Haunt was developed by developed by NanaOn-Sha and Zoë Mode and was published by Microsoft Studios. It was released January 18, 2012 for 800 MSP. A copy was provided by the developer for review.
Everyone has heard some variation on the story of the person who is forced to spend the night in a haunted mansion, only to be subjected to all manner of nightmarish visitations. With images like the above, Haunt would appear to be something in the survival horror vein, probably some twisted version of the haunted house schtick. Luckily, it’s anything but! Haunt is actually a family-friendly Kinect XBLA title featuring a light-hearted (but still slightly spooky) romp through the mansion of a deranged eccentric, Benjie Muldoon.
At the beginning of Haunt you find yourself awoken by a voice calling out to you. As it turns out, this voice is the owner of the mansion (wonderfully voiced by Tim Schafer of Double Fine), who is trapped in the portraits of the building and needs your help recovering some “Phantaflasks” that ghosts have stolen and hidden from him. You’ll use one hand to aim your trusty flashlight while using the rest of your body to dodge, duck, punch, open doors and cupboards, and make all manner of other zany motions. As you make your way through the mansion, you’ll encounter new and exciting enemies, explore different areas, and learn more about the history of the mansion and its crazy owner.
Here’s what we liked:
Tim Schafer – After being wowed by his speech at GDC last year, NanaOn-Sha asked Tim if he would be willing to voice the crazed owner of the mansion in Haunt. Evidently voice acting wasn’t enough, because according to the credits he also wrote the script! The tone and humor that we’ve become accustomed to in games like the Monkey Island series, Brutal Legend, and Psychonauts are out in full force, and it really is one of the high points of the game. It was hard not to rush towards each glimmering portrait as they appeared in the distance, knowing that whatever line Muldoon was about to deliver would leave you laughing.
Spooky atmosphere - Even though the game was designed to be more family-friendly than survival-horror, the developers did a great job of getting the tone right. Spooky without being downright scary, everything from the art to the level designs kept you on edge waiting to see what lay in wait around the next corner. The sound was amazing as well, with strange laughter and noises appearing at the perfect times and things that go bump in the night, well, going bump in the night.
General movement - Haunt is a game that uses a lot of general movement. When you want to move, you walk in place, but you don’t have to try too hard. When you want to focus on something, you have to swing the flashlight towards it, but even if you’re partway across the room the game will lock on and pull you in. Most of the actions are general, and if you do some semblance of them the game will recognize your effort and count it as a win. Kinect is sometimes criticized due to it’s imprecise nature, but Haunt is a game that generally handles the system very well.
The little things – A lot of times what separates a good game from a bad game is simply that a good game gets the little things right. Haunt gets the little things right. Wonderful random events occur, from decorations leaping out to attack you or blasting you with lasers to a ghost suddenly popping up in a hallway that you’ve been down twice before. The ghost battles are just a ridiculous amount of fun. The use of the Kinect camera is pure genius – you’ll see video of yourself pop up occasionally and a darkroom filled with pictures of you playing. Creepy! Best of all, there is enough variety in the actions that they never get boring. The developers really went out of their way to get the little things perfect, and it shows.
Here’s what we didn’t like:
Freakin’ corners – Trying to get around corners in Haunt can be insanely frustrating. To counteract that, the developers have inserted a mechanic where you can select which direction you want to go and the game will turn automatically for you, but this only works in the hallways. Getting stuck on doors led to some not-so-family-friendly things being said, and almost every staircase got us jammed up somehow. Most precise movement in the game wasn’t too great, although as mentioned above it’s not called for all that often.
Short – While the game is only 800 MSP, it also only took about 4-5 hours to beat and get every single achievement. There are leaderboards, and it looks like there may be DLC released (if the menu is any indication), but while this gives some reason to come back to it, it doesn’t give much of one. For those achievement hounds out there, this is probably a great title to give a look at, so this actually may be a positive for some.
Going into Haunt, it was hard to know what to expect. What we found, however, was a delightful little Kinect game, with great art, sound, game design, and a voiceover script written and performed by Tim Schafer to back it up. While the true target audience is probably more young elementary school children, there is enough in the game to appeal to an older crowd as well. There wasn’t a single point during the (admittedly short) game where we wished we were playing something else. If you’re looking for a game for your kids, or something easy and fun for yourself, Haunt should definitely be at the top of your list. If you’re looking for the follow-up to Super Meat Boy, keep on truckin’. With those stipulations in mind…
Score: Buy It
