Murder House

This game from Puppet Combo is truly remarkable. It feels like a more fleshed-out expression of this creative process compared to their previous titles, which often felt like hastily assembled ideas. However, with this game, Puppet Combo demonstrates what he is truly capable of.

The story revolves around a killer bunny who targets children. You start off playing as a child who gets separated from their mom after spending the night in a mall for some reason. Following this prologue, you take on the role of a film crew wanting to shoot a movie, but of course, you are fully aware of what lies ahead. However, the game throws in an interesting twist towards the end, which I found quite enjoyable.

The gameplay is reminiscent of classic 80s games like Resident Evil, featuring tank controls and fixed camera angles. While these mechanics may feel a bit odd at times, they generally work well. Your objective is to explore the mansion, collecting items and unlocking new areas while advancing the plot and dealing with the looming threat of being chased. However, it's the implementation of these elements within the game's various locations and scenes that truly shines. The animations and cutscenes are exceptionally well done, giving the game a fully realized and creative feel.

Despite its strengths, there are a few criticisms I have. The drawer searching function, for instance, could use some clarification as it initially took me a moment to figure out that WASD controls were necessary rather than just using the mouse. Additionally, encounters with the antagonist seemed random, and in my experience, they lacked the impact I expected. Nonetheless, the atmosphere created in the game compensates for these shortcomings, adding to its overall scariness.

One aspect I particularly enjoyed was the voice acting, which felt deliberately cliché and old-fashioned, adding to the game's charm. Furthermore, the use of different camera angles during the chase sequence in the prologue, similar to Babysitter Bloodbath, it now felt much more refined and artistic in this game.

In conclusion, I highly recommend this game. It's a testament to Puppet Combo's creativity and dedication to delivering unique and engaging experiences in the horror genre.

This game is just screams Silent hill 1, in fact a lot of the game mechanics of that game are featured here. Its a heartful too see an indie team develop on the horror ps1 style and keeping it alive today. Great game that im sure inspired a lot of other indie developers to follow the retro gaming trend.

The plot, characters, music and overall movie-like setup carry this game hard. Even for such a simple concept ripping off classic horror games there are multiple design issues with this game - from two completely contradicting camera modes to the RE1 style doors which contradict the mechanic of murderer lurking through the house randomly.

There are also other very embarrasing bugs like npc lip sync working even when character player is speaking their line. So simple things messed up really put me off.

A puzzle or two required me to check a walkthrough - pixel hunting psx style graphics environment and lack of any hints what to do next can really frustrate when there is constant threat around and saves are limited.

But I really cant hate the game, overall its just much better than the sum of its parts. Very fun alternative to spending evening watching low budget horror movie.

A love letter to all the cheesy slasher movies of the 80s and early 90s. Pretty short with some VERY light puzzle elements. It takes some influence from Resident Evil and other PS1 horror titles with the (optional) fixed camera perspective and limited saves. The atmosphere and soundtrack are great and it's a very polished experience that is about the length of a horror movie watch party.

The two main issues:
1) Too easy to just run past the killer, since you can take multiple hits.
2) The first person camera breaks the game a little bit. It makes certain segments a bit easier to understand and navigate than when they are in the 3rd person fixed camera view. I like that it is optional, since first person games are much more accessible, but its something to keep in mind. I would have preferred it if they just picked a perspective and committed to it.