Haunted House

Release Date: October 12, 2023

7.4

OpenCritic

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A remake of an Atari 2600 horror game, originally released in 2982. Haunted House was developed by Orbit. It's set in the titular mansion, tasking us with avoiding monsters and rescuing our friends.

Plot
Mechanics
Technical aspects

Haunted House is an action adventure roguelite and a reimagining of a 1982 Atari 2600 game of the same name. It was developed by Orbit Studio.

Plot

The game's protagonist is Lyn, a young girl visiting her uncle, legendary treasure hunter Zachary Graves. Once there, she finds his estate overrun by monsters. Lyn's friends are abducted, while her uncle is nowhere to be found.

She must find a way to save them and deal with the beasts - and so, she starts searching for the pieces of a magical urn scattered across the house, which could possibly imprison the monsters.

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Mechanics

The game is set in a haunted mansion. The core gameplay consists of avoiding monsters, sneaking past them without getting caught. The player can set traps and distract enemies, avoiding their attacks in case of a direct confrontation. We'll also face many bosses, each of whom guards a shard of the magical urn.

If we fall, we'll respawn at the mansion entrance, while the building's structure and the location of enemies is procedurally generated anew. This makes game different each run. Saving Lyn's friends makes them playable, while all of them have different stats and skills.

Each successful run makes us stronger, as we can upgrade our health, stamina or lantern.

Technical aspects

Haunted House is an isometric game, featuring humorous, colorful, cartoonish visuals.

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Videos and Screens

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[0:51] Haunted House launch trailer

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[1:43] Haunted House trailer #2

7.4

OpenCritic Rating

Game is Recomended by 60% of Critics. There are 14 Critic Reviews.

OpenCritic

WayTooManyGames: 7 / 10 by Leonardo Faria

Haunted House overcomes its low budget aesthetics and occasional lack of polish with a simple, but unique gameplay loop featuring elements from roguelikes, stealth games, puzzlers, and survival horrors (well, the PG kind of survival horror). It just features enough room and puzzle variety, as well as decent progression system, to keep you wanting to play just one more round, just to see if you can finally beat that one annoying boss, or if you can find another Atari cartridge to hand over to that nerdy kid at the lobby.

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Rely On Horror: 8.5 / 10 by Steve Summers

Atari revives the godfather of survival horror yet again with a new 2023 entry that brings a fresh take to the long-running series.

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Gaming Age: by Chris Dunlap

Haunted House is fun for a while, but it begins to lose it’s charm the further you get into it. The game is okay for a few runs, but you may begin to lose interest quickly and want to stop. It’s a decent remake for sure, though very average overall and just not as compelling or satisfying as other roguelites or even other Atari remakes available.

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