Getting ready to make use of your exclusive invitation to the Haunted House Party? – how exciting! A cash prize of $10 million dollar awaits if you can just stay for 12 hours. Easy, right?

As the heavy doors of the mansion close and lock behind you, you begin to think this may not be as easy as you thought. You very well may die here, unless you find a way to win – Good luck.

What Is It?

Horror Themed Party Game

Narrative Game – Players work through various rooms (cards) and may have to make choices, volunteer, or roll dice to see what their fate is

Characters may turn to ghosts in the rooms if they take too many wounds, but players are not eliminated as they have persona cards which will give them special ghost actions if they die and they can continue to influence parts of the game, and can still win if their specific win condition is met

Who Is It For?

  • 2 to 8 Players – This really didn’t work at 2 for me. I think it’s a lot more fun with a bigger group, so I’d probably stick with 5-8.
  • Ages 13 & Up – The rules are light, but player discretion may be advised for the theming
  • Fans of horror themes/games (it’s very Saw-esque), light/sort of silly games

Expansions

I took a look at 2 expansions for this review, but there are at least 11 available.

Abduction – Players can become incubated which will give them a Zeta persona, which will change the way they may play, or even how they win/lose – I thought this one was okay. The sci-fi theme worked well and added some extra flavor to cards, and it was easy to add in to the game. I just thought the Zeta personas were a little confusing at first, in terms of timing for when a player was dead versus just incubated

Contest of Champions – Players are returning to the haunted house, and start with pre-existing conditions. In addition, one survivor will die in each room no matter what, aided by a “death” keyword which is inescapable. It also adjusts how ghosts can interact with survivors slightly – I like the theme, especially if you are actually playing with players who have all played before, but I don’t love it in practice because it took away aspects of the game I enjoyed. It seemed to make some items and ghost abilities weaker. It just wasn’t my favorite.

PROS

  • Aesthetics – The art is nice; gives off the perfect splatter movie vibe
  • Components – Nice cards/tiles. The bloody dice are great
  • Good variety in room cards, especially since you only use a few each game
  • Short play time, so it doesn’t feel bad if you die
    • Similarly, players are not eliminated when they die, they get to continue playing as ghosts, which is sometimes even more fun
  • Quick set-up & clean-up

CONS

  • Luck – A lot of things come down to dice rolls with no real way of mitigating them, except if you have certain items, which you get randomly as well, so it more luck based than anything
  • Rules – I thought certain bits of the rules were a bit ambiguous (certain timing elements, some of the persona abilities), which led to questions that interrupted the gameplay

Final Thoughts

I love the theme of this game; I’m a big horror fan, and I think the narrative cards work well for the gameplay, and give it a great overall vibe.

Despite the fun theming, the game fell a bit flat for me. I wanted to feel like I was making more decisions for each room and not just rolling dice/falling to luck. The rules were a little too ambiguous in a kind of “do what you like” way, which isn’t my preference when I play games.

If you like a quick, kind of silly horror game, and don’t get hung up on rules questions, you might like this one!

Additional Information:
My Final Rating – 6/10

Designer – Jon Cohn
Artists – Boris Polonsky, Ivan Shavrin
Publisher – Everything Epic Games
MSRP – $65.00
Website

*I was provided a copy of this game to do this review*

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