Reviews

• gamedeal user

  Oct 4, 2021

  10/10 for murder bunny sex dungeon
• gamedeal user

  Oct 14, 2021

  I got too scared to even complete the game. 10/10
• gamedeal user

  Nov 1, 2021

  Puppet Combo is a game developer who is by no means a newcomer to creating unique and outstanding horror titles. He (previously solo, he has recently hired some new team members) has been consistently releasing games since 2012, with most years seeing multiple titles published; primarily on Itch and his Patreon. Murder House just happens to be his first foyer into releasing his work onto Steam. Doing so paid off with a lot of new attention and a rising popularity that he may not have otherwise seen had he kept lurking in the shadows of less prevalent sites. And what a grand induction onto Steam that Murder House proves to be. Keeping with the signature style of the rest of his catalogue, this title is also a PS1-style retro survival horror game. You play as Emma, a day-one intern for a news channel that is covering the gruesome story of the Easter Ripper; a serial killer that murdered several children throughout the late '70s and early '80s. Of course there's no better place to film a mini-documentary than the infamous house where all of the killings happened. It should be safe though, since he was executed in 1985, right? Well, it doesn't take long before the team start to die one-by-one at the hands, or scythe, of the sinister blood-soaked bunny rabbit. If you've played any of the first three Silent Hill games, then you'll already know what to expect with Murder House; you'll be finding useful items, keys, weapons, survival mainstays for health and ammo, and interacting with virtually everything to ensure you don't miss something. There's very little direction given on where to go and what to do at first, but once you get into the swing of things the gameplay becomes much easier. With that said, there are still many times where you'll end up wandering around the house with no clue where to go next until you stumble across the progression piece. This title also features tank controls... sort of. They're not as convoluted as a typical tank control scheme, which forces you to press the backwards move direction to move forwards if you're facing the wrong way, but it's a decent modern emulation and it does its part in making the game more difficult. With the good comes the bad, and Murder House does have some quirks that need to be addressed. For one, being able to interact with an object means that you have to be spot-on facing it. If you're even so much as a bit off on your direction, you'll end up interacting with the wrong thing over and over again. Another problem is that your character will auto lock-on to the killer when aiming a weapon at him regardless if you're facing him or not, but when you let go of the aim it'll put you back in whatever position you were in and completely skew the tank controls. This latter issue caused my death quite a few times, as it forced me into running directly into the killer unless I was already facing him to shoot. Lastly, and with a bit of nitpickyness, a lot of the text dialogue doesn't match up with the voice narration, and the main character's name is even completely different sometimes. Murder House is an exquisite exposition in '80s gore and a love letter to both old campy slasher films and the survival horror gods; tinges of the original Silent Hill and Resident Evil games are pervasive throughout the 3-4 hour playtime, while just a small pinch of Clock Tower is added in for good measure. There's even a tip-of-the-hat towards Harvester in at least one of the kill scenes, while a very famous Leatherface kill can be seen sometimes when you die to the killer. As an added bit of immersion, Puppet Combo even took it a step further and added several filter options, from VHS, old beat-up rental VHS, to PS1 and beyond, along with several CRT options such as scanlines. He also added an expanded ending in early 2021. The bottom line here is that if you love all of the things referenced already in this review, then there's no reason that you shouldn't already own Murder House. [h1]Rating: [b]5.0/5.0[/b] - An astonishing achievement, this game must be played.[/h1] The Horror Network [url=http://store.steampowered.com/curator/28221963/]Curator[/url] | [url=http://steamcommunity.com/groups/thehorrornetwork]Group[/url] Click for Gore
• gamedeal user

  Dec 3, 2021

  horrible writing characters make objectively horrible decisions basically an 80s slasher 10/10
• gamedeal user

  Dec 5, 2021

  Almost made my gf puke, 10/10
• gamedeal user

  Feb 7, 2022

  i peed a little
• gamedeal user

  Jul 26, 2022

  twitter user chases innocent woman after she disagrees with him
• gamedeal user

  Sep 25, 2022

  Video Nasty

  The VHS/Analogue Horror couture is blooming. Or festering, depending on how you look at it. As with any mass phenomenon, it's mostly garbage, but the emergence of competent gems like this one and Night At the Gates of Hell make it all worth it. I'm yet to check out more, but these two seem to be cutting above the rest by paying attention to nuances. Murder House isn't another small-time punk monster romp in some hastily flipped surroundings. Nah, conceived by huge cinema nerds with a lick of humour and taste, it boasts a lovely villain and a well-seasoned style coupled with strong cinematography. Beyond the usual overlays, you have a choice between a fixed camera with tank controls and a first-person view, which was my pick. I prefer considered camera angles, yet can't help but opt for effectiveness over artfulness. Besides, it felt like playing a less creepy Normality. All in all, the "video nasty" atmosphere wasn't just emulated, it was carefully reproduced. Just like the setting and visuals that have achieved a disturbing harmony with the subject matter, fantastic ambience and banging slasher music immediately struck the familiar chords with me. Particularly effective when abruptly replaced with your lone footsteps in silence. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2864987651

  Murder House

  I loved the mute horror of the interiors. So low-key and hazy, they get dimmer as time passes. Clinically blue tiles and damp walls covered in smudged paint. Blind turns, crumbling wood, grimy household appliances losing their utility to rust and mould, sheets that would probably turn to dust from touch, and other dilapidated matter comprise the confined chambers, bringing with it the decay of hope. Naturally, I wanted to leave and got turned around, then saw the house from the outside once again. This time, soaking in the crimson light of the setting Sun, emanating hostility. Upon swallowing that ominous sight, I knew sh*t was about to go down in no time. Led by the relentless script, like any dumb victim, I had to go back and roam the dreadful place, solving puzzles under pressure. It wasn't so bad! They are simple and reward paying attention to your surroundings. Exploration can earn you anything from weapons that will help you fend the pest off temporarily to a generous amount of pencils with which you can save your game. It's newcomer-friendly. But man, did they make searching through the drawers a threatening endeavour! You can feel the bastard breathing down your neck while you open these treacherously squeaky cabinets. A sense of dread to make your body hair stand on end. From time to time, the tension gets relieved with tasteful jumpscares. Just to be re-applied with an anxious chase to follow, probably also quite painful for our heroine who has a pulled tendon. As far as explanations for poor stamina go, I'm happy when it's addressed at all. It's a detail, which shows that someone cared for world-building and authenticity. To boot, you don't get chased for long or have to hide forever. It's a high-paced game that doesn't test your patience. It takes its sweet time to build up, but when the f*cking bunny gets it on, things take off at a gallop.

  The Easter Ripper

  "Ashy Slashy, hatchet and saw. Takes your head and skins you raw. Ashy Slashy, Heaven or Hell. Cuts out your tongue so you can’t yell." As they say, a story is only as good as its villain. So, let's tackle both. You and the film crew, working for some crappy news channel, arrive at the house in hopes of making fake news about a measly ghost. You play as an intern girl, basically a slave to the whims of the crew's sleaze. Almost each of them gets the chance to be an ass to you. But hey, the nastier they are, the more satisfying their gory demise will be for your petty ass. During the brief period when they live, they provide some tight exposition considering your future tormentor. Later you'll find out more from the laconic notes and even visit his arts & crafts studio that won't leave you indifferent. In short, the murderer trapped children inside his house for the deadly Easter Egg Hunt where they met fates worse than death. He's a malicious scumbag you'd love to hate, and his sickle scared me, for I saw the ways it could slice me open, recalling the pain I caused with it in Manhunt. I've read it all about every maniac and their exploits - glasstration, ripping out intestines and gnawing on them, making victims blowtorch each other's genitals - and I still got heartbroken after discovering the particulars of what happened. One never gets truly desensitised to these things. There's nothing too explicit, my imagination did most of the job. However, the game sparked it real good without skimping on fleshing out its direct threat. The Easter Ripper emerges as suddenly as he disappears. His entrances are mostly scripted, but these are fine scripts with elements of random. Sometimes you need to hide or just leave an area and he's gone, and some situations don't mean running headlong, making you think on your feet. You're never sure if he's even real, only the pain is. Which is in line with how Freddy Krueger did it. Except that the bunny doesn't seem to be into cheesy jokes or weed, mocking you silently. It's a quiet kind of pressure, menacing in itself. See, I don't necessarily need to learn someone's full backstory to be scared sh*tless. "He killed those kids and now he's here to kill you" is a fine threat. Villains don't have to come from a dysfunctional family of traumatised orphans to make one fear pain.

  Wrap

  The bunny worked for me, the whole game did. And it comes from someone who isn't that big on slasher movies, despite seeing a fair share. But to watch a victim getting ravaged, sitting in safety, is obviously not the same as being one. Here, it was me given chase to then get brutalised in a cynical manner. All the game had to do was to keep me immersed and I think I've presented enough evidence of its success. Among all other old Horrors it reminded me of, including Clock Tower, I'd point out Phantasmagoria. I didn't like it as an adventure game, but the parts where you had to scamper around your house, looking for places to hide and stabbing your mad husband with a fire poker, I carry in my heart to this day. Murder House gets its own pretty torture dungeon at the bottom of it. My curator Big Bad Mutuh
• gamedeal user

  Oct 8, 2022

  i did in fact get murdered in that house.
• gamedeal user

  Oct 24, 2022

  A cute rabbit runs around the whole game and tries to hug you