In Stefanie Hartung's point-and-click escape horror game Scare Dare - The House, you go merrily barreling past the limits of good judgement and straight into Well-What-Did-You-Expectsville when you decide to enter a house that's been abandoned for years after its owners (and several other people who tried to explore it) mysteriously vanished. Shockingly, the door slams shut and locks behind you, and now if you ever want to find a way out, you'll need to find out what happened to the previous owners, as well as a way to thwart whatever force is keeping you prisoner. To play, just click when the cursor changes to show you can interact, and click an item in your inventory to use it. Keep your eyes peeled for clues, but don't be surprised if the jump scares come looking for you...
Despite the misspelling of "abandoned" on the title screen, Scare Dare - The House is a simple and satisfyingly solid escape game with a great atmosphere. The plot is fairly straightforward apart from a bit of a twist, and it fleshes out the usual "find a way out because reasons" gameplay of the genre with just the right level of creepiness. While the art and overall style works as far as creating a dilapidated and ominous environment, however, it does make details bleed into the background and doesn't make for a visually interesting experience. Most players will likewise find the game on the easy side, with puzzles tending to be perhaps a little too obvious, but Scare Dare - The House is still an enjoyable and promising first effort from a developer we hope we see more from, combining all the staples of a fun escape game with a heaping helping of spookiness that goes down just fine no matter what time of year it is.
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I have
4 documents, floor plans, a pink flower and a blue flower
given the synopsis, I expected better luck. I am either really dumb or way over thinking it.
It's so dark! It's so dark!! ...no, really, I can't see anything.
But seriously, the map at the very beginning helped out. I did spend several futile minutes
at the end, trying to find the object I knew was there. Somewhere.
Even with the changing cursor, the contrast is still way too muddy. What really didn't work was the underwhelming scattered clues puzzle, everything else fit nicely into the narrative.
I like what they're doing, but there has to be light to make the shadows darker. Remember that, programmers and sorcerers.
Made it out, but I could never find the 6th note. I agree that the lighting was too low, it was less of a shadow and more a confusing mush of things you can't make out.
Art was way too dark for me to see much of what I was trying to do, and that killed any fun I hoped to have, so I quit playing.
I managed to find
a few of the pages and four fabric flowers (red, blue, purple, and yellow)
and then hit a wall. Bummer, cause I was enjoying it. if anybody made it through, please post a walkthrough...?? Please?
I stopped playing because I couldn't see what I was looking at.
Walkthrough
All the room names are in lower case, strangely enough; (especially strange if it's a translation from German!)
entrance hall
Get the red fabric flower from the vase, then turn around (click bottom of screen)
front door
Get the floor plans on the door frame, and notice 3=3 on the door.
Turn around again to the entrance hall then left.
parlour
Get page 1 from under the chair.
Forward to the dining room.
dining room
Get the purple flower from the vase.
Back to the parlour. Right to the corridor.
1st floor corridor
Ignore the vase of flowers in the foreground, all the other flowers are important, but this one is just a faded brown herring. Ha, ha.
Second right to the staircase.
1st floor staircase.
Notice 4=6 at the right.
Up the stairs, and forward.
2nd floor corridor.
Left to the bathroom
bathroom
It says "find the crystal" but you'll figure that out from reading the pages.
Forward to the lavatory.
lavatory
Get the kitchen key from the sink at the right.
Back twice to the corridor. 2nd right to the first floor staircase.
1st floor staircase, again.
Strangely enough you'll need to hit "back" twice to go down, even though you're coming from the second floor.
Use the kitchen key on the far center door.
kitchen
Get the knife from the table at the left.
Get the guestroom key from the table at the right.
Back up to the 2nd floor corridor.
2nd floor corridor again.
Use the guestroom key on the second door to the left.
guestroom
Boo. Hi, Dr. Ford.
Get page 4 and the yellow flower from the nightstand in the center.
You can read "his eyes are evil" from the wall.
You won't be able to open the small box in the nightstand drawer yet.
Back, then third left to the kid's room.
kid's room
Boo. Hi, Thomas.
Get the 2nd page from the desk.
Use the knife to cut open the cardboard box in the center.
Get the blue flower.
Back to the corridor, then first right from the corridor to the 2nd floor staircase.
2nd floor staircase
Click the vase to the left to break it and get the master bedroom key.
Go up to the attic, and note 5=4 on the floor.
Back twice to the 2nd floor corridor.
Use the master bedroom key on the far center door.
master bedroom
Get page 3 from the floor.
Read 1=2 from the far wall.
Go right to the hole in the wall.
Click the hole in the wall.
Put the 4 colored flowers in their respective vases: blue, red, yellow, purple
Get the study room key from the box that opens.
Right twice to the corridor. Back to the first floor.
Use the study room key on the first door to the right.
study room
Boo. Hi, Edwin.
Note 2=5 on the desk.
Get page 6 from the desk.
Get page 5 from the bookcase, upper right.
Click on the combination box.
Use the scrawled numbers you found earlier:
1=2, 2=5, 3=3, 4=6, 5=4. (Why roman numerals?) So the combination is II V III VI IV. Get the small key. Back up to the guestroom.
guestroom again
Use the small key on the small box in the nightstand.
Get the attic key and the mysterious crystal.
"I should check the attic" - wow, what an insight, given that it's the only room left, and you've just gotten the attic key, and that all the pages have told you that the big bad is in the attic?
Back to the 2nd floor corridor - page 7 drops to the floor. Pick it up. Aww, poor Lydia.
Up the 2nd floor staircase - why it's page 8! Bad, bad Lydia!
attic
Up to the attic, you don't even have to use the key on the door.
Read the text, click around a bit, Lydia's master eats you.
Again and again. I guess this is what hell is like?
Click the nearly invisible brick (ever heard the expression "subtle like a brick"?) in the lower left corner. Use the brick on the glass around the crystal in the lower right. Use the crystal on the mirror in the center. You win!
Almost. You need to get the key to the front door that falls down on the center of the floor, then back down to the front door, and use it on the front door.
Does not start. Instead, a black rectangle with "Error #2032" at the bottom. Flash player v15.0.0.189
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