Hauntsville
What is a bad video game? One with bad graphics? A weak story? Full of bugs and glitches? This video game has all of that. Although it is marketed ambitiously, Hauntsville is a game that tests your nerves. But not because of horror, rather due to technical issues and mechanics that create boredom instead of tension. When a game on the Store has over 50 percent ratings of 1, then we know something is wrong.
The developer of this game is independent programmer Michael Janisch. He tried to create a visually impressive game using the Unreal Engine 5, but his attempt ended disastrously in terms of optimization. Although maximum utilization of PlayStation 5 hardware was promised, the haptic feedback on the DualSense controller is poorly executed, and the button response often lags significantly behind the action on the screen, while the sound is like generic stereo with too much echo. Hauntsville is a project that started on crowdfunding platforms (raising money and donations). However, it is clear they soon ran out of funds because the game was released unfinished and full of bugs.
Presented as methodical and slow survival, it is actually laborious and sluggish movement. The movements and progression through the terrain might have evoked admiration somewhere between 2000 and 2005, but nowadays it is almost unbelievable that a video game with such poor graphics and mechanics was made. The weapons are imprecise, and the reload animations take forever. The map exists, but it is not interactive and difficult to use. The artificial intelligence of the opponents is 'over-advanced', in other words – it is broken. They often see us through walls or start chasing us from the other side of the map for no reason. The puzzles are bizarre and illogical.
The story is a collection of probably all possible horror clichés from the past thirty years. An investigator, an abandoned town, fog, a mysterious cult... all of this has been seen countless times, especially in video games of the same genre. The characters are shallow, and the borrowed voices for the NPCs sound artificial and amateurish. The game has multiple endings, but the path to those endings is banal and unsatisfying. The main character is completely faceless – his reactions to the unimaginable horrors around him boil down to a few curses and irritating panting.
Although the game uses the modern Unreal Engine 5, the final result is disappointing. The graphics lag about twenty years behind. The environment textures are made in very low resolution. The game barely maintains 30 FPS, and that comes with constant stuttering and bugs. Every enemy and NPC we encounter is just a flat figure without character.
The sound is monotonous and quickly becomes tiresome. Minimalistic string tones quickly become irritating, especially since it is obvious that one melody is constantly looping. The 3D sound is poorly calibrated – due to poor positioning, it always seems like the enemy is right behind us, but in the end, it turns out they are on the floor above or half a kilometer away.
Hauntsville is a video game that shamelessly copies titles like Resident Evil, Silent Hill, and similar ones, but in a completely clumsy way. The idea of folk horror and a historical setting from the late 19th century quickly falls apart because the world is generic and empty. One of the emptiest worlds in modern gaming. The replay value for this game is practically non-existent, unless you are a masochist. Rarely will anyone have the patience for a single playthrough, let alone return to finish it a second time. This is one of those video games for which we can convincingly say – it's not worth buying! Hauntsville is not worth the current 19 euros on the PS Store. Although some reviews have tried to extract at least a few positive details from this video game, the general consensus on the internet is merciless. Hauntsville is one of the biggest disappointments on the PlayStation 5 console.
A copy of the PlayStation 5 version of the game was provided by the publisher indie.io for development purposes
Note: We did not try the PC version of the game, but we do not believe there is a drastic difference in the game's performance. Customer reviews on Steam are more than negative.
