30 Days of Night (2007)
I recently re-watched 30 Days of Night just to make sure my fond memories of it hadn’t been twisted since my last viewing years ago. After confirming that it is still very much the slick and stylish gorefest I remembered it to be, I started wondering what it might play like as a game.
If you’re a fan of horror games, you’re probably aware of the drought of quality vampire-themed video games that’s plaguing this industry. Aside from Nosgoth, the pickings are slim. The last vampire game I can remember really enjoying was inFAMOUS 2: Festival of Blood, and that was back in 2011.
In 30 Days of Night, the small town Barrow, Alaska is invaded by a group of vampires just as its inhabitants are prepping for a full month without sunlight. The film had some narrative issues, but its portrayal of these bloodsuckers was pure eye candy. They were terrifying in a car wreck sort of way where I couldn’t help but stare every time one was given some screen-time.
Transforming this set-up into a video game shouldn’t be too difficult, there’s a myriad ways it could work. As a co-op game, a team of players could work together to survive, finding survivors, scavenging for resources and hiding from patrolling vampires.
Otherwise, asymmetrical multiplayer is big right now (Evolve, Last Year, Damned, Depth, the list goes on) so why not turn it into a game of hide and seek? One team of players acts as the survivors while another team of player-controlled vampires seeks them out.
I’d play the shit out of that.
