Video Game Blog 021: Happy Easterween!

As you may know, if you’ve read my most recent post, I got to my annual Halloween Silent Hill post a bit late, but still managed to get it done in time. I had a lot of fun replaying Silent Hill 3, enough so that I played through it a couple more times after my post was done. On a whim, I decided to look for games in the same vein as Silent Hill, and my search led me to a hidden gem that I may otherwise never have uncovered. At first I was doubtful, but as soon as I saw the trailer for the game, I was won over and knew that not only would I play it, but I would do a post about it. Here we go on the twisted journey down memory lane that is… Murder House!

Is bunny. (Credit: Puppet Combo)

Murder House (no relation to the recurring house in American Horror Story) is a retro-style survival horror game released for PC, PS4, Nintendo Switch, and XBox One in 2020. I played the PS4 version for this review. It was developed by indy developer Puppet Combo, who I had never heard of before… but now I plan on checking out their other titles. (They have an impressive number of games.)

Mild trigger warning before we begin. This post will contain descriptions of gratuitous violence, a creepy bunny costume, scary 3-D modeling, and poorly-rendered blood. Use caution!

Ah, memories. (Credit: Puppet Combo)

Murder House is done in the style of an old VHS horror movie, down to the poor tracking, staticky images, and opening credits. It is inspired by old survival horror games like Resident Evil, Silent Hill, and Clock Tower.

Run little boy! (Credit: Puppet Combo)

The game features a prologue that focuses on a boy trapped in a mall being pursued by the evil bunny. The first time I attempted this I managed to get killed by the bunny and the main story just started from there. The second time I made it to the end of the prologue, but the boy was still doomed. (Both outcomes give a trophy, which I thought was a nice touch.)

Cutting edge graphics! (Credit: Puppet Combo)

The story is a relatively simple one, but one familiar to fans of 70s and 80s horror. A small crew from a low-budget TV channel visit the notorious house of a serial killer known as the Easter Ripper to do a shlocky report. Three years have passed since the killer was apprehended and given the death sentence. The killer, Anthony Smith, would kidnap, torture and kill children, all while dressed as the Easter Bunny. He would challenge the children to an egg hunt and the losers would be murdered. (There were no winners.) You play as Emma, the crew’s intern, as you first find a way into the house and then fight to survive as things inevitably go south.

Wheeee! (Credit: Puppet Combo)

Murder House uses exploration, puzzle solving, and hiding as the main gameplay elements. There’s a lot of backtracking involved, and it helps to remember (or take note of) locked doors or drawers, hiding places, and inaccessible items you need to go back for later. There is a stamina bar that is depleted as you run, and it’s cleverly explained away as Emma having a torn tendon and not being able to run for long stretches. One interesting feature is that the light on the Dualshock controller turns green when you play this game. As you take damage it turns to white, and then red. I didn’t realize that games could use that light as a health indicator, but I learned through this that some games utilize that.

A wild Easter Ripper attacks! (Credit: Puppet Combo)

At the point of the game where the murders start, Emma can then randomly encounter the Easter Ripper as he roams the house. Although you are given weapons, it appears to be useless to fight him, and so the only hope is to run and hide in the convenient hiding places around the house. (Although a couple of times I did manage to avoid detection just by staying around a corner and not moving until he left the room.) At times you can hear the bunny coming, and at other times he comes through a door just as you’re opening it. If the Ripper catches you, you can only take about three hits before he kills you gruesomely and brutally. (I saw three different animations for this as I played, and they seem to occur randomly, which I thought was a nice touch.)

Poor Dana. (Credit: Puppet Combo)

The game purposely utilizes low poly graphics, a static filter, fixed cameras, poor lighting, wooden voice acting, and clunky controls, all to recapture the spirit of 90s 3-D survival games, especially those on the original PlayStation. The game includes the genre’s standard silly puzzles… for instance, you get a flashlight in order to find a crowbar, which you use to jimmy open a washing machine where you find a doorknob you can use on a door. The save mechanic is a notepad in a safe room that you can only use if you have consumable pencil items. (Which brings to mind the annoying typewriter ribbons in the old Resident Evil games.) Characters clip through walls, the kid in the prologue is clearly just an adult model shrunk down, and the characters have no expression and immovable mouths. It’s a carefully cultivated dressing of low budget on a game that was clearly designed with care.

I love this image. (Credit: Puppet Combo)

I am really enjoying this game. (Yes, I’m again writing a review before I’ve had the time to finish the game.) I love the homages to old games and B slasher movies. (For example, there’s a door animation whenever you go through a door like the old Resident Evil games.) Any downside you could mention— the bad controls, the dated blocky graphics, the poor sound quality and worse voice acting— was all done on purpose to add to the atmosphere and nostalgia of the game. The sound is poorly mixed (again, on purpose) but the ambient sounds and poor lighting add to the tension and atmosphere. (The flashlight flickers at times like it’s about to go out.) Even the awkward movement and camera angles lend a feeling of hopelessness and claustrophobia to the experience. The prologue plays effectively with Liminal Space seeing that it’s set in an empty mall after hours. At times while exploring the house you see a figure running away on the edge of the camera, which adds to the sense that danger is near at all times. As I mentioned in my Silent Hill post, I’m not a fan of tank controls, but somehow they meshed well with this game, adding to the difficulty in moving about the environment. It is a relatively short game— around 3 hours or so— but there are speed run challenges in the trophies. (The shortest time on there is 25 minutes!)

The only real downside I can identify is how unclear the objectives are at times. The first time I played the prologue I was wandering the mall for an hour trying to figure out how to proceed. (You have to use the key you picked up on a certain segment of wall that looks like a prerendered background but is actually a security gate.) Of course, I could see how this game wouldn’t be to everyone’s liking due to the content and aesthetic crudeness.

But hey, I’m old enough to have lived through this phase in gaming, so it was fun reliving those days. Back when developers had limited resources to bring their vision to life and so had to make due with what they had. And we, as players, had to settle because this was as good as it got. (And back then it was pretty impressive when compared to say, the OG Donkey Kong or Pong.)

So, yeah, back then this is the kind of game we had and we got to see as games rapidly became better and better. And now we’re at the point where games are reverse engineered into that retro style and I am here for it. Looking back is a part of the human experience. It can be useful, entertaining, and help you survive. Especially if a killer bunny is back there.

Aww, he just wanted a hug! (Credit: Puppet Combo)

Thank you for joining me in reviewing this nostalgic and entertaining game. If I haven’t said it recently, I appreciate everyone who takes the time to read my posts. I have several more posts planned to follow and just wanted to get this one up before embarking on that. Next up is a four part series involving one of my all-time favorite game franchises. See you then!

Oops. (Credit: Puppet Combo)