Cursed Halls Reviews

"Pretty sure my mum is a Siberian husky because I never stop fucking running" - The ghost in this game, probably It's rare that I find a horror game that hasn't already been extensively reviewed by everyone. I'm slow to the punch a lot of the time, but I wanted to try something a bit more new and deliver my thoughts on it. Cursed Halls is an escape room game, seven exits, seven different ways to get out. There's only one demon, and it's a ghostly woman who howls and screams louder than an ex-wife with a new partner... or so I would assume. I had my doubts about this game going in. When I first started it up, it did that thing where the screen resolution was a right tosser and pushed all the text to the right so that some of it trailed off. Didn't know whether to use the flashlight for finding things or to start a rave in the middle of the halls. Further to that, I paused the game, came out of it for a second to check something and came back to it, only for me to have busted the ghost. And not in the fun way with 80s technology far beyond our own, but with me being able to walk right up to the ghost and she pays me absolutely no mind. She ignored me like most of the female student body back in school, felt very nostalgic, and somewhat awkward when I was able to run around without the ghost wanting to throw hands. Of course, she eventually decided that she did actually have a problem with me, dashed up to me while screaming her lungs out and bitch-slapped me. Felt somewhat anticlimactic. It's almost as if the jumpscare is the obnoxious screaming, and her catching you (with her ridiculously large hitbox) is just the icing on the cake. Here's the thing, I actually liked this game. For all intents and purposes, it's basic as anything. It's very replayable, you're constantly determined to find everything you need to get out, and at the same time: The game makes it clear that you're not meant to be going into every single drawer and taking everything you find, you're only meant to find what you need for the exit of your choice, and maybe one or two other things for a contingency. There's a lot that needs polishing with this. It's one of those games that's a very obvious independent project, and while it's got a lot of promise, it also feels a bit like a more basic version of Monstrum with a few added exits and less steps. So, as you can tell, I'm very much of two minds about this. I genuinely think it's worth a shot, but the devs got a lot of work to put in to make it pop and make it interesting enough to keep you engaged for a long enough time to warrant the (reasonably small) price. My biggest gripe with this game is that even though it encourages you to be stealthy, you can only ever really *be* stealthy when you're in one of the rooms, because as soon as you step out into the halls, usually the ghost knows where you are specifically in the building. And while you're given things to distract her, it's not really enough. Not to mention, as soon as she starts chasing you, she's not gonna leave you alone until you find a hiding spot, or you manage to run far enough and loop her through the building enough to confuse her AI a bit. While understandable that the ghost is relentless, it still comes across more tedious than anything else to have to constantly be running and hoping that the ghost isn't doing what she's kind of always doing: Camping the spot you're in and hoping you'll come out. Oh, randomly: I'm not sure if this is a bug or what, but - I had infinite stamina in the game, and it shows that the game has a stamina bar in the trailer. I think this is an interesting game, it just needs... time, and polish. I will end this on a positive and say that I quite enjoy the randomised elements, the way the game has a way for you to check what items you have for what exit. But I will say this, it would be nice to have a button to look back while we're running. Feel like that would help a bit. 6.5/10

I found this game to be a very frustrating experience. It's one of those indie horror games where you are constantly running and hiding from a monster that you cannot kill and there's no way to defend yourself. One major problem is that the monster somehow knows where you are at all times and constantly appears right around the corner, even when you just moved to another floor. You also cannot manually save. This is more of a rogue like experience where you go on runs and must start all over when the monster catches and kills you. The monster is also WAY too fast and will most assuredly catch and kill you repeatedly. The graphics for this game are outdated, dark, and blurry with too much of a bloom haze effect in my opinion, I also experienced constant frame rate drops with an RTX4080 in 4k resolution no matter what I changed in the settings. I also was unable to disable HDR for some reason. There are also no animations for opening bags and such. You just press a key to search. As far as content, there are three levels with levels two and three being locked until you successfully escape from the previous level. To access the third and final level, you must escape from the second level twice. I gave up after I kept getting the typical "inventory is full" message, which I thought was strange for a game that is geared towards finding as many items as possible to escape. Overall, I found this game to be a very cheap and janky experience that I cannot recommend.

I really like this style of game and I think Cursed Halls might be the best in it's class in every category outside of the lack of co-op. The graphics and art style are top notch. The locomotion feels smooth and responsive. The sound design is epic and the female demons have the most chilling wail imaginable. Each map adds a new challenge to manage which gives a nice sense of progression. The lean mechanic is well implemented and actually useful. The AI is pretty aggressive and doesn't let you get too comfortable. Using distractions like alarm clocks to lure the monster away adds a nice layer of strategy. This is a tough game and that might be exacerbated by the bear traps that are introduced in the second level. At first I hated them but I have grown to appreciate what they add to the game. That being said I personally think they could use a tweak or three. For starters the stun time on them is far far too long. I think it could use a reduction by upwards of 60-80%. I have mixed feelings about the traps resetting and how quickly they do so. Finally some of the traps are absolutely diabolically placed in the middle of narrow paths. Stepping into a trap should be a punishment for lack of awareness, not because you didn't hug the door frame just right. But don't let that scare you away, ultimately they are manageable and it sounds like the developer has some changes to the traps planned.

Cursed Halls is an indie game that stands out for its immersive experience and challenging gameplay. Set in an abandoned school, players must survive a relentless demon while collecting essential items to escape. The dark, tense atmosphere keeps players on edge, and it’s clear that a lot of effort has gone into its development, especially in the survival mechanics and permadeath system. Despite its challenge, the replayability is one of the game's strongest aspects, making each playthrough feel unique.

I'm really enjoying it, it's a very replayable game, it's developed by a single dev and it's going to give me a heart attack, 100% recommended a lot of tension and a lot of fun.