Your House

Puzzles or jigsaws make up a fundamental part in human lives. No matter how tricky they might be, we often find ourselves in situations where we need to solve a riddle ―whether in fiction, such as a film or, in this case, a video game, in board games, or even in real life, when dealing with daily life struggles, bureaucracy, or unexpected issues that arise over time. These situations come in all shapes and sizes, but we always have to rack our brains to get through them and avoid further trouble. This time, we have Your House, brought to you by Patrones & Escondites, which will be available in a few days ―on March 27th. And here at Gamereactor, we've already had the chance to try it out so we could offer you this review. But before we start, it should be noted that this game will be released not only for PC (the platform on which we've played it), but also for smartphones (iOS or Android), making it easily accessible to anyone.

To begin with the story, in this game we play as Debbie Clough, a young girl who has just had the worst eighteenth birthday ever, the kind you'd never wish on anyone, not even your worst enemy. She's been expelled from school for the third time, has seen her boyfriend cheating on her with her best friend, and on her way back to her room at the boarding school, she was struck by a car. Once her wounds healed, she finally returns to her dorm, just to see that there was a letter and a postcard with an address and a key. Then, without thinking further, Debbie runs away from the boarding school and makes her way to said address, where a mansion awaits her. The moment she manages to get inside, questions flooded her head. How did she get there? Why was she sent this address and the key? These are the mysteries we'll need to solve in a mansion that seems to be a living puzzle.

As for the gameplay, we aren't faced with a ton of incredibly tangled puzzles that make you break a sweat until your last breath while trying to crack them. However, they do know where their strengths lie so they can build puzzles that compel you to read documents attentively, look for double meanings in certain words, interact with the game's world (which is primarily text-based with some images), among other things we won't spoil for you. But the difficulty of the chapters is somehow subjective. Some puzzles can be easier than others, and as far as we've seen, the most complicated ones were from Chapter 3, that is, halfway through the game. There's no need to worry too much about it, if you get stuck the game will offer you some hints so you can keep going. These hints are usually a tad ambiguous, but the more time you spend on the same riddle the more obvious they become.

Moving on to the graphics, as I mentioned before, the game is text-based with some illustrations, mostly static, except for some simple animations. The art style, to me, felt reminiscent of the graphic novels by Jean-Christophe Derrien and Rémi Torregrossa, or Fido Nesti, who adapts George Orwell's 1984. Comparing it with other games from the same studio, we can see a noticeable progress regarding illustrations. Whilst in previous titles the art leaned towards minimalism, here they take a clear step forward in making the game their own and giving it a stronger and unique sense of identity, so players know it's their work. We can assume that this improvement in quality will continue, though there's a chance they won't stick exclusively to this style of illustration and keep experimenting with other approaches, so they're not labelled as the ones who make puzzle games with this particular style.

One of its most outstanding features is the soundtrack and sound effects. First, the soundtrack. It brings me back to my childhood and reminds me of the Professor Layton series, with those puzzles that lived up to their name, aimed at children who hadn't even turned ten, getting us ready to be some sort of tiny Sherlock Holmes. That includes soothing music that helps you think, but when the tension ramps up, it rises to match the storyline, a big plus for immersion in the game. The soundtrack is accompanied by some well-designed sound effects that make you feel like you're really in that mansion at that very moment ―creaking wood, whistling windows, the sound of door hinges, among others, bring the mansion to life and wrap around you. A special shout-out to the Spanish voice acting, which has powerful female voices that add personality to the characters.

Lastly, regarding the overall experience, it must be said that we've encountered some annoying bugs we won't mention expressly, because that would spoil some puzzles, and we don't want to ruin your game experience. One of these bugs was a mistake in the translation of the game, causing the puzzle to be unsolvable because of it. To be fair, I must confess that I was able to solve it without any trouble by switching the game's language to English. Then, another bug forced me to start the last chapter over again. Even though this particular chapter isn't unreasonably long, it's somewhat frustrating to have to go through it all again to get back to that point, but that's a direct solution. Another issue that I would like to talk about is the poor optimisation in some scenes. A text-based game is supposed to load almost instantly, even more so when it is also optimised for smartphones, which are significantly less powerful than a PC, but with some interactive objects, you'll have to wait a few moments for them to respond. It's also a title with little to no replay value. Once you already know the puzzles, it doesn't quite have the same ring to it and its duration is not that long. Personally, it seems perfect for a short experience on a lazy afternoon where you've got nothing else to do.

So, to sum up, if you're into puzzles, writing down all the details in a notebook to remember everything, and love these kinds of adventures, we would definitely recommend it. And even though it has its pros and cons, it's a game that delivers what it promises, in a short period of time, for people who don't want stories that last over 40 hours. Anyone who loves a good mental challenge will find themselves in the target audience for this title.