I’m now six games – halfway through, as of the release of Silent Waters – into the Haunted Hotel franchise, and I still don’t have a sense of exactly what the franchise is yet. Obviously the first trilogy tells a relatively coherent story, while Charles Dexter Ward is just the brand name being slapped on a Lovecraft adaptation for marketing purposes.
No one can say that this isn’t a huge improvement over the first Haunted Hotel. Likewise, it would be difficult to give it any compliments beyond ‘it cleared an extremely low bar’. If I’m being honest, that bar was buried ten feet underground, so as long as HH2 could manage a crawl – mission accomplished.
With this game, I delve back into the history of HOGs, to a time when players were expected to just be happy that they were faced with a screen full of random garbage and a list of specific things to click on. A time before narrative coherence, integrated puzzles, or any conception of fairness in HOS design.
HIGH Meeting the REAL Paxton Creek Avenger
LOW Maybe the worst sliding block puzzle I’ve ever encountered.
WTF I know, I’ll put my dog onto that toy boat and remote-control him to the other side! How can that go wrong?
HIGH A Hidden-Object based fistfight? Tell me more.
LOW Having to go to the map every 30 seconds to remember where the latest ornate key is supposed to be used.
WTF Apparently ‘walling in’ is an option for treating mentally ill children?
HIGH Spotting hidden items is actually enjoyable in limited doses.
LOW The grinding repetition necessary to reach the game's end.
WTF Why is the country-western singer a vampire?
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