Re: Bookrage's choiceofgames reviews
Bookrage's review of "For Rent: Haunted House"
Hello all, I'm back with my review of "For Rent: Haunte House" and sorry for taking so long between releases.
biases: I really like haunting stories but really dislike micromanagement stories.
Genre: this game is a mix of real estate management, humor, and unting story, though except for the real estate management part, it never really goes into depths I would've liked on any of the genres I have tagged it as. There is a big supernatural event at one point in the story, but even then I didn't make the contact with the haunting I would've liked.
writing: This game admittedly can do atmosphere relatively well, with good, often snarky descriptions of NPCs and it has its moments of legitimate funny humore, though in my opinion, most of the time, the humor falls relatively flat and only succeeds at tickling a person every now and then. This story however seems to struggle for me in what exactly it is trying to be. It has a general cynical snarky tone, but I'm not quite sure of what sort of supernatural story it is going for and it doesn't touch that genre as much as it should to make this a good story. There is a lot more on the "for Rent" than "Haunted house." in this story. There are however, few grammar mistakes and the the descriptive text is fairly good.
mechanics: the murkiest I have ever seen. This is partially due to the fact that there are so few of them. There is your relationship with "The crocodile" (your boss) ruthlessness, your tally of money, your work-life balance, and I think another. I've played the game 3 times now and still only have a vague idea how any of them come into play. A character in the game tells you what work-life balance is about, but even with that help I have not seen how it works in-game.
romance: for those who dislike romance, this is a game for you as there are no romantic options whatsoever, this sticks to the main story of trying to get as much money from a property you are trying to lend and there is little else on the side.
Railroading: Among the worst I have ever seen. The game will often give you choices of things to do only to pull you away from them as soon as you select them, even if your ruthlessness or what you think would be an appropriate stat is high. I have played the game 3 times with very different playstyles and I have felt like the choices I made on those 3 times didn't really matter at all. You really feel jerked around as you go through this story and it is quite unpleasant.
achievements: none: but because the game seems so linear and railroaded, I don't think this title actually really suffers from the problems with lack of achievements.
closing thoughts: Currently, this is by far the lowest title on my list, though I am reading through "To the City in the clouds," currently and it is a race to the bottom between these two (though I am very early in this title and think it very well might turn around.) "For Rent: Haunted House" touches on humor, real estate simulator, and haunting story, but all and all, I think it fails at all three things it is trying to do by and large. to its credit however, the humor is better than "Choice of the star captain." and the writing itself is not bad.
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