Hauntii

Hauntii (2024) is an adventure where you explore a dimly-lit afterlife world and meet the people living there. As you move around you shoot to defend yourself but can also possess other inhabitants and the world itself. It stands out for combining puzzles and shooting, which creates the experience of having to adjust to a completely new way of living.

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The game is played in Eternity, a place outside of space, where all souls eventually end up. Newly arrived, you soon discover inhabitants are being led to an ominous central tower. You traverse the world, shooting to possess the people and architecture you discover, in an effort to decipher what is really going on.

As you progress you learn to come up with more creative ways to progress than other shooting games. Rather than tackle foes head-on, you might instead possess turrets to take them out or inhabit other architecture to move it out of the way. In this way, paths that seem impossible to reach become within your grasp. Slowly you make your way through the world, build constellations and uncover the story of your life before death.

The result is a game that isn't what it seems. It appears to be a shooting game but is actually more of a thinking puzzle challenge. It looks like a morbid horror game, set in hell, but is actually about a friendly ghost meeting a menagerie of intriguing and funny entities who share the afterlife. Among these tensions is a story about the disconcerting challenge of living in a place that isn't your home without knowing if you can ever return.

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Our examiner, Andy Robertson, first checked Hauntii 8 months ago. It was re-examined by Jo Robertson and updated 3 weeks ago.