Haunting House Review
This is another offering from Twilight Creations Inc – the company that brought us Zombies!!! and All Wound Up, among others.
On opening the box, you might feel a little … underwhelmed. You get a selection of cards (10 identical cards for each player), some card tiles to make the house layout (with cross-roads, ‘T’ junctions and dead-ends), and 6 plastic figures. The contents are far too little for the size of the box provided, and two thirds of the box the game comes in is taken up by a cardboard insert. A little disappointing…
The rules themselves are simple enough, and cover both sides of a single A4 sheet, with enough room for clear pictures and good explanations of the situations.
The set-up is that you and your friends have dared each other to travel through a local haunted house. The first person to get all the way through wins. You need to randomly lay out the card tiles into a square shape on the table, forming a maze from the start tile to the end tile (note that there may not even be a clear way through the maze at the beginning).
Each player puts their figure at the start, and play begins. Each player’s set of ten cards have some special effect, such as “move two spaces” or “rotate 90º” or “switch two tiles”. During a turn, there is a random phase and a chosen phase. In the random phase, each player must shuffle and ‘suffer’ the top four cards drawn – meaning that the player must fulfil the cards if he can possibly do so.
During the chosen phase, each player chooses four cards to work through, with the aim of getting to the finish as quickly as possible.
The cards move your figure and tiles in unexpected ways, causing dead-ends to open up, or traps to be formed just when you thought you were getting somewhere. Some special cards only available during random phases can move the exit, or cause you to miss a turn, or fall down a trap-door, taking you to a new section of the maze.
It can actually be quite fun, and enjoyable to play, but you need to be in the right mood to get the most out of the game. If you are after a serious, thought-provoking game, then look elsewhere. Also, if you like to carefully plan out your moves and dislike being interrupted halfway through your turn, then avoid this one at all costs.
If you are after an ultra-light, totally chaotic and random maze game, then you might just enjoy this one. Take care, though – the ‘random phase’ (as well as the machinations of the other players during the ‘chosen phase; can really stuff up even the most careful player.
Summary
Presentation: The cards, tiles and figures are all functional and bright, clearly showing what they do, as well as adding some much-needed flavour. The cards show some gruesome monsters trying to reach out from the card backgrounds. The tiles have ghosts, bats, and secret doors. The figures are tortured souls presumbly regretting the whole ‘dare’ thing that brought them to this house in the first place. The box, however, could have been half the size – or less! 7.2/10
Clarity of Rules: It’s all pretty basic, and the cards and tiles are clear enough – even without the clarifying sections of the rules. You shouldn’t have any trouble picking up the gameplay… 9.1/10
Game Length: This depends how good your ‘hose the leader’ skills are. If everyone picks on the guy closest to the exit, this one can drag and drag until everyone agrees to just let someone win. Generally, however, it plays in about an hour. Which is actually about fifteen or twenty minutes too long for the lightness of the game… 6.7/10
Value: Well, it’s pretty cheap, and should be for what you get. 8.3/10
Overall: A very light filler game, that is actually a bit too long for a filler. The randomness may put off some players, and the lack of control even when you are guiding your figure will put off some more. It’s not one that will see a lot of table time during my sessions, but will possibly appeal to some. 6.1/10 (not an average)
On opening the box, you might feel a little … underwhelmed. You get a selection of cards (10 identical cards for each player), some card tiles to make the house layout (with cross-roads, ‘T’ junctions and dead-ends), and 6 plastic figures. The contents are far too little for the size of the box provided, and two thirds of the box the game comes in is taken up by a cardboard insert. A little disappointing…
The rules themselves are simple enough, and cover both sides of a single A4 sheet, with enough room for clear pictures and good explanations of the situations.
The set-up is that you and your friends have dared each other to travel through a local haunted house. The first person to get all the way through wins. You need to randomly lay out the card tiles into a square shape on the table, forming a maze from the start tile to the end tile (note that there may not even be a clear way through the maze at the beginning).
Each player puts their figure at the start, and play begins. Each player’s set of ten cards have some special effect, such as “move two spaces” or “rotate 90º” or “switch two tiles”. During a turn, there is a random phase and a chosen phase. In the random phase, each player must shuffle and ‘suffer’ the top four cards drawn – meaning that the player must fulfil the cards if he can possibly do so.
During the chosen phase, each player chooses four cards to work through, with the aim of getting to the finish as quickly as possible.
The cards move your figure and tiles in unexpected ways, causing dead-ends to open up, or traps to be formed just when you thought you were getting somewhere. Some special cards only available during random phases can move the exit, or cause you to miss a turn, or fall down a trap-door, taking you to a new section of the maze.
It can actually be quite fun, and enjoyable to play, but you need to be in the right mood to get the most out of the game. If you are after a serious, thought-provoking game, then look elsewhere. Also, if you like to carefully plan out your moves and dislike being interrupted halfway through your turn, then avoid this one at all costs.
If you are after an ultra-light, totally chaotic and random maze game, then you might just enjoy this one. Take care, though – the ‘random phase’ (as well as the machinations of the other players during the ‘chosen phase; can really stuff up even the most careful player.
Summary
Presentation: The cards, tiles and figures are all functional and bright, clearly showing what they do, as well as adding some much-needed flavour. The cards show some gruesome monsters trying to reach out from the card backgrounds. The tiles have ghosts, bats, and secret doors. The figures are tortured souls presumbly regretting the whole ‘dare’ thing that brought them to this house in the first place. The box, however, could have been half the size – or less! 7.2/10
Clarity of Rules: It’s all pretty basic, and the cards and tiles are clear enough – even without the clarifying sections of the rules. You shouldn’t have any trouble picking up the gameplay… 9.1/10
Game Length: This depends how good your ‘hose the leader’ skills are. If everyone picks on the guy closest to the exit, this one can drag and drag until everyone agrees to just let someone win. Generally, however, it plays in about an hour. Which is actually about fifteen or twenty minutes too long for the lightness of the game… 6.7/10
Value: Well, it’s pretty cheap, and should be for what you get. 8.3/10
Overall: A very light filler game, that is actually a bit too long for a filler. The randomness may put off some players, and the lack of control even when you are guiding your figure will put off some more. It’s not one that will see a lot of table time during my sessions, but will possibly appeal to some. 6.1/10 (not an average)
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