It never ceases to amaze me how some games can unexpectedly come into your life and leave the most significant impact. Hauntii is one of those games.
When I first sat down to play Hauntii, I was smack bang in the middle of helping pull our latest NAG Magazine edition together. At that time, games didn’t feel like the joyful escape they should; instead, they were a distraction and something I didn’t have the time or mental capacity to enjoy.
However, from the moment I jumped into Hauntii, it was apparent that this game was something special, and after a rather striking opening sequence, I was hooked and spent the next few days desperately trying to carve out time to play.
I don’t want to ruin too much of the game’s setup, but it’s important to touch on some parts just to set the scene. I want you to picture a bright beam of light shooting out of a planet and then a cinematic zoom-in to reveal that the beam is, in fact, an asteroid.
And yes, even though Hauntii is an indie title with a hand-drawn art style, that scene I just described is every bit as cinematic as you imagined.
But where everything starts to come into its own is when the asteroid is revealed to have a little ghost inside of it, a ghost called Hauntii, who has now crash-landed on a mysterious land known as Eternity.
Players will travel throughout Eternity as Hauntii, trying to figure out how to ascend back into the heavens from whence they came.
Eternity is, at its core, a series of stages strung together. While these stages do increase in difficulty and are visually different from one another, the general idea behind all of them is the same:
Each stage requires Hauntii to move towards the light and collect X number of stars to progress. However, the real fun happens when you splinter off of the lit path and journey into the darkness to find the hidden playgrounds scattered throughout.
That’s also where the ever-present danger originates. If players spend too long outside the comfort of the light, the creatures from the beyond will clutch for them—and no one wants to be grabbed from the abyss. No one.
The stars players need to collect are also rarely found sitting around admiring the view. Instead, players must complete puzzles by haunting various objects throughout the game to find these sneaky little stars,
This haunting mechanic also reveals the most significant part of the gameplay loop – the twin-stick shooting. When players haunt some objects, they can shoot orbs to either damage the creatures from the abyss or unfriendly ghosts or clear out the general murkiness surrounding them.
And if you’re wondering how a relaxing and beautiful puzzle game can also be a twin-stick shooter, I don’t know what to tell you, but I will tell you that it works and works well. Hauntii is a gem of a game that plays just as well as it looks—and when it comes to Hauntii, that’s one colossal compliment to give.
