It is a classic horror scenario: the car broken down in the middle of the road, the swirling snow and biting cold, the beckoning light visible just over the hill. A house! Oh, thank goodness. 
You can warm up, maybe get a nice cup of tea, call a mechanic. You hustle quickly through the frost and step inside the oddly quiet home...but what's this? The lights are on, cheery fireplaces crackle in every room, yet no one is there. You call out a hello, but your voice echoes unanswered through the hall. How strange. Surely the family has just stepped out for a moment....into the blizzard?
House, a sprawling escape-the-room (mansion, actually) quest from Pixelatrix Games, places you squarely into such a spooky situation. While not literally trapped inside the house, you surely cannot survive outdoors on such a bitterly freezing night; nothing to do, really, but make yourself at home. As you wander around the mansion (enormous, with more than a dozen rooms), however, you'll begin to find mysterious scraps of paper, references to codes, increasingly frantic journal entries. It soon becomes apparent that something wicked has invaded the home; if you are to survive, you must banish the evil force and bring peace back to this troubled place.
I've always loved sinking into a nice, long novel, so the length and scope of House really appealed to me. At times, however, the sheer size of the game can become daunting. This is not a game to be finished on your lunch break; depending upon how quickly you piece the puzzles together, you may expect to spend 1-3 hours playing. Unlike some escape-the-rooms, in which you may spend 10 minutes clicking vainly in an attempt to find a single hotspot, within the first few minutes of playing House you will most likely collect a number of clues and items; at least for me, however, after a while the various bits of information became a jumble, and I found myself ultimately needing to take copious notes. Still, I'd always prefer having a bit too much to deal with rather than too little.
Pixelatrix has created a truly excellent-looking game. Impressively, despite the sheer size of the game, each location is furnished beautifully; the rich environments draw the player in and create a more immersive experience. The game has relatively few "boo!" moments, which of course means that those few occurrences are all the spookier for their rarity. I wasn't, however, a fan of the bits of humor that the designers sprinkled throughout the game; to me, the random goofy references (dancing haggis?) disrupt the otherwise eerie atmosphere and undermine the suspension of disbelief.
Still, that is a minor criticism of a very enjoyable game. House has a compelling story, plenty of varied-yet-mainly-logical puzzles, and is gorgeous to boot; what more can one ask for, really?
It's time to face your demons:
Walkthrough Guide
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SPEED RUN WALKTHROUGH. I really don't recommend using this walkthrough if you want to get the most out of the game. I've already beaten it once and so this should be used more as a rough guide to help you out when you're really stuck. It's totally full of spoilers, and pays no attention to the finer details of this game.
1. Go left until you see the clearing in the forest.
2. Go up and enter the house.
3. Enter the room by the red shielded statue.
4. Turn and face the round table, it has a bunch of coloured boxes on top of it. Click the statue standing alone on the table. Leave this room.
5. Enter the room by the blue shielded statue
6. Click on the dinner table, and click the bowl on the right. Get the key.
7. Go upstairs and use the key on the door directly in front of you. *Note: to use inventory items, click on your brief case, then click and drag the item you wish to use towards the bottom of the window, then drag it to where you want to use it.*
8. Enter the bedroom.
9. Turn around until you see the fireplace. Zoom in on the table.
10. Use your little sphynx-like statue that you picked up before on the red box and open it. Take the key.
[TORN PAPER 1]
11. Turn around and face the dresser. Open the top drawer and take note of the piece of paper. The codes never seem to change, so that'll make this walkthrough easier for me. haha. This is the middle piece. O # #
12. Look under the bed, click the whitt thing sticking out from the shadows to get the knife.
13. Leave that room and go back to the main hallway upstairs. Turn around and find the door with the bloody hand print on it. Use the key you found in the red box in this door. Enter the room.
[BUTTERFLY COIN]
14. Look around and find the butterfly display on the wall. Click the silver coint in the middle of it to put it in your inventory.
15. Turn around and find the fireplace, zoom in on it, a face will show up and try to scare you (no audio, just a face... it's from the Exorcist :D). Grab the key in the fireplace.
16. While you're in this room, look around for a blue box. Open it up, it'll be full of jewelry. On the left side is a note, it mentions the code for the butterfly safe is in the kitchen.
17. Leave this room for now and go downstairs. Enter the dining room area again (by the blue shield) and face the door that ISN'T by the phone and the suit of armour.
18. Use your newly found key in this door.
--Side note: Things start getting tricky here, so I'll try to leave some headings for hints.--
[Code for butterfly safe]
19. Look around down here for the table with the chairs around it. Read the book, and write down the first letter of each sentence. It should spell...
[Butterfly Safe Spoiler]
20. ...APOCALYPSE...
21. Go around and look for the kitchen area, with the stove and such. Click the vertical cupboard doors by the Cheese, then click on the one on the left and get the "Best Quality Vinegar"
22. Return to the room with the bloody handprint on the door and enter the code "Apocalypse" on the butterfly safe (it's on a chair). If this code doesn't work, back away from the safe, click on it, and try it again. When you get the code right, the panel with the buttons should slide up and reveal a golden key.
23. Return to the room by the red shield, and look at the table with the bowl of fruit on it. Click on the box on the table and it should slide to the side and reveal a keyhole.
[Box by the fruit bowl]
24. Use the key you got from the butterfly safe to open this box. Take the item inside.
25. Turn around until you're facing the desk. Click the desk then click the note on the right.
[Paper with the black scribbles on it]
26. Use the vinegar you got from the kitchen on this note to reveal a poem. Take note of the colours, and the orders they're in. Now, go around the house and look for the shields. Each shield has a unique design on it. Match the designs with the colours. Once you have it all written down (Don't worry, I'll include it in a couple of steps). go back up to the bedroom.
27. Face the bed, and put the yellow and black thing you got from the box in the living room in the slot in the headboard. It should slide up and reveal a new puzzle. Here's where that rhyme comes in handy...
[Bedboard Puzzle Solution]
28. Here's the colours and their shapes in the proper order:
Red: The diamond made out of squares
Blue: The 2 X's
Green: Circle
Violet: Loopy Square
Yellow: Solid Diamond
White: the ^
Touch the shapes in that order to reveal the next key.
Like the butterfly safe, if you mess up, just zoom out from the shapes, and zoom back in on them and try it again.
29. Leave this room and look around for the room beside the Bathroom (to the right of the statue with the green shield). Use your key here. **The painting on the left will briefly display a creepy face.**
30. Look around for the Piano. Zoom in on it.
[PIANO SOLUTION]
31. When done correctly, a loud gunshot sound will be heard. I nearly flew out of my chair. ahaha.
You should notice 3 keys with blood on them. Start with the one on the furthest right, then move left only playing the 3 bloody keys.
32. Click on the safe on the wall. This is where those torn up pieces of paper come in handy.
[TORN PAPER 2]
33. Turn around until you find a table with an oval-ish basket kinda thing on top of it. Open the desk to find to top piece. # O #
34. Also, while in this room, turn to the fireplace, zoom in on the table, and click the knitting needle on the bottom to add it to your inventory.
[TORN PAPER 3]
35. Head back out to the main upstairs hallway, and look at the desk between the boy's room and the door with the blood on it, there's a table. Open it up and you'll find the bottom piece. # # O
[PIANO SAFE]
36. Return to the music room and look at the wall panel that was covered up by the painting. Putting together the 3 pieces of torn paper you found, you should end up with this:
# O #
O # #
# # O
where O's are buttons you want to push. Start from the top, and go down. Grab the key.
37. Leave the music room and make your way to the kid's room. It's the one with the poster on the door. **Opening this door will cue a shadowy figure to move toward the screen in an attempt to frighten you**
38. Not sure if this is necessary, but look around until you see the bed, click the dresser, open the top drawer, click the skull.
39. Look around again until you find the corner with the rocking horse and teddy bear.
[SKULL COIN]
40. Zoom in on the rocking horse. Click the skull coin in its eye to add it to your inventory.
41. Zoom back out and click the bear in the chair. Click the bear again to turn it around...
[ATTIC KEY]
42. ...Use your knife on the bear to behead it and get the key to the attic.
43. Return once again to the kitchen area downstairs. Zoom in on the radio on the counter.
[MONA LISA PAINTING CODE]
44. Use your knitting needle on the radio's antenna to boost its signal. Press either button on the radio to hear a message about "The Attic". It contains a crucial code.
45. Head back upstairs and use your attic key in the only door up there that doesn't have a key. Enter the room and you'll see a shadowy figure at the top of the stairs that will fade away shortly after appearing. Go up the stairs and enter the attic.
45-1. For some good spooks, check out all the paintings (and click them).
46. Look around for a table by a window. There are two. You want the one with the drawer under it. Open the drawer and take the white cloth.
47. Look around again for a painting of the Mona Lisa. Click the tab in the cat's mouth and the painting should slide down revealing yet another safe. This is where the "Attic code" comes in handy.
[MONA LISA CODE SPOILER]
48. Enter in the code you heard from the radio into this number pad: 8466. Grab the key in there.
49. Look around in the attic for a door with blood under it. Use the key you got with this door. (It's the only door up there).
50. Look around for the brown chest. There's a path of blood leading to it. Zoom in on the chest and put your skull coin in the hole under the skull. Open the chest and take the Blue Essence.
51. Zoom out again and look around for a pile of furnature. Click the large desk. It's time to clean up this mess...
[The attic mess]
52. Start off by moving the table on the right, on top of hte desk with the drawers.
Then move the trophy thing
then the chair
the silver light thing
the chair/silver light (click it and it should disappear)
the table/trophy (again, clicking should make it disappear)
the lamp
the large red desk
the large desk that the lamp moved to.
and finally, the large round table in the background.
[BASEMENT KEY]
53. Click the chest in the back. Put your butterfly coin in the hole. Open the box, get the basement key.
54. Make your way down to the basement... (the darkness by the mona lisa painting gets you to the bedroom level, then go down the stairs into the kitchen, then into that dark flight of stairs.) Use your key with that door.
55. You'll find yourself in a room with all sorts of blood on the walls. Turning around will reveal a freaky shadow in a hole in the wall. It won't hurt you, just sit there and watch it cower into the hole.
55. Click on the hole, then click on it again to enter that part of the house.
56. Turn around until you see the large design on the wall, and the bowl. Click the altar to zoom in on it.
57. Use your cloth to remove the line from the bottom of the triangle
58. Pour your blue essence into the bowl. There'll be a loud scream and a head will float out of the bowl. You can now enter the room that had the spinning thing in it no problem.
59. You're almost there. Go through the dark hole in the wall, there's a really weak attempt at a sewer maze... you can't get lost, though. There'll be an enterance with bars, and 2 without. One will take you to the next screen, the other will just say that you don't want to go back the way you came.
60. You'll eventually find yourself in a nicer lookign sewer. Keep doing the same thing as before. Click the skeleton hand in cieling for added lulz.
61. Go up the ladder when you find it, then out the manhole.
62. Go to the railroad station, and it doesn't matter which options you pick, you'll always get the same ending. Click the ticket, annnnd
63. You're done!
Posted by: wardrich
|
October 15, 2008 7:34 AM
Here it is, my stream-of-consciousness Hint-through for this game. (it's long, though)
"Ugh, snow in June? What is this, nuclear winter? The evil twin of the Deus ex Machina? ...At least I can see a light nearby. Sorry, Car, you'll have to stay here. It's a good thing you don't hold any important key items, or else I'd be screwed on screen two.
"Hey, there's a big house over there! I could stay there or at least call for a tow truck or- 'How'd you do? I see you've met my faith-" Oh wait, there's no one here.
"'Hello? Anyone here?' ...Nope, just some old suits of armour, some paintings, and various fireplaces and candles... Well, let's get to ransacking. That blue knight has both the lights lit up on it... I feel slightly less spooked looking in that room first."
"Mmm, candy and a key. I hope nobody meant to take the stuff in those bowls... Lessee... Hippos, nope. Drawer, hmm, so that's what's with the missing paintings... This must be the door that leads to the kitchen... but it's locked. Hey, a yellow knight and a phone! ... Right, why should the phones work in a cozy abandoned house?"
"Okay, moving on to Red Knight Room, it's a study. More books, boxes with statuettes except for one that's boxless (yoink!) and ah-hah! An obvious note out by itself! This must have some sort of important- oh, great. Covered in ink. I should've guessed.
Fine, I guess I have to go up the spooky stairs now, noting the emblem on the white knight who's in front of the front door before I go.
"USE KEY ON DOOR. My character unlocks the door with the key. ...Oh, I drag it out of the inventory and on to the keyhole... Well, maybe there's someone in- Nope, still nothing. Well, torn paper with circles on it, tarot cards, the murder weapon under the bed (obviously),a TV that still works somehow (hey, those lights on that UFO look like a puzzle solution, better write 'em down), and a painting with eyes that look like those little haggis monsters (cute, but not scary), a box that works with my statuette, and a book by Hieronymous Borcht... heheh, I get it... Okay, not really "nothing', just nothing blood-soaked and evil.
"Whoops, it seems I spoke too soon. That door with the bloody handprint? Okay, sudden body-part leapings in 3, 2, 1..."
"...Oh, whew. Merely a butterfly. And... Okay, now this is scary. Talk of a skull, a fireplace with no fire (but a key), and the dreaded butterfly safe. Still preferable to a butterfly knife, though. Butterflies too, with a removable emblem. I- did that one just move its wings? Dear comforting Violet knight, what manner of dwelling is this? The box of jewelery... Is that blood, obscuring the note? A......P.. What?"
"The note mentioned the password for the safe lay waiting in the kitchen. Thankfully, the key opened the door, next to the yellow knight. The knives? No, there isn't an event flag from returning the murder weapon; the chemicals? My allergies prevent me from touching them, save the vinegar. The alcohol?
Some bottles are obscured by others. The book? ... No word starts with A and has a P later on... What about the first letter on each line- no avail... What about the first letter of each sentence... Oooohhh..."
"Hm, I could use that vinegar to wash away the ink on that letter back there. Perhaps I should write that down. It isn't as if I'm writing a journal with actual entries.
Now, to input that password and no doubt receive another key. This one doesn't fit in the bathroom... Apparently, it was never locked. This book should have useful information... Now to look for the keyhole for this key.
"This doesn't look like the key for a door... Of course! The box in the Room of the Red Knight! Ah, the reason why the butterfly emblem did nothing to the headboard was because it had no tip on the back! Now to head back upstairs and review my notes in case of another puzzle..."
"...Every puzzle has an answer. This one's answer being the note I cleansed with vinegar. This key takes me to... a bloodstained conservatory. What music is 'bad', and why? none of the keys work except the ones with blo-oh. At least I can take a knitting needle for some reason."
"Okay, this thinking/writing like H.P. Lovecraft is taking too long. I remember when my friend returned from delving into the Submachine, he came back stumbling around, muttering about radios and gems. Since there are no gems here, but there is a radio... Ah, the 'knitting kneedle' works! Now if only I could make out what was being said... 'Eight-One-Six-Six'? Four instead of one? Yeah, I'll go with one."
"Oh right, back to the safe that popped off after the piano notes; it's a good thing I looked in every drawer and remembered which pieces of paper had the circles on them. Too bad it was torn up in three pieces. There's one in this room, the one in the bedroom, and one in the upstairs hallway drawer so hmm..."
"Another key. To the little kid's room... This can't be pleasant. Ugh. Eah... Oh, hello, Murray. Nothing spooky or sarcastic to say? I guess I'll take a look in the
toy chest PUSH A+B! *GAME OVER*
"This can't be happening! Okay, seriously, at least there's something on the rocking horse I can take. As for the teddy bear... Ugh, how can anyone put a key in it and sew it back up as if it was new? ...This one must lead to the attic. Too bad I forgot to pack my shotgun."
"Whew, no zombies. Uh-oh, there are all the scary paintings. It's all up to me now; I'll rid them of their evil by jumping into their inner worlds,
just like in Mario 64!"
"...Ow. At least one of them has numbers above it, so I can use the radio code. Now to head up and get gory stuff thrown at me. Ugh."
"Wow, I expect ghosts and devils, and what do I get? An attic mess. So I've gotta shove this over here, put this on there, push them aside, and get a chance to use both of those coins I had. A key and best quality blue-flavoured essense. I could use that with my cloth if I need to drug any cultists. Well, that last key must be for the basement. Time for a final end boss or last puzzle *gulp*"
"Dear sweet hopefully existant God. I have to get out, even if it means following that... presence. Ugh.. Where am I? A desecrated altar... Oh, the cloth! Just change the symbol from red to blue, use the essence, dispel all of this... Nethlek! Redgormor! Ulyaoth!
"The fire... The beautiful, cleansing fire... The house and its fiendish South Park-ish inhabitants are gone for good... As am I... Or I could just escape into those sewers over there... A complex sewer maze? I'd rather take my chances with the fire but here goes..."
"That's left, straight, right, uh-oh. I'm lost and there's a skeletal arm up there... Woah, what just happened? Anyway, better go back down and... I'm out? Really? Wow, I was worried I'd have to wander for hours in a confusing labrynth! Thanks, sewer not-really-a-maze!"
"So that's how I got in and out of an old, out-of-the-way haunted house. After that, I don't even want to hear the word 'House' again. I'd rather go and see what's on TV... Oh NOOOOOOOOO!"
Posted by: Gar
|
October 15, 2008 4:28 PM