Home Sweet Home

Pros

• Immersive nature of the game sucks you in.
• Haunting, understated atmosphere does a phenomenal job of adding to the game's fright.
• Easy to learn mechanics provide for an interesting experience.

Cons

• At three hours, the game is a little short, and considering its compelling plot, that's a shame.
• Elements of the plot seem to have been recycled from a variety of other horror games; as such, the plot can lack some originality.

Home Sweet Home is a first-person horror game which will almost certainly scare the heck out of you. The game is available for purchase on Windows, Playstation, XBox One or VR systems.

In the game, you play as Tim, who is trying to recover from the unexplained disappearance of his wife. One day, Tim goes to sleep. Upon waking, Tim finds himself in a house with no idea of how he got there. Your goal, as Tim, is to escape the house and not be found by a female ghost who spends the game chasing you while also solving the mystery of what happened to your wife.

The game doesn't feature a ton of gore and there is no real violence. Instead, it scares you by using sheer terror, creepy music and a by creating a delightfully haunting atmosphere. You win the game by properly using stealth and hiding mechanics, because of the ghost finds you...well, you're dead. Furthermore, the game encourages (really, requires) you to explore, solve puzzles and find diary pages which further unfurl the mystery of where you are and what happened to your wife.

Like any good mechanic, the stealth and hiding sections are easy to figure out (duck over there! hide behind that thing!) but difficult to master. Once you get the hang of it, the game becomes much simpler. This is fantastic, because the House is massive and replete with a slew of hiding spots, nooks and crannies for Tim. At the same time, the various rooms and spaces to hide are fertile ground for the series of collectibles you need to find in order to solve the mystery of Home Sweet Home.

Like most good horror games, this one also has a variety of puzzle mechanics. Unlike many games in this genre, these puzzles never feel tacked on and seem relatively organic to the creepy nature of the game.

It's to the game's credit, but it's greatest flaw is its relative lack of length: it's a mere three hours. For $17 on Steam, this price can be a bit steep, but it's a great experience anyway.

Pros

• Immersive nature of the game sucks you in.
• Haunting, understated atmosphere does a phenomenal job of adding to the game's fright.
• Easy to learn mechanics provide for an interesting experience.

Cons

• At three hours, the game is a little short, and considering its compelling plot, that's a shame.
• Elements of the plot seem to have been recycled from a variety of other horror games; as such, the plot can lack some originality.