Warning: This game displays warning message about being scary...
For as long as you remember, legends have been told about the derelict mansion on the mountain. Being a history buff you decide to explore and find out what secrets the mansion holds. .
The game boots up with Old SNES game music and intro options screen which is a nice touch. It begins with meeting the character of Spooky, who presumably owns the mansion you will play as! The game portrays as a cartoony ‘Doom’ with brick walls and long corridors. The challenge to get through all one thousand rooms begins.
Standard FPS controls are used ‘WASD’ keys and mouse.
The rooms are randomly generated allowing for multiple different game plays. The first rooms are empty to raise suspense, while the music adds to this; with rumbles in the background and the sound of creaky doors.
The rooms are mainly the same few corridor shapes. The music certainly makes you feel unnerved. Moving into room 13 and the music changes, the suspense continues. Choices are made by the player as some rooms have multiple doors to exit through. Empty rooms with loan chairs in the corner feel rather ‘Blair Witch’. In addition, a combination of weird pictures and large windows add to the eerie feel.
Colours change in the room indicating something is about to happen…. Room 25 and still the suspense is growing.
Room 26 and a pumpkin sprang out from the wall. Looking ridiculously cute, the scary noise and speed at which it moves made me jump! This effect is repeated in a number of rooms, and although I’ve already experienced this ‘jump’ reaction, I continue to be surprised (and squeal like a girl!). The music adding to the suspense and making you feel like something awful is going to happen.
Another note is found in Room 50 indicating the person who left it feels trapped in a never ending maze of similar rooms. Feeling very thirsty and running out of ink with which to leave these notes... a sense of trepidation overcomes me!!
Interacting with a cross allows the user to save the game. This makes every 50th room a safe house where you can take a quick breather in which to compose yourself before setting out again.
Entering a lift, we go down to the next level where the music gets even more spooky. A variety of side rooms are viewed…. some look rather like cells.
Health and stamina bars in the top corner of the screen are a constant reminder that I am more than likely to meet something… Room 59 leads me into a maze of paths to follow. One wrong step and I will plunge into a bottomless pit!
The messages continue though the game, sounding like the writer is slowly becoming more insane.
Suddenly, a monster appears in the room, it begins to follow me. I run, however, need to be careful to maintain my stamina. Although I am constrained to follow the paths so as not to fall to my death, the creature is not! He slowly floats across any gaps in order to catch up with me. Closed doors do not stop it, he continues. The green slime on the floor slows me down when trying to escape, thus allowing the creature to close the gap.
As long as you get away from the spooky entity, you will get your health back slowly, however, let it touch you and a few hits will finish you off.
Music changes as I enter room 70, continued freaky pictures adorn the room. The rooms are all similar in their design, but as they are small and short it isn’t boring. There is always the threat that something is following you. Computer found in room which gives details about the various specimens housed in the building. It reads as though the building is some form of experiment, using the creatures to examine how the test subjects cope. Guess I am the latest subject.
One of the specimens shows as an ‘error’. This invokes a feeling of unease as you do not know what to expect. The computers have established I am being tested and the creatures have been placed there to see how I fare.
Room 89 portrays as a lab with a brain in a glass jar. Seems harmless enough… for now.
Green patches on the floor now become more frequent. This combined with ramped up music gives the feeling of imminent threat.
Lurking in a room, while I wrote this review, a spectre crept up and savagely killed me!
To sum up, Spooky’s Jump Scare Mansion is a fantastic horror experience, even more so due to the fact the game is completely free and can be downloaded from Steam. This will be a game I am sure to revisit, hopefully getting past room 100. Turns out ‘safe rooms’ aren’t that safe after all!