- Publisher: BLOODIOUS GAMES
- Release Date: Jul 8, 2022
- Also On: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
- Unscored
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Jul 6, 2022Bloodious Games has been developing MADiSON since 2016, and it’s incredible to see a project of this magnitude come to fruition from a team of only two people. MADiSON creates a harrowing experience for fans to feast on, with its outstanding atmospheric tension, eccentric camera mechanic, and psychedelic puzzles. Apart from being a horror game, it also showcases some truly artistic stages and mythos. There are some beautiful landscapes to explore and investigate as you plunge into a spiral of insanity. After all, you are the Mad Son.
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Sep 13, 2022Summary: MADiSON is an astounding success in the horror genre, especially for someone who doesn’t play many horror games (me). The game was well put together and delivered on the spooks, however some puzzles are rough to figure out and could have been a little less obscure.
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Jul 6, 2022Ultimately, if you love horror games, in particular P.T., simply know that you need to play MADiSON. This is the best pure horror game in years, shredding the nerves of even the most brave of souls. It can be a little frustrating when you get stuck on a devious puzzle, but when you finally find the solution it’s very rewarding. No game has horrified us quite as much as this debut from Bloodious. We just hope the studio is ready to follow up with something else even scarier.
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Jul 6, 2022MADiSON is consistent, and that’s one of the key factors in a great horror game. A lot of games tend to struggle with a sluggish second act after an incredible opener or fall off in the final act, but that does not happen here. The puzzles remain a delight to solve, the tension never eases up, and just when you think you’re safe, a light will flicker, and you’ll catch a glimpse of the monster and you’ll need to change your pants. Beyond this, the story and lore is disturbing on a true crime level and manages to maintain its pacing. Suffice it to say, MADiSON is an unnerving, unsettling, and truly terrifying experience.
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Aug 3, 2022MADiSON, developed by the Argentine studio Bloodius Games, breaks the mold and gets us into one of the best horror experiences so far this year.
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Jul 29, 2022MADiSON borrows a lot from lamented P.T., obviously Visage was also a source of inspiration, but you can’t say the game lacks its own identity. It’s actually one of the best horror games of recent years. It tells a gripping story, does a great job at building tension, randomizes jump scares, offers interesting puzzles, looks good and sounds fantastic. On the downside, it tormented me with incessant backtracking and annoyed with strictly limited inventory space.
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Jul 18, 2022MADiSON is an excellent psychological horror title bolstered by clever puzzles and a constant atmosphere of dread. It's well-paced giving players just enough of a breath to then take on the next challenge. Some quality of life updates, such as increasing the number of options in the settings and removing the safe could benefit the game. Ultimately however, those are only small issues in an otherwise fantastic game.
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Jul 6, 2022By far, the most spine-chilling game that we have tried in a long time. As an adventure, it offers really interesting puzzles, even when control has its flaws.
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Jul 6, 2022MADiSON channels the best instalments of the first-person horror genre to deliver a frantic, nerve-shredding and atmospheric tale of demonic possession. It delivers the scares often and will have you tentatively looking over your shoulder at that shadow that definitely wasn’t there before. It’s been a while since I felt this much trepidation moving through a cursed home, but it feels frighteningly good to test this demonic presence again. A must play for horror fans this year.
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Jul 15, 2022MADiSON is a good horror title, especially thanks to its never banal puzzles, which recall those of classic graphic adventures, rather than Amnesia titles.
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Jul 13, 2022MADiSON is a brilliant psychological horror about possession, paranormal events and a terrible ritual gone wrong. If you loved Visage, MADiSON is the next horror to play.
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Jul 21, 2022Numerous jump scares, logical and challenging puzzles, and psychological horror that shake your mind. It is worth considering that MADiSON has the best core elements among recent horror games. However, the links between the narrative and puzzles may not be easily found due to lack of hints.
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Aug 22, 2022All in all, MADiSON is a good game but a mediocre horror. I have some serious issues with it, but I can’t dismiss the potential. I believe the next game will be able to compete with Visage, and I’m already waiting for it impatiently.
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Jul 14, 2022Very classic in content as in form, MADiSON will not really succeed in standing out from its models but still has robust qualities: a horrifying atmosphere that keeps you on the lookout and surprisingly clever puzzles that will make you take out your pencil and a piece of paper.
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Jul 13, 2022Madison is a creepy crawl through a twisted haunted house with enough genuine out-of-your-seat scares to leave you shaken like a Polaroid picture.
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Jul 27, 2022Madison loses itself to out-of-place flights of fancy during its middle periods, allowing you to time-travel as you solve a series of colour-coded painting puzzles that do little to advance the overall plot of the game, and feel more like placeholders than real, mechanically or thematically-relevant puzzles. It says a lot about the audio and visual design of the game that this lack of self-control doesn’t actually impact the experience too much. That said, if you’re the kind of person who gets easily hung up on inventory puzzles, Madison may test your patience as much as it tests your nerves.
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Jul 11, 2022Madison works up a solid premise and uses its camera mechanics effectively as a means of communing with the supernatural. Its multipart puzzles are also often a highlight. As a horror experience, however, it falls back on a handful of simple tricks, detracting from subtle psychological concerns for the sake of easy thrills.
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Jul 12, 2022MADiSON is simultaneously one of the most tantalizing, yet enraging horror experiences I’ve ever played. The atmosphere and story are rich and engaging, and the scares are turned up to 11. But the puzzles are so baffling that it’s tough to recommend this game even to devoted horror fans. That said, I’d love to see Bloodious Games take another stab at a horror project with more streamlined gameplay.
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Jul 6, 2022MADiSON is a psychological horror game without any psychological horror. It has jump scares galore, and at least on PC, it’s a completely broken mess for me before launch.
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| This publication has not posted a final review score yet. | |
| These unscored reviews do not factor into the Metascore calculation. | |
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Aug 10, 2022Madison is not without its faults: it abuses jumpscares too much, it's not very good in terms of gameplay, nor is it surprising in terms of story. However, it achieves what it sets out to do: terror. One of the scariest games of recent times.
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Jul 8, 2022Madison is a little too clever for its own good. For all that it can be a bit ridiculous (in an endearing way, at that) it does some genuinely great things, and really takes advantage of everything the in-game camera can offer. But at least an hour of your six-ish in the hell-house will be you swaggering back and forth angrily interacting with things you already found, until you stumble on the solution you need. This massively undercuts the pacing, to the point that the well-crafted scares and monstrous monsters stop being as effective. I'd still recommend it to a horrorficionado, but the rec isn't as full-throated as it could have been. If the puzzle bits were a little easier, the horror bits of Madison would be able to properly shine.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 499 out of 617
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Mixed: 12 out of 617
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Negative: 106 out of 617
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Jul 10, 2022
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Aug 19, 2022
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Jul 13, 2022Me cagué encima jugandolo. Juego argentino encima. Tremenda calidad papá! Aguante argentinaa