House on the Hill produced by Steppe Hare Studios is a first-person thriller/horror game. In the game, you play as a young thief who is robbing an eerie mansion, trying to find precious gemstones, necklaces, etc. Your friend and partner in crime, tell you instructions through an earpiece while you do the robbing of the actual house. But, there’s a twist. Though getting into the house may seem easier than expected, it is impossible for one to escape and make it out. As you make your way through the house, the house itself begins to feel haunted more and more. With doors slamming, lights flickering, etc, you begin to realize that robbing this house was a bad idea.

What I found interesting about House on the Hill were the different endings that happened depending on your actions. Throughout the game, the player is given decisions that could change the outcome of the game, whether it be for better or worse. For example, the player could choose what items they wanted to steal, and what routes they wanted to take to steal said items. Depending on these situations, the players will also face different nightmares, monsters, and life-threatening situations. For example, I chose to steal a large gem, and the route that I chose was through the kitchen. This lead to me obtaining the gem, but I was chased by a bloody monster. I barely escaped but found myself trapped in a large freezer filled with dead animals and humans.

I ran into a couple of issues while playing House on the Hill. For example, the sound was a major problem for me while playing. In some scenes, the dialogue and sound effects were too quiet for me, even at max volume. In other situations, the game was much too loud and caused me to turn the sound off, which took away from the overall ambiance in House on the Hill. Also, in some situations, I could not open doors or pick up items, that were crucial to my survival. For example, I was being chased by a monster and I started to run towards a safe room. The only problem was, the door did not open until the third or fourth time I clicked on it. Luckily I was still able to make it out alive.

As one may see,  House on the Hill is a brilliant game for those that enjoy horror, puzzles, etc. However, this game is not for the light-hearted. In some scenes of the game, I was at the edge of my seat, and I even had to turn down the sound of the games, due to the disturbing sounds coming from certain rooms. I would suggest one playing this game during the daytime, or with friends, to make the game less frightening in general. If one were to play at night, they should prepare themselves for frightening thoughts or nightmares in the future. Besides this, I really enjoyed  House on the Hill and cannot wait for the developers to add more stories and endings.

-Daniel C.