Ever wondered what it would actually be like to visit a haunted house? One would think that most spirits would be pretty benign if they actually existed, and Haunted House Renovator does a good job of showing you what a building full of such entities would look like.
It reminds me of House Flipper, but with ghosts messing with your progress along the way, and I found myself enjoying it way more than I originally thought I would. It’s not perfect, though, and I think it needs quite a bit of renovating itself. Let’s talk about it!
Full disclosure: I received a review copy from the developers.
Full-Time Renovator, Part-Time Exorcist
Unlike most of the “simulator” type games you’ll find everywhere nowadays, Haunted House Renovator actually does have a pretty silly story that kinda explains why you’re doing this hilariously specific and unusual job.
I won’t go into too much detail, but you’re basically out here fixing up houses previously owned by members of a secret society that dabbled in supernatural stuff.
For each dilapidated home, you have a checklist of tasks to complete in each room. At the start, it’ll be relatively calm. Most of the spirits are going to be pretty dormant, save for a couple of minor ones, like maybe a flying book or a little ghost that shuts off light sources.
Eventually, as you clean up and repair more of the house, everything else will activate, including the ghost of whoever used to live there. Some of these will be much more disruptive, as they set stuff on fire, disorient you with loud shrieks, or even move stuff between rooms.
You can and should get rid of them ASAP, but it’s up to you to figure out how to do it (check your bestiary!) and whether or not you want to use a “nice” or “mean” approach.
It’s such a hectic experience that turns an otherwise mundane and simple premise into a drawn out test of patience. To top it off, renovating isn’t the only think you’re here for. You have to get rid of the former secret society members too, somehow.
While you try to find and destroy the objects tying them to this plane of existence, these ghastly tenants will roam around the residence. Like the other spirits you’ll encounter, they’re technically harmless too, but they will possess you if they spot you, forcing you into a minigame where you have to (quite literally) sever the puppet strings controlling your movements.
Embracing the Jank
The game’s still rough around the edges, and to be frank, I think they should have released this as an early access title first. It’s fairly buggy, and completing your tasks can be quite annoying at times because of how some stuff just refuses to cooperate with you.
Ironically, none of the annoyance has to do with the entities of each abode. I can live with the gremlins running off with large furniture, or a sentient broom spinning me around with the choppiest animation known to man. That’s exactly what I signed up for!
However, it gets bad when game mechanics are unintentionally messed up by varying issues. Most of my experiences involved stuff clipping into odd places, which makes it hard to fully finish tasks. I’ve also run into doors that just refused to work… for some reason.
There are also minor issues, like occasionally seeing “MISSING STRING” in certain screens or the cursor completely selecting the wrong item, which happens a lot when dealing with smaller objects. These little things add up to ruin what would otherwise be a completely fine game.
I also wanted to talk about the lack of a proper tutorial, but as of writing this, they’re just a few days away from releasing an update that’ll supposedly address that. This brings us to the next section…
Remaining Cautiously Optimistic
Fair play to the developers, they are seemingly trying their best to fix the game based on whatever feedback they’re getting. Only time will tell if they actually do end up polishing it enough to get rid of some of the jank.
At the moment, I recommend waiting it out and checking their announcements to see what changes they’ve made with the upcoming updates. If you really want to try Haunted House Renovator now, at least wait for a Steam sale to soften the blow on your wallet.
I somehow found it more enjoyable than the aforementioned House Flipper, mostly because the ghosts messing with you keep the gameplay loop feeling fresh and active.
I just really hope they fix the technical issues and address the lack of clarity on its mechanics. It has the potential to be a game you can play when you just wanna kick back and do some renovating in a setting that’s surprisingly cozy, but the hiccups make it so much more unintentionally annoying than it should be.