DeVuego

Rosebud Games’ House of Caravan isn’t the most polished game it could be, nor is it as challenging or engaging as one would expect from an adventure puzzler. It suffers from some sound issues. It isn’t as linear as a two-hour adventure puzzler should be. It doesn’t provide much in the way of replay value, and it doesn’t quite have the scares or feel of a horror game. But if you push through these problems, you’ll be rewarded with a story that is sure to raise some eyebrows when realization hits that you’re not in this mansion by accident. When it comes down to it, House of Caravan is good for a quick distraction if you’re a fan of first-person adventure games. Just don’t expect much else.

Worse is the repetition. Not only were there very few puzzles but some of them were repeated with a slightly more complex version of the same puzzle. The overall experience could have been improved by including some different types of puzzles or by having more interaction with the items dropped in the open world. House of Caravan delivers just over an hour of fun, or a bit longer if you struggle to find things like I did. Its intriguing story and 1900’s atmosphere keeps you engaged long enough to be able to feel accomplished once you finish the game, however, its puzzles never reach their full potential. 

The game is relatively short, taking less than four hours to complete. The door has been left open for a sequel, but the ending here is satisfactory, with the main mystery resolved. If there is indeed a second game to follow, there is clearly room for improvement over this promising but ultimately unfulfilling debut. While the graphics are impressive and the puzzles can be enjoyable diversions, the lack of depth in the story and characters and an absence of any type of real suspense leave House of Caravan ending up feeling as empty as its titular setting.

Rosebud compared House of Caravan to P.T. and Gone Home in their marketing material, and it’s easy to see where they took influence from these sources, particularly the latter. However, Gone Home had an incredibly interesting story arc and the characters and voice acting were superb. P.T. terrified me more than any game I’ve ever played and had felt innovative. Sadly, House of Caravan does not compare favorably to its inspirations. Even putting aside the significant number of bugs, House of Caravan is only a mediocore clone of the games that came before it.

House of Caravan’s physics are broken beyond repair, but if anything that turns out to be a welcome distraction from a game whose “key features” include – and I’m paraphrasing here – “you have to turn most of the lights on yourself!” Rosebud’s claims of “top-notch graphics” are a little more appealing, and even accurate if they were going for a house where everything is made of wood, but that’s just about all the game has going for it. This game is a total waste of time and money, and the best I can really say for it is that it doesn’t waste much of either. In fact, in a day or two, you’ll probably have forgotten it entirely.

Oh mein Gott! So dankbar ich der Indie-Szene auch dafür bin, dass sie mit Amnesia, Slender, Outlast & Co dem packenden Horror zu einer beeindruckenden Renaissance innerhalb der Spielewelt verholfen hat, wünsche ich mir angesichts zunehmender Flops wie Pineview Drive oder Montague's Mount, dass manche davon ablassen, mit einem weiteren Pseudo-Vertreter auf der Grusel-Welle mitzuschwimmen. Obwohl (oder weil?) sich bei Rosebud Games ehemalige Entwickler von Silent Hill: Origins, F.E.A.R. Extraction Point und The Witcher zu einem neuen Studio formiert haben, reiht sich House of Caravan mit seiner dilettantischen Anlehnung an Gone Home, der fehlenden Gruselatmosphäre und ausbleibenden Bedrohung sowie zahlreichen Bugs und gähnenden Rätseln bei der Sorte von Spiel ein, die niemand braucht. In diesem Zusammenhang in der offiziellen Beschreibung neben Gone Home tatsächlich das großartige und beklemmende P.T. anzuführen, grenzt angesichts des mageren Ergebnisses schon an einen Realitätsverlust des Teams, zumindest aber leere Marketingversprechungen. House of Caravan schafft es weder eine ähnlich emotionale Geschichte zu erzählen wie Gone Home noch kommt man nur in die Nähe der Gänsehaut-Atmosphäre eines P.T.. Stattdessen wird nur ein unheimlich langweiliger Erkundungs-Spaziergang durch ein pseudo-gruseliges Anwesen geboten, der von ein paar 08/15-Rätseln, lächerlichen „Schockmomenten“ und vielen Bugs unterbrochen wird.