Game Review: Haunt the House: Terrortown

Before we get into the meat (or rather, the vegan frozen pizza) of this review, let me say that I am very sorry for the colon catastrophe happening in the post title. I wanted to keep to the formula of "[Medium] Review: [Title]" that I used last post, with Slaughterhouse Rulez, but I didn't anticipate the awkwardness which occurs if the title of the game itself includes a second colon. Yet if this is indeed a type of grammatical horror, perhaps this is fitting for a Halloween post? I'm going to choose to believe this is the case, while I leave the title as it is instead of spending any more time looking for a viable alternative.

Since my last spooky review ended up more on the negative side, I am happy to be continuing my series of Halloween posts with an entry about something I actually enjoyed. The chosen topic of this post is not a film or a book, but a game, specifically Haunt the House: Terrortown (as you may have already guessed from the title).

Terrortown's "Mansion House" level is based on the
Haunt the House browser game

Haunt the House was first released in 2010 as an in-browser flash game on the website Armor Games. It was free to play and featured only one level, in which players controlled a cute but vindictive ghost whose home has been taken over by unwanted human guests. The goal of the game is to fly around the house, possessing objects and scaring the humans into leaving the house, allowing your little ghost to return to their peaceful, guest-free afterlife. 

Haunt the House: Terrortown is both the expansion of and sequel to the original Haunt the House. Unlike its predecessor, Terrortown was released for multiple gaming platforms, including Playstation Vita, iOS, Android, and PC. I naturally purchased the PC version, which you can buy through Steam for about 4 euros if you just get the base game or a little under 6 euros if you get the soundtrack with it. 

If you're thinking it sounds a bit exploitative to have to pay real money for a game you could just play online for free (if it's still up on Armor Games, that is), it's worth noting that Terrortown comes with many features that the original game lacked. Besides improved graphics, Terrortown includes three extra levels, new ghosts, a full soundtrack, and more detailed gameplay. You will also have Steam achievements to aim for, should you buy the game through that platform. 

So Terrortown has a bunch of new features, sure, but is it worth buying? I would say yes. If you enjoyed the original Haunt the House, I'm confident you'll like Terrortown. Even if you never played the 2010 browser version, there is a lot to love in its successor. The art style is the perfect combination of spooky and cute, the gameplay is simple but fun, and the jazzy soundtrack is worth the price of the game alone. That's not to say there aren't negatives of course: Terrortown is quite short, even with the new levels, and it will occasionally glitch in the most frustrating ways, like stopping your last guest from exiting the house no matter how much you scare them. It also doesn't offer huge amounts of replayability, unless you are strongly motivated to discover every possible type of object you can haunt. 

With all that said, Haunt the House: Terrortown offers enough charm and entertainment to be worth the purchase, especially this Halloween season. It's endearing, funny, and a nice spooky-themed alternative for those who don't like full-blown horror games but still want something Halloween-related to play this season.