It's hard to believe that Night Trap was ever regarded as controversial, given that, for the most part, it's about as violent as an episode of Scooby Doo. Yet not only was it seized upon by the press as an example of how video games were corrupting children, various politicians even got in on the act. One American senator even took himself to raise questions about the game in Congress - that's the American House of Parliament for anyone not familiar with the way their system 'works'. Despite the fact that, as the documentary accompanying the game reveals, he hadn't played Night Trap at all. I guess someone on his staff  told him that the game was pure concentrated evil and he decided to run with it. The resultant controversy meant that the game sold more copies that it really deserved to. Because the sad truth of the matter is that Night Trap isn't much cop.

The main reason that people were bothered by Night Trap was that  is uses full motion video rather than sprites as most other games of that era did. And hence it  looked a great deal more realistic than other titles on the market. But the game's use of FMV was is the source of its  most significant failing - a serious lack of interactivity. The game supposedly gives you access to the surveillance and security system of a surburban house. Not just any house, mind you, this house is populated by a family of very middle-class vampires, one of whom has invited her classmates over for a slumber party.  Unfortunately, things go a bit pear shaped when the co-eds find themselves being stalked by a horde of evil half-vampires.  Scary, eh?

Well, no, not really. These half-vampires, who are called 'augs' are covered entirely in black and look a bit naff. And they have a convenient habit of wandering across the hidden floor panels scattered around the house. At which point you can press the 'trap' button and the monster in question disappears in a plume of white smoke. And even the traps are a bit rubbish, requiring the monster to just stand in the same spot, unmoving while they activate. And that's really all you do. You can select various cameras around the house, watching the various characters interact with each other, but since the game's video based, the same things happen every time you play the game. Occasionally you'll have to trap a monster before it gets to a co-ed, but you really have no warning when one of the main characters is in danger. Should you happen to be looking through a different camera, the game ends because you failed to rescue them. And due to the lack of a save system, you'll have to start the whole game again.

The acting in the game is passable at best - the co-eds themselves are so utterly bland you'll find yourselves rooting for the vampires. The only genuinely rewarding moments in the game happen when you get to trap the undercover agent who has been bossing you around for most of the game. Or even better, you can let the daughter of the family sink her teeth into her neck. Not that there's any gore even then, though. There are only two scenes in the game that could be considered vaguely scary, one is when a co-ed has her blood drained through some kind of daft looking apparatus, and the other is when the characters find someone hanging upside down in a a cupboard, his blood again having been drained.  Hardly the stuff of nightmares.

Night Trap can be picked up quite cheaply off E-Bay, and it's worth taking a look at to see what all the fuss was about. But it's in no way scary or titillating - if it's gore you're after, the Phantasmagoria games are much nastier although they too have their own failings. As a piece of gaming history, Night Trap is an interesting curio, but as a game it its own right, it fails to entertain.