This is going to be incredibly difficult, but bear with me. I’m going to try and review the incredibly addictive new Vampire vs. Werewolves game – Dead of Night – without making reference to them. You know THEM. You know, that other group of Vampires and Werewolves which have infected pop-culture for the past four years.

So bear with me.

Dead of Night is the latest release from Calgary’s BigStackStudios, the team behind one of this summer’s biggest hits Sigma.

If you’re familiar with the BigStack catalog you’ll be familiar with the gameplay and concept of Hottie Hookups (or just familiar with Russel Fee’s fantastic review from earlier this year). Dead of Night is a second rendition of the Hottie Hookups concept. This time, instead of pitting nerds and sexy bar stars against one another other, Dead of Night pits Vampires, Werewolves, and the dread (and incredibly cool) Steampunk Van Helsing against each other in a epic battle for the souls of humankind.

Your goal is to travel from each major city from Victorian-era Europe and aid the vampire swarms in their conquest to devour as many human souls as possible, while thwarting the hordes of werewolves. You draw a line connecting corresponding vampires and victims together and flick, tilt or tap the army of the undead away from your vampires prey. Once a human has been officially converted, you must then whisk them away into their undead chariot to spend eternity in Northwestern Washington, yearning and pouting for a young girl named Bella. And yes, this concept does sound quite simple, but once you reach the later stages of the game, things get quite hectic as you battle multiple advisories, while trying to match up color-coded vampires.

While many elements are quite similar to Hottie Hookups, Dead of Night is an incredibly addictive little game. First, the game is beautiful. And we’re not talking beautiful, as I walk around without a shirt on for two-thirds of a movie set in misty and frigid backwater Washington state type of beautiful. I mean, gorgeous pixelated backdrops and clever animation type of beautiful. Where Hottie Hookups may have failed to hook people on the tongue in-cheek humor, Dead of Night hooks users in with it’s gorgeous rendering and steampunk-esque design aesthetic.

Second, with the added inclusion of the Open Feint scoring system and a level of difficulty that grows exponentially, Dead of Night is an intriguing game for the hardcore gamers among us. As each level progresses you struggle to get the perfect timing to achieve the expert status and reach the latest goal. For the price and the entertainment, you can’t go wrong with Dead of Night.

So if you’re looking for a great addictive addition to your iPhone collection or just a way to unleash some of the built up pop-culture frustration, Dead of Night is definitely a game that you should pick-up.


(P.S. Can I get some street cred for doing an entire review with out mentioning the Twilight Saga? What? What do you mean that I mentioned them three time? O… Son of a… )