Hauntii sets the scene with a rather magical opening sequence. A beam of light bursts from a mysterious planet and zooming in reveals it's an asteroid, but not just any asteroid: a teardrop-shaped crystal, with a small ghost nestled inside. interior. You then wake up to this little ghost, who, it turns out, has crashed into eternity (and who, it turns out, is called Hauntii). Soon you come across a ghostly girl, who guides you to a tower that propels you both to a higher plane – but although she ascends, you are pulled back down at the last moment by chains from a hellish world . And so, as a Hauntii, you journey through eternity to discover who this girl was and, ultimately, how to ascend to those celestial skies yourself.
You'll probably be happy to know that Eternity isn't an endless string of procedurally generated mansions where you watch celebrities pretend to be scared by creaking doors. Instead, it is divided into a series of worlds, each consisting of several stages. Many of these scenes are presented as easy-to-follow paths of light, with playgrounds branching out from them. There is an ever-present threat, however, because if you spend a little too much time in the dark sea between these paths, the music will distort and purple demons will cling to you from beyond. It's very Super Mario Odyssey: you're encouraged to explore every inch of a spherical space filled with secrets or curiosities.
And like Super Mario Odyssey, your progression through these worlds isn't entirely linear. It's linear in the sense that one stage can lead naturally to another, but during important moments you're controlled by the amount of stars you've stuffed in your spooky backpack. A set number of stars are hidden around each stage and you'll need to gather as many as possible, whether by exploring the optional stages or being diligent in your twinkle detection on the main path. No need to worry about trawling through old scenes either, as I'm about as diligent as a search in a stadium security booth and have never been frustrated by a necessary star rating increase. And even if you need to dig around to find a few stars, convenient extra areas always seem to pop up like strange oases.
The thing is, these stars aren't just sitting on benches smoking vapes. To catch them, you will mainly have to complete riddles this makes you use your superpower: haunting things by spitting orbs of energy at them. Hit something that makes a yellow icon appear and you know you'll be able to take control of it. For example, you can haunt ladybugs that allow you to glide between trees – the animation here is beautiful, as you swing back and forth with a small umbrella nestled between your legs – to reach higher spaces. You can haunt the bells so that they ring with a dull sound, or you can haunt the ghost dogs to reunite them with their worried owners.
Much of Hauntii's puzzle involves spotting clues in each of its intelligent playgrounds, then figuring out what needs to be solved or how to navigate the dark sea and reach that suspicious island of light in the distance. It's all about haunting those wayward witches whose backpacks spread light, giving you makeshift stepping stones. Or possess a creature capable of stomping and use them to plunge a sequence of stumps into the earth. Or become a fairground bell as a titanic ghost hits you upwards with a mallet, propelling you to a new area.
The puzzles certainly get more complex later on, but they're never really difficult. And I think that's good, because it lets you go through each stage at a pace that suits the relaxed atmosphere of the game. Of course, some paths to progress can sometimes be a little blurry and some worlds can drag on a little longer than you'd like, but those gripes pale in comparison to the joy of embodying things big or small to reward each star for its place. housing.
Sometimes rewarding the stars means turning to violence. Hauntii is a twin-stick shooter in this sense, as the orbs you spit out can damage hostile ghosts or dispel some of the darkness slithered by tougher enemies onto safe surfaces, forcing those demonic hands of the beyond clinging to you. Coupled with your momentum, combat is never very tricky, but it's sufficiently demanding and has an immediacy that contrasts nicely with the game's scribbled aesthetic and low-end bobs. Again, you'll often have to haunt objects to increase your strength or to defeat villains who present problems that Hauntii's default orbs cannot solve. Like bell-like plants that sprout giant acorns from their mouths, or evil shadows with fireworks strapped to their backs, whose pyrotechnics work wonders on flying ghouls.
But over time, the ghosts become stronger and stronger. To match their training schedule, stations scattered across the map allow you to place your stars in a night sky and create constellations. Completed constellations earn you fragments that you piece together to form a whole, permanently improving one of Hauntii's three stats: health, sprint, or essence (orb spit). It may be a simple system, but I like the way it grants stars an extra dimension, where they are not just passports, but a currency to become more powerful.
And perhaps one of my favorite touches is the extra, additional dimension to complete these constellations. Every time you create a glowing rabbit or a glowing boat in the night sky, you'll witness a very brief cutscene of a life once lived. It is presented as a thought bubble, where line drawings – reminiscent of the Nintendo DS's Flipnote studio – show us pleasant moments or sad moments. And often the simplest moment, where Hauntii can meet a whale in an aquarium and, through a few scribbled lines, you can see happiness radiating off him. I think it's really cool that these stars act as a way to strengthen Hauntii's resolve as he pieces together who he was and why he died. As expected, I was in pieces after some of these short scenes.
The Hauntii scenes are nice counterpoints to the introspective constellation sequences, where the world vibrates at a leisurely or playful pace, all supported by Michael Kirby Ward's soundtrack that dances and swells at all the right moments. I like that the ghosts live in fun communities and are optimistic little guys and girls with cute smiles. The world and its inhabitants feel comfortable, like a dysfunctional underground family that isn't necessarily out to attack you. Sometimes the camera zooms out and lets you see everything, with a roller coaster sequence at the beginning that hits me with a sense of disbelief. Quadruple A games certainly couldn't compete.
Every time I mention Hauntii, I get a “huh?” “, or I hear the clicking of a friend who is looking for him. They always say, “Woah, that looks amazing, I've never heard of that.” And that's not a slight on the game, but the out-of-nowhere aspect of it turned out to be quite enjoyable, actually. That I must rejoice in a adventure game so beautiful, unpretentious and intelligent before being released to the general public. It's a kind of selfish feeling that this job gives us on rare occasions, and as I invite you to try this game, I get this deep satisfaction from opening the curtains. Don't sleep on Hauntii, for God's sake.
This review is based on a trial version of the game provided by the developer.
