Haunted (2011) Review

As a fan of point & click adventure games, Haunted seemed very appealing to me. Though considered an 'old' game by today's standards, it still holds up fairly well in terms of visuals and gameplay. I was surprised to see that when Mary was travelling to new locations, she looked as if she was a giant. It pleasantly reminded me of American McGee's Alice: Madness Returns. I'll admit, despite having a dark tone overall, there were some light-hearted moments that made me chuckle. As example would be when William had to kiss Lou and she tricked him into kissing her lips instead of her cheek (ignoring the fact that she couldn't actually SEE him). Victorian children were such stinkers, weren't they?

Haunted almost felt like a satirical horror story in that many of the situations Mary got into weren't overly serious. Distracting an uptight woman in order to take a fishbowl was a rather absurd little quest. If I were to criticize anything about this game, it's the use of the word 'g/ypsy' in the latter half. We can go on and on about Haunted being a 'product of its time,' but the fact of the matter is is that the G-word is a slur against Romani people. I understand that the game takes place in the Victorian era and that there was quite a bit of intolerance then, but the developers should have at least included a warning at the beginning mentioning it. Additionally, though not really a criticism, the game could have ended at Mary saving Emily and I would've been satisfied. Going through one last quest to get a music box their parents left for them seemed a little unnecessary. Though it's possible the developers were trying to set things up for a sequel that never happened.

Overall, personal grievances aside, Haunted is a game worth playing at least once for fans of the point & click genre.