Room Escape Artist

YOUR HOUSE is an interactive novel available on Steam, developed and published by Patrones & Escondites.

Format

Style of Play:

• interactive novel

Who is it For?

• Story seekers
• Puzzle lovers
• Any experience level

Required Equipment: Computer (internet only required for download/install); pen and paper can also be helpful.

Recommended Team Size: 1

Play Time: Unlimited game clock… reviewers took between 2.5 to 5 hours.

Price: $9.99

Booking: purchase and play at your leisure

Description

YOUR HOUSE was structured first and foremost as a novel. Players read through an interactive story, clicking on (usually) highlighted key words to make choices and advance the player through the story. Along the way, players will need to solve escape room-style puzzles (based primarily in connecting disparate pieces of information and/ or bring certain items to certain places) to open new areas and learn more about the story.

It is very useful to have paper and pen handy for taking notes while playing the game. The game is divided into five chapters, though it is not always clear if you have progressed to the next chapter or not. However, the game saves automatically allowing the player to stop at any point and resume from where they left off. There was an in-game hint system which updates with game progress. Usually one hint was available; however, for some puzzles multiple hints were provided.

Andrew Reynolds’ Reaction

YOUR HOUSE was a short but meaningful text-based puzzle game. The game was delivered almost entirely through text, as though we as the player were creating a book through our clicks and our exploration. I was very taken by the novel ways we were asked to interact with the text. Some of the choices felt like quick time events, but ones that helped to build an atmosphere rather than frustrate the player.

The game’s five chapters presented a cohesive and sincere story and provided a level of diegesis I don’t typically expect from puzzle games. The main character’s reactions to the puzzles felt authentic as well – not quite sure what to believe but also very interested in digging deeper. The vast majority of the puzzles in YOUR HOUSE were on the easy side, with one notable mid-game puzzle being a little too abstract and under-clued. This did allow for me to experiment with the hint system, which I found helpful and nudged me in the right direction.

Where YOUR HOUSE shone was in the creation of atmosphere. I’ve recently become a strong supporter of using headphones when playing any video game, and YOUR HOUSE provided a very engrossing soundtrack. The music provided a sense of atmosphere, but I was especially drawn into the late game soundscape. It was less about the music and more about the ambient sounds that really lent a sense of space to an already engrossing and worthwhile game.

Christina Rohlf’s Reaction

YOUR HOUSE was a prequel to Patrones and Escondites’ 2020 title Unmemory, which gave insight into Deborah Steinbacker’s backstory. Although YOUR HOUSE was a completely self-contained game, I enjoyed the nods to the previous game found throughout YOUR HOUSE.

Just as in Unmemory, YOUR HOUSE was a visual novel and puzzle adventure hybrid and, as expected from that description, there was a LOT of reading in the game. The novel portions of the game provided a generally interesting story; however, I found the story to be very predictable. The gameplay was generally straightforward; however, there were a few moments where I was uncertain what to interact with to progress the story. Furthermore, the puzzles in YOUR HOUSE seemed fewer and of an easier difficulty than those found in Unmemory. A couple of the puzzles also seemed under-clued; I made some minor logic leaps to solve some of the puzzles successfully.

My biggest disappointment while playing YOUR HOUSE was the lack of payoffs for paying attention to details in the game. In contrast, Unmemory was loaded with Easter eggs in most chapters that unlocked secret content. For players that haven’t played either Unmemory or YOUR HOUSE, I would recommend checking out Unmemory first. For players that have played Unmemory, I would suggest tempering your expectations before playing YOUR HOUSE.

Cindi S’ Reaction

YOUR HOUSE is a text adventure that tells the story of Debbie, a young woman with a troubled past who was having a miserable 18th birthday. When she receives a mysterious postcard and key in the mail, she leaves everything behind to figure out who sent the key and why. The narrative unfolded through text, audio clips, static images, and brief, animated segments that made the story come alive on the screen. I especially liked the creative effects applied to the text that gave the story dimension beyond simple words; it kept me clicking to find out not just what would happen next, but how it would be presented. The artwork had a colorful, comic-book quality, with bits of animation that gave a sense of movement around spaces, though this effect became repetitive by the end. It was also hard to keep track of where I was and needed to go; I backtracked a lot. Puzzles, a large part of the experience, were sometimes challenging, requiring logic, reasoning, observation, even a bit of trial and error to solve. The ending was satisfying. This game will appeal to players who want their puzzles blended with story in an engaging, interactive package.

Disclosure: Hivemind reviewers received a complimentary play.