Running a haunted house seems like it’ll be a difficult task, especially after all the stories of famous haunted houses like the Winchester House, the McRaven House, Baker Mansion, the Sallie House, and many more. But what if you played as the haunted house? How would that play out?
In Deck of Haunts, that is the exact question answered. The goal of the game is to make it to 29 days without anyone harming or discovering your heart. The only way to ensure they don’t find the heart is by killing them, making them insane, or having them run away in terror. By doing these tasks, players are then able to expand their house, add specialty rooms, and gain more cards after a set of days. There isn’t any story, which is not a bad thing, as the game is centered around deck building and not much else.
The currency is the essence of souls that the house collects. The more souls, the better the layout of the house is able to become to prevent people from reaching the heart. The best way to get essence is by killing the humans that come into the house. Each kill gives players 30 essence, while making people insane gives players 25 essence.
Deck of Haunts focuses on building and expanding your deck. The more hours put into the game, the better the cards players get. Many of the cards have conditions, and it is very important to look at what they do because some seem helpful when in reality they don’t help at all. There are Damage Cards, Drain Cards, Tension Cards, and Building Cards. All have their downfalls and advantages, though the fastest way to win the night is by outright killing the humans. Getting cards that hex humans is the most helpful, as these allow for more damage or for tension to build, depending on the hex players choose. Damage cards drain the health of the humans in the house for different amounts of points. Tension cards are focused on building tension in the humans, making them more nervous and vulnerable to the effects of all other cards. I did one damage card that dealt over 30 damage because of the tension I had built. Drain Cards focus on the sanity of the humans in the house, which can come in handy because some humans have less sanity than health and/or have a debuff on them already. 
What to pick, what to pick! OOOH, the nursery seems fun.Building cards allow for players to build more onto the house, and each card has its perks. These cards allow for special types of rooms to be built on empty rooms, allowing the house to build tension, drain, damage, or even have groups of people be considered alone. Ultimately these cards help players keep the humans away from the heart while allowing the playing cards to have more effect. The building of the decks is very fun, but be careful because after every night you can only pick one new card to add to your deck. Reading each card is very important to understand which ones will work best for your build and each build is different. For my run, I solely focused on building tension to do more damage.
Another fun aspect of Deck of Haunts is that after every few nights there will be new humans that join in on the haunted fun. There are police, priests, and the Masons. They all have their own special abilities that will harm the heart if players don’t pick them off carefully and quickly. Not only do these stronger humans come in, but the more basic humans that start the game can also have special traits such as pathfinder, healing, and sanity regain.
One of the massive issues I ran into when playing Deck of Haunts was that, when I tried to pick a deck, the game would often crash. In fact, I had the game crash on me for one reason or another 10 times while I was playing it. Another bug I would run into often is that text for the new enemies coming into the house would often bug when looking at it and reading the abilities.
Even with the few issues Deck of Haunts has, they can and should be overlooked because of the fun and addictive gameplay the developers have created. The gameplay makes players think about what will be the best move, especially the further they get into the game, which keeps them on their toes, adding new twists and turns at every corner.
Sara reviewed this game on PC with a provided review copy.
