The Haunting House Game Review

The inlaws picked up a game called The Haunting House quite some time ago because we were all looking for a horror game. It received mixed reviews at the table.

In The Haunting House players are competing to exit an ever shifting house of horror. Each turn players have two phases. First select 4 actions from their deck of cards to move through the maze of corridors. Players proceed through this phase in turn order. The second phase is similar but the 4 actions are selected randomly from their deck of cards; proceeding again in turn order.

The random move phase seems a little jarring. It does bring in the theme of how some characters in horror movies do inexplicably dumb things but it can be quite frustrating in how randomly it can botch strategy.

The game board and pieces are incredibly thematic. Upon setting up the board I was excited to play because this looked like an exciting and dynamic dungeon crawl style haunted house. However I was disappointed in the game play. For something that looks dynamic and thematic there is little theme or change in the play-style. The haunted house has no rooms, its only square of random corridors. While the box suggested exploring a haunted house it was actually laid out at the beginning of the game. There is no exploration, no haunted story element, nothing to really fit the theme. The Haunting House came off as a childish maze romp of frustration.

The frustration came from the constantly moving exit. The basic strategy of the game would be to work your piece to a corner and attempt to move the exit to your tile while preventing other players from getting to the exit.

The game play is rather uncomplicated with little interaction between players other than screwing over your other players by moving or rotating tiles in their path. This can be fun if that is what you are expecting of the game. Honestly I did have a little fun after I realized what the game was about, but everything about the game box led me to believe it was a more thematic game. It really disappointed me on that fact.

To sum up The Haunting House is an okay game. It does very little with the horror theme it is based upon. Game play is quirky yet uncomplicated. I would recommend this game mostly for kids or adults looking for a basic shifting maze game. Be warned the only thing that haunts The Haunting House is the spirit of more thematic games out there.