ejecting soda cans like softballs. I’ve heard of an unsafe workplace before, but this is ridiculous.

Polygon was able to test the new map with Vaulted Sky Game’s developers, and it is now fully loaded with nightmares and hilarious antics.

The concept of Midnight Ghost Hunt is simple — a group of four amateur ghost hunters enter a scary location, like an abandoned pirate ship or museum. The four ghost hunters are there to capture their opponents, disguised in ridiculous props. They also use their psychic abilities to escape capture. For the first five minutes of the match, the ghosts are frail and weak, and the hunters can easily smash them and vacuum their souls up. If the clock strikes midnight and even one ghost remains, the tables turn, and the vicious, empowered ghosts become the hunters.

The newest map highlights one of the greatest strengths of the game, which is that it crosses the border between legitimate terror and camp. The constant background noise from old processing machines that are not controlled by anyone in particular is a problem. Sometimes games involve all four hunters chasing away a panicking ghost. Sometimes, ghosts will set up a jump-scare using a falling sword and an exploding gunnon. Every time I heard a cat screech or a creepy laugh, I’d duck, because it usually meant a knife-wielding baby doll would be close behind.

Image: Vaulted Sky Games/Coffee Stain Publishing

Previous maps have their own advantages — the mansion has knight armor with swords that make for a compelling hallway ambush, and the museum is full of globes that can roll away from hunters at mach speed. The props in the doll factory are better suited to frontal attacks, which gives the ghosts greater options. For instance, they can possess heavy metal gates and turn them into guillotines on unsuspecting hunters. These items are a dual-edged sword. Hunters can attack larger, heavier props with their weapons and take out the bad guys. A smaller prop may escape unharmed.

The update also improves hunters’ weapons. The shockstick, a short-range weapon that can hit a ghost rapid-fire, now comes with a makeshift stop-sign buckler. Hunters have a better chance to duel it out in the later game with this added utility, and some of the most compelling moments as a hunter come from surprising an angry revenant with a salt shotgun or melee blow. Developer Vaulted Sky Games told Polygon that with weekly patches, along with larger updates like this one, the ghost/hunter win ratio is now getting very close to a clean 50/50 split.

Midnight Ghost Hunt has earned success in streaming communities, and it looks like the developer is leaning into the game’s strengths with the latest map and update. Matches are now more exciting for both parties, with hunters having a greater chance of making a last stand at midnight, while ghosts have the ability to cause more havoc in the first minutes. The power balance is a little less lopsided. There are very few distractions worse than watching a vending machine chase you, shooting cans at your head.