Heart of the House Demo

Spirits are not something new when it comes to myths and horror stories, given the fact that even ancient people believed that there is something more going on after an individual’s death. Naturally, video games have taken full advantage of these beliefs, which is why there are so many titles out there that feature all sorts of ghosts, apparitions and evil spirits for you to battle.

Heart of the House is a text-based adventure game that does not reward your exploration with beautiful visuals, but the writing is strong enough to allow your imagination to fill in the gaps. In essence, this is an interactive story that can be molded by you as you go along, which should make it very easy to go through it multiple times in order to check out other routes or different endings.

The core plot revolves around a house called the Darnecroy Manor, which is obviously haunted by vicious spirits seeking to hurt people. Your character has the ability to communicate with spirits, on the other hand, which is why he/she is the best solution to such problems. Over the course of the story you find out more about the manor’s past and its inhabits, not to mention the fact that you can tackle the problem from multiple angles.

You begin by answering a few questions that basically decide how your character behaves later on, but you can acquire new skills and talents along the way too. Everything from the gender to sexual orientation is left up to you, not to mention the fact that you can spark interesting relationships along the way as well. Naturally, there’s a fair bit of horror along the way too, albeit in text form.

Speaking of which, there are no graphics whatsoever to admire over the course of the adventure, not even static artwork to give you an idea of how the manor looks. This may be a deal breaker for some players, but avid readers should feer right at home. The freedom to change the plot along the way is the main attraction, so the lack of graphics is not that much of a bummer in this case.

Whether you are a text-based fan or not, Heart of the House delivers in terms of plot progression, characters and atmosphere. Thus, it’s worth a shot if you do not mind doing a lot of reading along the way.