Heart of the House Reviews

I'm not done with it (I'm guessing I'm maybe half way through it at this point) but already I absolutely love this game. Adding it to my favorite Choice of Games collection in my heart. It's got a Victorian-era vibe, occult investigation, horror and mystery -- everything a nerd like me loves! Well worth the price tag. If you've been burned before by previous CoG titles, this is the one to bring you back into its warm embrace.

Went into this completely blind, and I loved it! The story is well written and kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time. I highly recommend this for you to buy and throw on some Silent Hill or Resident Evil music in the background for good measure.

It really held my attention. It kept me in suspense. I can usually figure the ending of stories; not this one. I came to some conclusions but there was always another surprise ahead. Very good game.

An astoundingly good interactive novel, perhaps the best yet released by Choice of Games. It is longer than most games yet manages to avoid dragging on even slightly. The subject matter is fresh, even if 19th Century England is not, and the story it tells is captivating from start to finish. I enthusiastically recommend this novel, above any other you can find on steam, if only because the writer tells a wildly intricate tale with characters that are sincerely motivated and three-dimensional.

It’s impressive what one can do with just the written word. The tone and overall feeling is great, very much fitting the gothic theme, with some cosmic horror elements. When I first played it had me on the edge of my seat, I was invested and wanted to know what would happen next, but with different scenes and choices it’s worth replaying too, uncovering new secrets and character moments. The characters are memorable and intriguing, you want to get to know about them, and the optional romantic subplots are pretty good. The ones I’ve played felt unique and fitting that character, rather than just generic. I would definitely recommend picking this up.

Choice of Games, if you haven't played one before, are a kind of game/book hybrid focused on branching narrative. A sort of visual novel without the visual part. Their general strenght is that they tend to be strongly thematic and the lack of gameplay means that they can tell more kinds of stories than your typical video game while still keeping the element of interactivity that draws many of us to the medium. That's choice of games in general but what about this particual choice of game? Heart of the House is a horror story with a focus on investegation in a Victorian setting. It's 360000 words long and took me about 4 hours to complete. There are a whole bunch of choices but as I have only completed the game once at the time of writing I can't say how many of them have a major impact on the story. I did get the feeling that there were quite a few choices of major significance but that's just a guess. What I can say with much more certainty is that this is one of my favorite COGs. It was usually pretty clear what kind of stat was associated with what action and I almost always understood what the choices actually entailed. So it's pretty good on a mechanical level but the true strenght of this game lies in the writing. The atmosphere and tone is just perfect. All the characters are nuanced and sympathetic but no less creepy when they need to be. On a more meta level the story mixes a few sub-genres of horror to make it a little less obvious were the story is going. The genre savy player is still unlikley to be particularly suprised by the ending but it is a welcome measure nontheless. All in all what we have here is one of the better games of its kind and a fair value proposition. I would personally recomend putting on some suitable music in the background as a good soundtrack is what's missing the most from the otherwise excellent atmosphere.

Perhaps one of the most well-written pieces of interactive fiction I've ever had the pleasure of playing. The story is a deep, immersive, and beautifully sculpted piece of Victorian gothic horror with Lovecraftian inspiration and considerable replayability, while the characters that comprise the cast are interesting and as realistic as any you could hope to find in gothic fiction. I very much look forward to reading more by the same author.

Truly a marvelous story. Some minor complaints about certain characters and lack of character development, but overall I liked the focus more on choices and story and less so on your "stats". I quickly realized early in the game that stats weren't super important, and that let me enjoy the story more and focus more on making the choices I felt I liked and made the most sense for the situation, instead of making the "right" choices, like some games require you to do unless you want a shitty ending, or die and start over. That's not to say you can't fuck up, you absolutely can. I just happened to get a perfect ending result picking the choices I liked, which are basically the kind of choices I would make in any of these types of games, that would often get me instantly killed(or someone else) in some of the other games. And the romance once you were in it was done very well. However it went from 0-100 fairly quickly, which not everyone likes, but I personally don't mind. I guess you could say the writers intentions with choices synched up well with how my mind works, which is always a bit of a bonus to a story like this, the only other Choice Of game that did this near perfectly for me is Samurai of Hyuga, another great story.

I should start by saying that [b]Heart of the House[/b] is definitely an adult game, starting from mind twisting mazes in the dreadful house and ending with hot bedroom scenes. Personally, I would rate it at least 16+ compared to some other CoG and HG games. Keep in mind just in case. So far, I have completed two romance routes out of five and discovered at least four major endings. And I should say this game was able to impress me. It is beautiful in many ways and offers a really great variety of choices, as well as character-building options. But let me tell you more! [h1]The story[/h1] You lost your parents at a very young age, and now your uncle looks after you day and night. Is it because you are a problem child? Well, in some way. After all, very few people can see ghosts and contact the other world. You do not know whether it is a curse or a blessing, but your uncle has no doubts and starts teaching you everything about his craft, which is, conveniently, connected with dead and not so dead people and creatures. Many years pass; you become an adult and a true professional. Life is good if not always easy, but one day your uncle mysteriously disappears in a small town in the middle of nowhere. They say that something strange is going on there, something connected with the huge house and its owner. Could it be that your uncle found something that he should not have? No matter what, you know that you must go to this cursed place and discover the truth behind all these rumors. Just be careful: somebody is always watching… [h1]Why is this game so good?[/h1] Heart of the House has a lot of absolutely amazing features. [u]First, the writing[/u] is very engaging and creative: the places are beautifully described, the characters get a lot of meaningful development, and the story flow looks really natural. I did not notice any typos, continuity errors, grammar or vocabulary mistakes, etc. Also, the author was able to create just the right atmosphere for any scene whether it was unsettling or scary, romantic or erotic, full of action or very calm. The secrets are revealed step by step, as well as you background and family story. [u]Second, the setting.[/u] Your character lives in Victorian England, if I am not mistaken, so the world is full of wonders, rules, forbidden topics, and tea parties. And prejudice, of course. Thanks to the great writing, it is very easy to imagine this world where your every move is judged and one wrong step can ruin your whole career. At the same time, there are ghosts and mysteries all around you. Speaking about the plot in general, I think it has some very interesting ideas and twists. I would not call it a horror, honestly; in my humble opinion, it is a well-written thriller with supernatural elements and romance. The endings were mostly satisfying and answered my questions. The only thing I would complain about is the line about our main character’s family demon / spirit. I do not think that this part got enough development; and the problem was solved too fast without no real consequences. [u]Third, the characters.[/u] There is a marvelous variety of personalities that you will enjoy discovering. Lord Bastian is extremely charming and a bit childish, while your assistant Dev is sweet and endearing; Oriana is a dangerous woman who hides her secrets well; Loren is very cheerful but seems to be “surprisingly” forgetful. There are also background characters that you can interact with, and none of them felt dull or out of place. I have completed romantic routes with Bastian and Dev, and falling in love with them was really easy. Dev is just too good to be true! He melted my heart right away – the way he literally adores the main character without being creepy, possessive or insane is just…argh, awesome! Also, the bedroom scenes I mentioned before were burning hot. Both guys prefer different approach, so their scenes did not feel repetitive at all. I wonder what Oriana would be like? I heard her ending turns out to be rather bittersweet, but who knows. Ah, btw: you can also romance two characters simultaneously! Would you like to know who? Ah, this is the mystery you need to solve on your own, my dear – or what fun would it be? [u]And my last complement:[/u] I adore Loren, the only agender character in the game. I will be quite honest and say that romantic routes with agender people are not always comfortable for me. However, the author was able to make their personality unique and very likable from the very beginning, as well as gave a great background that explained why Loren does not care about genders, how other people perceive and treat them, and how their life has become different in the Manor where people can be who they want to be. Orianna and Bastian also give their own opinion about Loren, and I liked how different their thoughts were. In the end, I think that I will go for this romance route without any second thoughts because I feel completely at ease around Loren. [h1]Would I recommend it?[/h1] [b]Heart of the House[/b] rightfully takes place among my favorite text-based games. It has its own style, very enjoyable and smooth story flow, and characters that make my heart beat faster. I am a total sucker for well-written romantic and erotic scenes, so yeah, the ones in this game made me go crazy over it all the more. The story is complete as it is, but I would still love to see the second part someday. Or a prequel. Or just anything! Just give me more of this wonderful world! [i]P.S. Devanand, I now love you almost as much as Semryu. And this is quite an achievement, you know.[/i] [h1][url=http://store.steampowered.com/curator/32296668-Casual-Game-Reviews/] More reviews on our Curator Page[/url][/h1]

So I'm a chump who bought this game twice in the same day (though to be fair I like playing games in bed and it was cheaper on mobile). If that's not enough to tell you how good it is, then keep reading! This is definitely one of the better CoGs in terms of quality, story, and choice. The mystery and romance are fantastic, the charactes are vivid, the horror is good, and I've played through 4 times and I'm just barely scratching the surface. I saw people talking on the CoG forums about a major character that I haven't even officially met yet. I only *just* managed to get my first mostly happy ending. The only possible con that I can come up with is that it's a bit overwhelming at first. There are so many choices and they are all important. One little mis-step is all it takes and suddenly you're either restarting or playing a tragedy. I got a bit frustrated after the 2nd time this happened towards the end (this game is LONG, and like all CoGs there's no save function, so I had a lot of emotional investment going) and had to stop to take a break, but I came back later twice as determined and eager to see it to the bitter end. I'm not even close to done with this game yet. It's a gothic romantic mystery full of eldritch horrors and if that sounds like a good time then you should check out the demo.