My House 2023

Log Status

Completed

Playing

Backlog

Wishlist

Rating

Time Played

--

Days in Journal

1 day

Last played

May 20, 2023

Platforms Played

DISPLAY


This review contains spoilers

Went in completely blind and I wouldn't wish not doing the same on my worst enema. A genuine technical marvel and a tremendous testament to the importance of atmosphere as the primary vehicle for horror. This is what games are about, folks.

Sincerely think the metatextual elements are handled crazy good here. The mod being sourced from a forum post that links to a Google Drive where an uninitiated player (me) can just accidentally download and play the wrong file is so fucking good as a disarming technique - one of many mindful off-putting flourishes that compound as the layers of the .wad reveal themselves. Even the approach to the starting line feels sloppy and homebrewed in a way you don't get on the Steam/Itch store. It's understandable for folk to be wary of any game that tries to build a mythos surrounding the playable executable, but the supplementary material here is so lean and evocative. You won't stop the doe-eyed youtubers from demystifying and theorizing shit into perfectly solvable mulch, but My House only wishes for a slightly transactional push+pull on your curiosity to find the clues for progression in the .txt.
At its absolute strongest when it isn't aping the liminal spaces cinematic universe wholesale. While it's pretty cute that the dev realised these areas in such a fully-fledged manner under such oppressive engine limitations, I can't help but wish I wasn't seeing the same ol' thing.
Ending made me choke up. Doggy........

Want to give the dev a big wet sloppy kiss for having the chutzpah to release a horror title without a fucking audio jumpscare. This man is not a coward.