Haunted House

The title, Haunted House, says it all: you, and maybe one other friend, wander through several levels of a haunted house. You play as either Jacob Silverspring or Silvia Silverspring. Your quest: to find out what happened to their grandfather who vanished 30 years ago. Your only lead: the haunted house. <br />There are 20 levels for you to go through - and unfortunately 16 of the 20 play out exactly the same. This is one big “get past the obstacle” game: you search through dozens of objects, use all sorts of light sources, find keys, pull levers or use colored lanterns to find the path to the exit. <br />And when you finish the level, you do exactly the same thing on the next level - and the next level. <br />But wait, it gets even worse; you don’t know which color lantern you use (there are three) to open up the secret path. And you don’t know how many levers you need to pull in order to open up the door. <br />This game makes you search throughout every square inch of each level, and if you miss a searchable item or lever, you will get stuck and the game comes to a halt. <br />The combat isn’t any better; at first all I did was run away from the monsters while waiting for the creatures to die from damage my light source gave them. <br />But that changes with items like the Staff of the Magi-Straight, the Flaming Branch or the Skull of Enlightenment. With those items, I can blast many enemies - but then have to run around avoiding them while the item recharges. It’s more exciting, but not by much. <br />There are four boss battles levels mixed in, but most of them have you blasting too many waves of enemies. It started fun, but turned boring real fast. <br />The game makers also try to get you to find all the pages of three journals hidden throughout all the levels, but they don’t realize that many game players will not bother reading those journals, so that’s a wasted thought. <br />Haunted House is a good idea, but it needs a more exciting mode of play, better weapons and enemies. SKIP IT.