Game Reviews

Haunt the House: Terrortown

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Haunt the House: Terrortown

When you think about it, being dead isn't all that bad. Assuming the afterlife exists in one form or another, you could come back as an ethereal spirit, and have the power to scare the living daylights out of passers-by.

That's the scenario you find yourself in with Haunt the House: Terrortown. You're a cute ghost who is expected to rid several locations of people by possessing a dazzling variety of different objects.

These include furniture, musical instruments, toys, and even dinosaur bones. You can possess an object by tapping the X button when you're close by, and once you've done this you're presented with a range of options, allowing you to move, rattle, or perform special moves depending on the object you've chosen.

Ghost town

However, not all of these choices are present when you first enter a location - you need to build up the atmosphere by spooking a few people first.

This is Haunt the House: Terrortown's most amusing facet. Timing your actions to scare the maximum number of people is akin to an art form, and once you've got them screaming with fear you need to carefully herd them towards the exit with additional tricks.

As much fun as this is, there are some niggles. The actual process of guiding the people out of each location can become frustrating, as they'll often run in the wrong direction and even return to the precise room where you delivered the initial scare - illogical behaviour, to say the least.

Another issue is that once you've finished the game there's little reason to return. Although you're aiming to get rid of all the people, there's no 'score' as such.

The only other objective is to populate your house with fresh ghosts, which is achieved by interacting with certain characters within each location. It's a nice aside, but finding all of the characters isn't exactly hard.

Rentaghost

Haunt the House: Terrortown could do with a little more content to keep you busy, but that's not to say it's an unworthy download. The visuals are gorgeous, with a unique style which is both cute and creepy at the same time. The audio is also impressive, boasting effective spot effects and some genuinely amusing sounds.

It may be over too soon, but Haunt the House: Terrortown is fun while it lasts. PlayStation Mobile isn't getting all that much attention at present, but if it can continue to receive games of this quality then that should hopefully change as time goes on.

Haunt the House: Terrortown

Although it's limited in scope and replayability, Haunt the House: Terrortown is enjoyable and charming enough to make you forgive its shortcomings
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Damien  McFerran
Damien McFerran
Damien's mum hoped he would grow out of playing silly video games and gain respectable employment. Perhaps become a teacher or a scientist, that kind of thing. Needless to say she now weeps openly whenever anyone asks how her son's getting on these days.