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Genre: Adventure Developer & Publisher: Causeway Studios/indie.io Released: January 13, 2025 Requirements: OS: Windows 10 or newer Processor: Minimum, Intel Core i5; Recommended, Intel Core i9 Memory: Minimum 8 GB RAM; Recommended, 16 GB RAM Graphics: Minimum, Nvidia GTX 780; Recommended, Nvidia GTX 1660/1060 Storage: 15 GB available space
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By flotsam Causeway Studios/indie.io More an interactive story than a game (depending of course on your definition), this particular haunting provides a solid 4 hours or so of guided remembering and personal discovery. Joni lives alone in what was the family mansion, and on this day a disagreement of some sort with her friend Edith has arrived home with her. We learn the bones of what that has involved as Joni goes about mundane tasks; changing clothes, tidying the kitchen and taking out the garbage. We hear Joni’s thoughts as she reflects on what has occurred, and it’s an aspect that remains prominent throughout the tale. Bed beckons, but a storm and a power blackout results in a late night awakening. After which far less mundane events kick in. As described by the maker, Joni finds herself trapped in a mystical time snare that twists memories and reality. She must confront her family’s troubled past, uncover long-buried truths, and break the curse that has haunted the Evers family. What follows is largely an exercise in finding and examining objects, triggering the memories they contain, guided by the ghosts and whispers that haunt the house. Should you wonder whether this is horror, it isn’t. The haunting is largely benign, although there is a spooky moment or two, and the ‘curse’ has a menacing tone and visage. It is though no Hill House, so don’t be put off by the title. Everything takes place entirely within the house, save for the opening cutscene (which contains a spectacular storm imagery). It plays in the first person, and uses the WASD keys to get around and the mouse for most other things. For my liking it is a bit too ‘guided by numbers’ in the early stages, but you can alleviate that by turning off the objectives in the menu. So instead of being told to e.g., “take out the trash” you can work that out for yourself. Ditto where to go or what to do next. And if you are lost or it feels a little aimless, you can simply treat the objectives like a hint system; turn them on, check out the current one, then turn them off again. Further into the game the objectives get broader, which coincides with the ‘puzzling’ becoming more elaborate. It will never be difficult, but the first restoration ritual is probably the best example. The objective will be to complete it, and how to do that is what you have to work out. I liked that conundrum, and I won’t tell you anything more about it so as not to spoil it, although I am not sure I needed to do it four times. This really is though about the narrative. To quote the maker, “This isn’t just a story about a haunted house - it’s about the ghosts we all carry within ourselves. On one hand they can haunt us, hold us back and isolate us, or they can enlighten us and open pathways for growth.” Hotspots are indicated by a little circle, and there are times when relevant objects will glow. It contributes to this being more about the narrative than the puzzling. You will collect a few inventory items but they will be used automatically as needed, so inventory management isn’t an issue. The game exclusively autosaves, and when you hit the escape key you can see the last time it saved. It didn’t always suit me, but I appreciated knowing when the last save had occurred. The only voice you will hear is Joni, and she does an excellent job. So too the score. Intriguingly, a game this has been compared with is What Remains of Edith Finch. Is Joni’s friend Edith a coincidence? I have no idea, but I suspect if you liked that game, you will like this one. I played on: OS: Windows 10, 64 Bit Processor: Intel i7-9700K 3.7GHz RAM: Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB DDR4 32GB Video card: AMD Radeon RX 580 8192MB
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