Review: Haunt (XBLA Kinect)

Haunt was debuted from NanaOn-Sha back at the Tokyo Game Show 2010 along with a number of other Kinect projects including Project Draco and Steel Battalion: Heavy Armour. Since then there hasn’t been much coverage of the title, and seemingly without fanfare it released rather subtly on the Xbox Live Arcade earlier last month. Is this haunted mansion worth exploring, or are you best leaving the ghosts to rest in peace?

Taking on the role of an unnamed adventurer, you’ll utilise full body motion and gestures to move through the Mansion encountering many puzzles and ghosts as you follow the lead of the rather eccentric Benjamin ‘benjy’ Muldoon (voiced by Double Fine’s Tim Shafer) who whilst stuck in a painting is able to hop between any frame allowing him to offer tips and advice wherever you go. Your quest for the Phantaflask’s will lead you all over the mansion as you help Benjy to reactivate his mysterious machine, and whilst the ending is hardly going to surprise you, there are some great twists and turns on the way.

One of the most important aspects when discussing a Kinect title are the controls. Rise of Nightmares also had a stab at full body motion last year, but Haunt opts for a simpler control scheme. Using either of your hands as the torch, you’ll direct both your view and turning. To move in the direction you are facing simply walk on the spot, whilst a jog will get you moving a little quicker. The aiming uses a bounding box, similar to a Wii first person shooter where to turn and look around you’ll need to move the flashlight to the edge of the screen. While admittedly this can be a slow process, you’re never required to react quickly to objects around you whilst in free movement. The flashlight itself controls very smoothly and is responsive, following your hand accurately, along the lines of Child Of Eden.

You can step backwards by placing a foot behind you, though this does not move you continuously, instead you’ll use this to get out of a corner. This method can be quicker than having to turn around fully, but you won’t end up using it a huge amount. When it comes to stairs and corners, the game does a lot of the work for you by guiding your movement, taking a lot of potential frustration out of the equation. Each object in the world requires you to perform a basic gesture such as opening a cupboard or drawer, and while these interactions generally require you to be quite large with your movements, you’ll get accustomed to them quickly.

After the initial tutorial, you’ll be able to choose between three doors; The Auditory Annex, Luminarium and the Motility Vaults. Don’t let the tutorial fool you into thinking that this is a linear adventure though, as many of the levels require both backtracking and puzzle solving, providing a varied experience to keep you interested. There’s some novel use of the gestures ranging from covering your nose to using both hands to operate a pulley system, and that’s just in the first stage. Each area has two stages, generally taking about 20 minutes or so to get through (depending on whether you are after the collectables). For a downloadable game, there’s quite a bit to this one. Overall it took me just over 3 hours to 100%. I decided to find every collectable and check every cupboard since I am quite the completionist at times.

The puzzles generally boil down to locating a particular item for use in the environment, and while I would have liked to have seen some more in-depth puzzles utilising all the methods which Kinect can track, there are a couple of more innovative interactions scattered around the mansion in the later levels which are worth seeing.

Speaking to the presentation of the game, I was very impressed. You’ll find that the music, graphics and various sound effects culminate effectively to really set the mood of the game. It’s hardly a scary game though, feeling more akin to a first person Luigi’s Mansion as opposed to The Grudge. There’s some effective use of surround sound at times, especially when the bats swarm around you.

Objects that can be interacted with are highlighted, and by simply holding your flashlight over the object till it focuses you’ll be drawn in close to perform the required gesture. You’ll be checking a lot of cupboards and drawers in your adventure, most containing Vitality, Vitality Vials or a Newspaper Clipping. The Vitality pickups top up your heath meter, whilst the Vials give you a second chance if you run out. The Newspaper Clippings are the secret collectables, giving you some back-story on the character of Benjy, and the mansion itself, which may hold more secrets than you first thought.

In terms of the ghosts, there’s definitely a good variety, each with their specific weaknesses and methods for disposing of. You won’t have to worry about movement when you encounter a ghost however as the game locks you into combat, requiring timed gestures and careful use of the flashlight to rid yourself of the enemy.

Haunt is far from a hard game, and will remind you at each encounter which gesture is required, I ended up with 13 vitality vials by the end of the game, and didn’t have to use even one. Once you get accustomed to the various ghosts attacks you can better anticipate the motions to avoid attacks, though they do give you a lot of time to react. The only times you’re likely to get hit are when it doesn’t quite detect you correctly. This doesn’t happen for the full body motions, but it did occur a couple of times for me during sections when you would have to cover your eyes or ears, to achieve best results, have your elbows facing outwards from your body, really emphasising the motion, as opposed to just moving your hands directly up.

As you explore the mansion, you’ll encounter new gameplay mechanics from time to time, especially in the Auditory Annex as this introduces use of sound where you’ll have to both cover your ears and shout at enemies to destroy them. There’s also a nice little touch when you have to say your name to enter a door, and then later on…well, I won’t spoil it, I’ll just say that you should pick up the ringing phone. There’s a good mix of areas, from free moving to on rails segments where you’re riding a train cart through tunnels dodging skeletons and waving your arms to disperse the bats.

You’ll also gain various abilities throughout the game, allowing you to better fight back against the ghosts, ranging from deflecting projectiles back at your enemy, to waving your arm to trap the ghost. Each of these abilities are preset for each type of ghost, so you won’t be able to experiment with your attacks. It’s good to keep aware during the loading screens, as they can provide you with a number of helpful tips that the game doesn’t explain in the Instructions such as the ability to crouch and also the option to interact quicker by pushing your hand forward as the flashlight focuses.

Unlike nearly all other Kinect games, Haunt does not tell you when its taking pictures or recording you, leading to some funny moments when you spot yourself on various photos around the mansion, all I’ll say is, it’s worth exploring all the side rooms if you want a smile.

While this strictly single player adventure may be short, it’s a lot of fun while it lasts. I felt that they could have gone a step further in the puzzle solving areas, but I feel they give you your money’s worth. There’s not a huge amount of replay value, though each level is scored based on your ability to get through unscathed and the amount of collectables you uncover. If you have 800 Microsoft Points and want a new and interesting experience to play with Kinect, this is definitely a good buy, and is suitable for all ages.

8/10