The Girl in the Haunted House

I enjoyed this. It's effective and fun.

It reminded me of an old school CYOA, with branches that depict different realities, rather than different aspects of the same reality. You're building a story here, and your choices will affect it, but you won't have much idea what's going to happen based on what you've picked. This actually works pretty well with the genre --you're supposed to feel helpless and uncertain, even a little foolish at times. And there are a number of subtle variations along each path that make the story seem coherent and put together even on repeated plays.

(Spoiler - click to show)The author somehow managed to create a CYOA with the feel and effect of watching a handful of different horror movies. Your job, as the player, is to watch and occasionally flip the channel to see what other movies are playing. And it really does work in this context.

Overall, I really felt more as if I were assembling a story than playing a game, but it was an enjoyable process.

This game's best feature is its replayability. Each plot possiblility is pretty short -- just long enough to build up to a good scare -- but there are a lot of them. I've replayed it seven or eight times now, and I'm still not sure I've seen everything.

If you like scary (but not too gruesome) like I do, this game hits the spot. Though not very long, it effectively captures that creepy mood I like when I'm craving Halloween.

Think of it like a snack-sized Snickers bar...it's not gonna replace the amazing feast that is Halloween (or a creepy game like ANCHORHEAD), but it'll definitely tide you over!