Who doesn’t like a good ghost story?
Whether scary or funny, people have a weak point for tales about ghosts. The people you’re scaring the pants off of in Haunt the House will by walking away with a handful of scary stories, while you will be walking away with a warm and fuzzy feeling. At least, as much of a warm and fuzzy feeling a ghost can muster.
The ghost in Haunt the House only has one night to scare the people roaming the halls of the place he calls home, and he will do whatever he can to get them running into the night. And by “he” I mean “you”, because it’s your job to make sure that no one leaves that house with their pants unsoiled.
No one can see your cute little ghost form floating about, so you need to possess one of the many objects in the house to scare people out the door. You’ll find yourself taking control of several items and make them walk, float, or just plain act spooky. It doesn’t sound that exciting, but there’s a lot of care in what you can do that makes the game really charming. And there is a lot of charm.
The ghost you control is adorably sad, and everything he possesses gets that same sad face. Everything. I almost wanted to feel bad for him. As you scare more guests, the atmosphere gets increasingly unsettling and more scares become available to you. You start the game with some novelty scares and the ability to make most of the items you come across float. Later on you can make monsters pop out of just about anything and further contort everyday objects.
I have to admit that 100% of the fun in this game comes from seeing what items look like when they’re possessed and what the new scares look like. Chasing 30 people out of a house is a feat, but they can be difficult to wrangle out without following them around like a sad ghost stalker. Unlocking and seeing all of the ways you can make people run for their lives is the best part of Haunt the House. In that way it’s less of a flash game and more of a flash toy box. Sure, there’s a goal.
But will you care if you reach it? Probably not.
