Developer: Lag Studios
Price: FREE
This game will cost you nothing, so why not try it? If you want to know what you are getting into, read on
(Spoilers Probably)
Spooky’s House of Jump Scares is exactly as it’s name states. This indie horror game throws you into a retro styled mansion, with a graphical style that reminds me of Wolfenstein 3D. Your objective, to get to the farthest room you can. The game is advertised as having 1000 rooms, I was only fortunate (and brave) enough to make it to 200.
The game begins with the main character, Spooky herself, talking to you and challenging you to traverse her house. Once inside the narrow corridors and creepy music don’t seem like your typical horror game.
Before I mention Gameplay, this game has some weird resolution issues. I usually screenshot through steam overlay but this causes weirdness. Being early access it’s fine to have technical issues, I just hope they do get fixed. Technical issues, especially getting resolution correct, is very important. In this version of the game there is a fix resolution option in the settings that you need to activate every time you play.
As you sprint down the halls little cardboard cutout ghosts, skeletons and other creatures unexpectedly pop out from the walls accompanied by cute sound effects.
It’s scary I swear.
Controlled with mouse of keyboard feels fine in the first person perspective. As you run through the rooms and are eventually chased by monsters, you will find challenge in having to manage your sprint and being aware of your health. There was one situation where I had to take a hit to make it through a room.
Even though some may find traversing hundreds of small rooms lackluster, I found the story and the mystery of why things are the way they are enough to keep me going.
For example there are random notes scattered around the house, from an unknown source who, in the past took the same path as you. Additionally, there is a random chance for little arcade machines to generate which feature 2D arcade games to play.
Below is one of the arcade games, where you play as Spooky herself and stab shoppers in a mall.
The variety of rooms and the way the gameplay changes is enough to keep me interested. Some of the different rooms feature blindingly white environments with audio puzzles while others are dark paths falling into darkness.
One of the things I cannot capture in writing is the sound. This game has fantastic sound design. While the voice acting of Spooky at the beginning is poor at best, the rest of the game sounds great. The monsters moans and screams and this one demonic track you are going to fear, as it just unsettles you and lets you know of danger being near.
Final Thoughts
Spooky’s House of Jump Scares is good at what it does. One second you’re laughing at the cutesy art style and the next you’re running for your life as demonic music plays.
-Its got a great graphical style
-Fantastic(and spooky) sound design
-Interesting backstory
-Surprisingly lots of gameplay variation
-Needs to fix resolution issues and steam overlay issues though
I suggest trying this game out!
Beware, this is not for the faint of heart.
