The Blackout Club review – clever small-town horror with a Stranger Things vibe

PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One; Question
An absorbing thriller with a splash of They Live and The Goonies, this spooky multiplayer game has you investigating paranormal goings-on in suburbia

In this spooky multiplayer oddity, middle-American suburbanites lurch comatose from their beds every night to do the bidding of spectral voices. A local kid on the run, smartphone at the ready, your task is to record and thwart these paranormal goings-on while searching for a missing friend. Cause too much uproar, however, and you'll draw the ire of the Shape, a blazing phantom that can only be seen through closed eyelids. It makes for an absorbing small-town thriller, like Stranger Things with a splash of They Live, though repetitive tasks and some unimaginative gadgets hold the game back from greatness.

Each game, as one of up to four players, you set out from an abandoned railcar to carry out a randomised series of objectives, from photographing bloodstains to stealing arcane objects from bizarre chambers underground. In your path stand an army of somnambulant grown-ups, many still in their pyjamas, backed up by electricity traps and aerial drones. The town's layout is the same each time you visit, but the props and threats move around, which keeps things interesting even after mission types grow familiar.