House of 1000 Doors Family Secrets Collectors Edition

It's common for a work of art to walk the edge of a precipice - one side is a masterpiece, the other utter failure. Very often, it happens because they incorporate some daring and revolutionary idea. But there are other, more prosaic and unfortunate, types of stories. Like with House of 1000 Doors: Family Secrets - because all it lacks is some polish and a bit more effort.

Plot - 5/10

The story starts with Kate, a writer in the midst of a creative crisis, receiving an invitation to a spiritual séance, after which she heeds her grandmother's advice and visits The House of 1000 Doors. There, she'll have to help various ghosts find peace and move on from the realm of the living.

At first, I really liked the plot. It had an intriguing start, a journal with the main character's thoughts on the progression of the story, and interesting remarks on touching every object in the game. But soon, it began to fall apart. The journal became a dull nuisance, and some objects now came without remarks. The plot... just went downhill, and by the end, it was such a mess that finishing the game became a struggle.

Gameplay & Puzzles - 7/10

The basic mechanics in this game aren't much different from countless similar projects. Still, there are a few things worth noting. To begin with, there are a lot more tasks in the 'open world' than mini-games. You have to find a shovel, an axe, a flower, and so on - and figure out where to use them. It takes most of your time and is not always logical. For example, I knew that I needed a painting in one place. But the painting that lay in the next room and fit in size... was unresponsive. Just a decoration. The developers included it but didn’t consider how it might interfere with the player’s search.

Secondly, the mini-games are mostly imaginative and diverse - different from those in many other games, although a bit on the tough side. And the last thing - hidden object scenes look good and play good, but... they, too, aren't always thought through. For example, in one scene I had to find a shoe - but several shoes were lying around, and no, I couldn’t just pick any of them. This mini-game is called 'Guess What Shoe They Meant'. Plus, you play these scenes not one, but a few times. That's okay, all games do that. But the objects you collected during the previous search usually don't appear in the scenes again! Here, they do. Every single one of them. I can't even begin to describe my frustration with that level of carelessness in such a simple project.

Graphics & Visual Design - 6/10

The graphics and the look of the game itself are good - mind you, good, not spectacular. But what the developers present to us in cutscenes is just plain awful. Humans that completely don’t match the art style or level of detail - check. Animal models that were clearly taken from somewhere else - check. Things like that spoil the impression of the whole game.

Soundtrack - 6/10

I'd very much like to be able to write a different piece on the music of every game, but sometimes it's just not possible. When a soundtrack is there to just be - that's a hundred times better than silence, but doesn't give you much to talk about. Not bad, not good either.

Atmosphere - 8/10

Whatever the flaws in the other components, it’s impossible to deny House of 1000 Doors: Family Secrets its charm and one-of-a-kind allure. The atmosphere of an otherworldly mansion connecting with different times, places, and souls floats in the air. You almost feel as if you're there yourself - but all the time, when just a tithe of the step remains, some unpolished mechanic yanks you back to reality in exasperation.

Verdict - 6/10

You know the worst thing in this game? Almost every problem - especially with the gameplay and story - could have been easily fixed if the developers had just put in a bit more effort. Which they did not. An interesting idea and a massive amount of solid work already done just went to waste.