There’s a very specific type of misery that Hauntsville seems desperate to recreate. Not normal misery either. We’re talking proper “wet socks in November while National Rail’s cancelled your train again” misery. Set in a haunted frontier town full of monsters, fog and endless chores, this survival horror game clearly wants players to feel cold, exhausted and deeply inconvenienced at all times. Mission accomplished, I suppose.
You arrive in an abandoned settlement somewhere in the American wilderness, where everyone’s mysteriously vanished apart from several thousand trees apparently waiting to be chopped down one at a time. Naturally, this means you’ll spend most of your adventure collecting sticks, mining rocks and slowly waddling through mud while things scream at you from the darkness like a fox outside a kebab shop at 2am.
Gaming Heaven
To be fair, the atmosphere’s genuinely excellent. The world looks properly grim in places, with creaking cabins, flickering lanterns and forests that feel deeply unsafe. The sound design deserves credit too. Every distant noise makes you think something horrible is nearby, which is impressive considering half the time it’s probably just the game engine having another little wobble.
The creature designs are decent as well. Instead of recycling the usual zombies and haunted Victorian children nonsense, Hauntsville digs into folklore for its monsters. Some of them are genuinely unsettling before they inevitably get stuck on a fence or forget how doors work.
Gaming Hell
Actually playing the game, however, is like volunteering for unpaid overtime. Everything feels painfully slow. Walking takes ages. Crafting takes ages. Reloading a weapon feels like applying for planning permission.
Combat’s ropey too. Melee fights resemble two drunk blokes swinging deckchairs at each other outside a pub. Hit detection seems based more on optimism than coding, and enemies occasionally absorb bullets like they’re contractually obliged to survive.
Then there’s the survival mechanics. Hunger, weather, stamina, crafting materials, ammunition – the game throws endless systems at you, none of which are remotely enjoyable after the first couple of hours.
Final Judgement
Hauntsville nails atmosphere but forgets the important detail that games are meant to be enjoyable. Beneath the spooky forests and folklore monsters is an exhausting slog full of clunky mechanics and joyless busywork.
