Haunt the House: Terrortown (PC)

"When I was a child I was afraid of ghosts. As I grew up, I realized that people are more scary." --Unknown

Source: Screen Capture from Game

Haunt the House is an action (with a dash of strategy, maybe) game created by SFB Games. You play as a ghost, and your job is to scare the humans away.  You do this my possessing the items in whatever area you happen to be in. There are achievements to be won, and people to give a fright, so let us take a closer look.

There are 4 different areas to play, thus far: The mansion, Terrortown(which has 5 different areas itself), the north pole and the train. The train is the newest area added.  Each area has a unique layout, and a plethora of unique possessable items that you can use to scare the bejeebers out of people. It’s great fun to find the different uses of each object. As the terror level rises, you can perform more actions with each item as well. Since scaring all of the humans away usually takes a bit of time, it keeps the experience interesting.

Source: Screen Capture from Game

The graphics are very cute, and cartoony, which I like. The animations are smooth and attractive, and the game over all ran very well for me—and I don’t have that powerful of a laptop to play on just yet. I mean that I was impressed by how well it ran. It did crash once, but I’m not sure if it was the game or something of my doing. Typically while I play I have other things going on as well, so that might have been an issue.

The music and sound effects are also fitting, and they also offer a good variety in the game. The musical score is beautiful. Each area has it's own music to fit in with its theme and they all sound wonderful. It kind of gave me the old time-y "dastardly villain tying a damsel to the train tracks" feeling at times. I think the train music is probably my favorite track, however. 

You start off with a default ghost, but through the course of the different areas, you may kill of some humans to gain other ghosts to keep you company. Seems cruel, but so is life, people. You can then play as the different styled ghosts. As far as I could tell, I didn’t see any discernable differences in gameplay, except for their ghostly calls, “OoooooooOOOOoooo~” and so on.

You get rankings when you complete an area. An area is completed once you have scared away every human there. You are ranked on the number of items you used, the time it took you to complete the area, and the terror levels you achieved. I S ranked all of the levels without much trouble.

Source: Screen Capture from Game

A lot of people have stated that the game is too childish and not suited for adults to play, but uh…. I really enjoyed it, and I’m 27—almost 28. I did think the game had a bit of a child-like aesthetic, but I didn’t enjoy the game any less because of it. In fact, I really enjoyed the art style and bright colors. I didn’t find the game particularly challenging, but not every game has to make you want to shake your keyboard in frustration. Every once in a while, it’s nice to play a simple game that is just fun. While the game isn’t teeming with replayability, it is good for killing 15 minutes now and again.

I did have some issues with the game. Other than the one time the game crashed, I had some issues with humans getting caught on items, particularly in the mansion area. I also had issues with the humans getting stuck running between floors. They would run up the stairs, stop, run back down the stairs, stop, run back up, and repeat. It would take long amounts of time for them to get unstuck. Or, they would be running hysterically towards the front door, then stop and run another way. Sometimes it just didn't make sense. 

In any case, I personally recommend the game, if you can get it on the Steam sale. This game was actually a gift to me from a dear friend of mine (She runs a Youtube channel where she does let’s plays—lots of SIMS and she recently started Subnaituca too, so you can check her out *here*) and I’m not sure what the price was at the time. Normally the game runs at $4.99 on Steam, and that is what it is currently. Isn't the spring sale coming up soon though? You can find the Steam store page *here*. If you don't have a Steam account, you can also get the game from Itch.io *here*.

If you've played, let me know what you thought. Did you find the game too childish? Did you have any issues with the game? Let me know below!

Happy Gaming, Friends!

Bell