"Hauntii" Review

Publisher: Firestoke

Developer: Moonloop Games

Platforms: Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4, Playstation 5 (Reviewed for), Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S

Dear reader, one of my policies is to always be as fair as possible when I review a game. And to my credit, I don't think I've faltered on that front...until now. Despite the fact that I can say today's topic, Hauntii, is an objectively good game, it rubbed me entirely the wrong way in ways that I'm not entirely sure I can justify the severity of my responses to. From evening one this was the case, and it just got worse and worse as time progressed. I was able to tell that it was a good game, but the little things that irked me irked me far more than I can rationally explain. But the value of a critic isn't just in their opinions, it's also in their descriptions. In this case, I'd urge you to pay more attention to how I describe the game than how I describe my feelings, as I feel like that's what's going to give you the best picture of whether or not you should give it a shot. So, with that out of the way, let's get this over with...I even find myself getting annoyed thinking about this.

In Hauntii, you play as the ghost of a recently deceased individual. Upon entering "Eternity," (a sort of physical manifestation of the afterlife) you're greeted by an angel who takes you to the Eternal City to try and help you ascend beyond this waiting room from beyond the grave. However, this doesn't quite go to plan, as you still are bound to the world by chains in the form of your memories and personality. So, you embark on a quest to fully embrace and remember who you were so you can cast these things aside and fully pass on into the ether. Right off the bat, let me reassure you that despite how depressing that sounds, this isn't a sad game. There's some pretty-sounding soundtrack pieces that play as you view your memories, but this isn't an experience that is going to make you cry or anything. 

In terms of gameplay, Hauntii can charitably be described as a twin-stick shooter. You move around a somewhat 2D space with the left stick and fire "essence" (basically spiritual bullets) in the direction you point the right stick, so it has the basic building blocks of such a game. However, you can only fire for a few seconds and it takes far too many shots to kill all but the most basic of enemies. So you'll end up having to pause to "reload" in under 3 seconds constantly. When you aren't shooting, you'll be dodging to avoid enemy attacks....and that's kinda it. There's a Super Mario Odyssey-esque possession mechanic where you take control of certain enemy types or environmental variables by shooting at them, but this rarely rears its head in any meaningful way. Plus you can only shoot as far as basically right in front of you...I couldn't find a way to organically insert that in to the discussion, but it's another problem. So combat is pretty simplistic, which wouldn't be a bad thing were it not for how much time you'll spend not shooting. And this is one of the areas in which I'm not being entirely fair. You can increase the amount you can shoot when it comes time to upgrade, meaning you can make it less of a problem...but in my view, in a twin stick shooter, I shouldn't have to expend valuable resources to be able to do the one thing that drives combat for any meaningful amount of time. Plus, to increase your shooting time, you need to use three upgrades. Three upgrades can also be used to get another dash or one and a half extra hearts...so it's not a great value proposition. So I can admit that this particular complaint of mine is blown a bit out of proportion...but one complaint about combat that isn't blown out of proportion is the fact that Hauntii commits my cardinal sin of gameplay: enemy contact damage without good reason (spikes, fire, etc).

Now, I described the spaces you move in as "mostly" 2D. The backdrops are 2D for sure, but you move in kind of a 2.5D way, if that makes sense. And for 99% of the time, that makes things a massive pain in the ass. For one thing, you're only safe on well-let pieces of ground, which makes up maybe 12ish% of a given area. You can walk on dimly-lit or unlit ground, but if you stay on it for too long, you lose a heart. So your movement is already restricted, and when you factor in the lack of precision that comes from 2.5D movement on a 2D space, you'll find yourself having to course correct in combat more often than you'd like. And that's before you have to start doing advanced platforming maneuvers....like walking up a winding staircase or walking across a slightly-angled bridge. During both of these kinds of complicated endeavors, you will end up falling off and taking damage because of how imprecise the movement is...and because of how the game INSISTS on taking the camera away from you (a trend I increasingly want to stab developers for doing) and forcing you to move while your character is a tiny little blip on the screen and you can't even see where you're going. Obviously I'm being facetious when I call these things complicated, but it's such a phenomenal misstep that I can't help but be smarmy about it. The final push is particularly egregious because it features this flaw in a context where you have to move from one safe space to the next within a limited time on pain of instant death. If movement sucks this badly in your game, it's not a good look.

But combat is only a piece of the equation. Earlier I mentioned that the possession mechanic was reminiscent of Super Mario Odyssey, but that's not where the similarities end. The game revolves mostly around "stars" that you gather by solving puzzles and completing certain combat encounters. You don't have to get all stars in an area in order to proceed, but you do need to obtain a few. Like the combat, the star system is....thoroughly ok. None of the puzzles or combat encounters were particularly exciting, but none of them were so difficult or obtuse as to waste my time. If I had to give one complaint, it would be that several puzzles were hidden because of the game's terrible sense of perspective. Sometimes the game's fixed camera angle would prevent me from seeing the sparkle denoting a star location until I was almost out of range. A lot of the time, puzzles would be located across a massive expanse of unlit ground, with that unlit ground giving the illusion that this was the edge of the level. 

Before I move on, I need to discuss the two pieces of the game that were the biggest nails in the coffin. The first piece is a late-game boss fight in which you have to possess a sand whale to sink a ship. The battle takes place at the edge of a sand whirlpool that admittedly makes for a great set piece, but the center of the whirlpool is implied to be an instant-kill area. I never fell into the center, but I came DAMN close on multiple occasions because of how poorly this segment controls. The way this battle works is that you make your whale go below the sand, then leap up out of the sand to crash into the ship. Once you're below the sand, your position is denoted by a little shadow...but look at the art style....almost everything is a little shadow. So, I could barely tell where I was, much less where I was currently pointing. As a result, about half the time, I wouldn't hit the ship when I surfaced. But surely this can't be that bad, right? I mean, surely all you need to do is hit the ship like 3-5 times, right? Nope! You have to hit the ship something like 20 times. As a result, this boss fight takes an unforgivably long time, and I was immensely irritated by it from beginning to end.

The other piece actually is a smaller thing. At the very end of the game, you're told to let go of all but one of your chains...which is in reference to the crystals you gain from earning enough stars in a given area. These crystals are disposed of in special pools at the end of a level. Simple enough, right? Well, here's the thing...you already pass by these pools and go through the process of letting these crystals go throughout the game...or at least, that's what I'd figured. However, after looking it up in my confusion, I found that the entire time you don't actually let these crystals go unless you mash a button. This is never mentioned anywhere....so at the finish line of the game, I had to go back to sections of the game I'd already gone through to interact with every pool again, this time mashing buttons like I evidently was supposed to do. I HATE having my time wasted, and this was by far the most pointless waste of my time I could possibly imagine. And to make sure you don't misunderstand me, you can only fast travel from very specific points on the map, none of which are close to these pools. So when I say it's a waste of time, it's a capital-W waste of time. 

Thus far I haven't had much positive to say about Hauntii, so let's change that. The technical package aside from the sense of control is exceptional, and unlike with Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2, I don't say that in a mocking way. I legitimately am impressed by the game's art direction at times. Graphics like these might not be as groundbreaking as in more realistic styles, but they break ground in a more important way: in vision. As great as the screenshot above looks, it's even more impressive in motion. Beyond that, enemy and NPC design is also strong, as is the framerate. Special attention should also be given to the game's soundtrack, which excels even in the handful of seconds that make up the star acquisition theme. So, I have no complaints about the game's technical state, and this time around, I actually want to commend the game for it.

Folks, as I said at the beginning of this review, I always try to present my subjective opinions with as much of an objective tuning as possible. However, in the case of Hauntii, I simply found myself making mountains out of things that should've been molehills. I can't put my finger on why, but the things that I hated about this game just got to me more than usual. So as I said, judge the game by my descriptions, not my feelings. So, with that in mind...

Let us review:

Pathetic shooting - 0.5

Cardinal sin - 1.0

Poor sense of control - 1.0

Whale boss fight - 1.0

Finish line time wasting - 1.0

The final score for Hauntii is...

5.5/10 - Slightly Above Average

Better luck next time, Moonloop Games, better luck next time