Back in 2005, JIG introduced us to one of the creepiest, scariest, most popular point-and-click experiences the Web had ever seen, The House, which is still massively popular years later. It's been 5 years, and now Sinthai Boonmaitree (xin) has finally created a sequel, The House 2. Dare you enter the mind of this talented Thai flash designer? Oh, heck yeah! Once again you are confronted with an abandoned house, and once again an entire family committed suicide within. The locals think it's haunted, but you just have to see what's inside, don't you? Go ahead and enter, if you dare.
Nominally a point-and-click adventure, House 2 like its predecessor is more of an interactive story, with long periods of explorative clicking interspersed with moments of heart-pounding terror. If you like the scary stuff, then by all means definitely play House 2 in the dark, alone, with the sound up. If, on the other hand, you don't like jump scares, then perhaps during daylight hours in a room with other people is the way to go.
Figuring out what items to click on is simple due to the changing cursor. Figuring out what order to click, or how many times to click, can get a bit frustrating. The game itself navigates you around once you discover what each room has to offer. Brace yourself for the animated transitions, especially from the bedroom to the working room.
Done up in creepy black and white, with a spooky soundtrack and sound-effects to match, House 2 definitely continues the atmosphere of the first, while telling the story of an entirely different family who decided to off themselves. Or did they? Beautiful shadowy artwork and haunting animations tell the story of this doomed family from the perspective of each member, including one who is a bit of a surprise. There's even a bit more resolution to be found here, if you can find the key to the special room, which reveals not only the whole story but some kicking wallpapers taken from the creepier scenes.
This is not gameplay so much as experience, and those looking for classic point-and-click adventure should perhaps go elsewhere. But if you're in the mood for something atmospheric, creepy, and downright scary, you should definitely check out The House 2. Casual Gameplay that generates heart palpitations, if not outright heart attacks. Just remember, you're the one who wanted to go in.
Kyle E. Moore - No sooner did I hear the manic piano stomping viciously into my ears and see the grainy black and white images of the dilapidated old house did I think, "I'm back." One of the things that I love so much about the original and this new installment is that they so completely and totally own their own little niche. No, they aren't standard point-and-click adventure games as we know them today. But, I think very few games are so completely themselves the way The House and The House 2 are. That is, there isn't really any obligatory bones thrown to any specific genre, and no real attempt to make a game where there isn't (a game I'm currently playing, for example, makes you solve like three different puzzles to plug in a laptop, and you get the feeling like this is specifically so the game designers could say, "see, we provided puzzles"). Instead everything is built around sucking you in and making everything else cease to exist. And then, once you've forgotten your surroundings, and even the shell of your browser, then when you are focused on nothing but the grainy black and white photos and your own beating heart, THAT'S when the game gets you. Well, at least I know that if we have to wait another five years for the next installment it will be worth it.
Walkthrough Guide
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The House 2 Walkthrough:
FYI, the spoilers are glib and will ruin the experience.
INTRO
Scary backstory!
1. Click.
2. Click "Get Inside."
Yes. This looks like a fun place to hang out.
FRONT DOOR
That blood looks like a good sign, doesn't it?
3. Click on the door 6 times.
The door opens...
THE LIVING ROOM
4. Click the photo, note, and switch (on wall) in rotation until something happens.
"Something" = "Ghost"
5. Click the photo.
Oh no, it's covered in blood from my blood-hole! I knew I should have disposed of that according to EPA regulations.
6. Click the photo, note, and switch in rotation until something happens.
Yeah, "something" pretty much means ghost from here on out. Was anyone else hoping for a French maid outfit? Anyway, she drops a note.
7. Click on the new item (note). Read it.
Year of birth. Yeah, that means NOTHING. Thanks a heap, unsexy-ghost-maid.
8. Click on the note in the chair.
It's changed! Ghost magic at work, presumably.
9. Do the note-picture-switch-other note clicking rotation again. Nothing happens.
10. Click on the photo.
HOLY CRAP SCARY PHOTOSHOP!
11. Click on the note in the chair again.
Ghost magic again. And... ghost blood? Maybe real blood. Stupid blood-hole.
12. Do the click-on-everything-in-order tango a couple more times.
Ghost maid appears in the chair. WHEN SHE SHOULD BE WORKING! It's so hard to get good help these days.
THE BATHROOM
13. Click on everything (bible, faucet, toilet, shower) a couple times until something happens.
You can't click quickly... give a couple seconds between each click. Oh, and in case you're forgotten, "something" means "ghost."
14. Click the faucet.
Ahh, blood in the plumbing. Always a good sign.
15. Click the note floating in the sink.
The writing looks like his pen was running out of ink. Has that ever happened to you? Yeah, you'd want to kill someone too if you couldn't find a working pen.
16. Click everything again.
17. Open the curtain.
Feet. BE SCARED! (If you hate feet. If you have a foot fetish, BOY ARE YOU IN LUCK!)
18. Click the note.
19. Click everything again.
There's a dude waiting for you in the shower. For the first time in this game, I'm scared. Don't drop the soap.
THE BEDROOM
This is where the magic happens.
20. Click everything (teddy bear, music box, frame) until the music box starts winding.
21. Click everything until something happens.
Yup. Ghost.
21. Click everything until notes appear on the wall.
22. Click each note.
24. Click the frame.
If only she was 18...
25. Click the note popping out of the dresser.
26. Click everything until two somethings happen.
27. Click the music box.
28. Look at the screen closely.
You're welcome.
THE WORKING ROOM
It's dark.
29. Find and click on the light switch (left side, between the windows).
30. Click on everything (bottle, note in drawer, rope) until something happens.
You should note the year of birth on the birth certificate, too. Remember the ghost-maid?
31. Click on everything once.
32. Turn out the light.
33. Click on the glimmer in the middle of the screen.
Key.
34. Turn on the lights again.
35. Click everything until something happens.
"Something" in this case actually means the ghost goes away. Sorry to lead you astray, there.
36. Click the note under the bed.
37. Click on everything until the note under the bed changes.
Yeah, changes to a creepy-lookin' kid.
38. Click everything again.
Ghost hands steal the creepy-baby photo.
THE SAFE ROOM
39. Click on the safe.
40. Enter the code.
The year of birth.
You had to remember ONE THING.
Seriously, don't try any escape the room games.
1947. *sigh*
41. Click the note in the safe.
Same pen as earlier, I'll note.
[Cutscene] May have to click?
42. Click on the lower hinge.
Yep. Bad suspicions confirmed. Gee, I wonder why none of the LOCALS ever hang out at this place?
43. Click again. Maybe. I'm bad with cutscenes.
You're done!
Are you dead? Maybe. You just tango'd with a ghost. But you have a key, so that's cool. Also, don't worry, none of this was real. In case you're inclined to think Flash games are real.
They're not.
Posted by: basseq
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April 22, 2010 4:43 PM