Clue Cracker: The Haunting of Harlequin House review

I’m in two minds about this one. On one hand, the game itself is simply a series of static images with the puzzle somehow part of it – it’s certainly not the most interactive game we’ve played online! That said, the images are extremely well detailed and it does seem as though a fair amount of effort had gone into creating them.

The flipside is that there are plenty of videos interspersed throughout the game and, like the puzzle images, are of a decent quality. They also inject a lot of character into proceedings and elevate the game from being a simple series of puzzles to an adventure with an involving and very clear narrative.

This is a fully online escape game by Clue Cracker. It has a mild horror theme with a ghostly figure and a couple of tame jump scares, but it’s more humorous than scary with some tongue in cheek moments. The story is told as you progress through the game, with a paragraph of text before each puzzle, along with a few decently made videos. The puzzles are themed appropriately, aiding immersion further. There’s no interactivity so you’ll need to make notes along the way. But there is an inbuilt timer so you can easily see how long you took to finish.

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I personally enjoyed the tasks that The Haunting of Harlequin House threw at us. As mentioned earlier, they were limited in interactivity but were extremely varied and even threw in some cool twists – the story-building videos sometimes had a part to play in the current challenge, making the game that little bit more immersive. With the exception of one puzzle, everything was clear and logical and the moments where we tripped up were because we’d failed to notice something that was clearly signposted. One part seemed, to us, to be lacking a bit of clueing and was the only time throughout that we took a hint but this just seemed to be a one-off…

My one criticism here was that some parts could’ve been easily brute-forced. There was more than one puzzle that had a finite number of solutions and simply cycling through these would lead to eventually solving it. We discussed this afterward and the answer is available on every page so it could be argued that it’s up to you how you want to play as the answer is always within reach anyway. But, with some puzzles having a small pool of answers, there’s a chance that you could end up incorrectly entering the correct solution, solving the puzzle without ever understanding it. Personally, I think these susceptibilities should be kept to a bare minimum.

There are 16 separate linear puzzles in total, with the last one tying it all together by making use of all the previous answers, so make sure you do as you’re told and write them all down! There’s a mix of games that make use of imagery, audio and/or video. You’ll need to use observation, maths and wordplay skills, and knowledge of classic nursery rhymes. The latter could be a problem if you’re not well versed in those, but there are a trio of hints underneath each game which will help you through if you get stuck.

The logic was generally spot on, but there seemed to be a missing piece of information in the dolls puzzle, along with a typo which led us down the garden path as we thought it was a clue. Another flaw is some of the puzzles only have a handful of possible answers which makes it easy to guess or luck your way through them. But overall the games are decent, with lots of new ideas and at the right level of difficulty. I particularly liked the clever audio puzzles.

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Yeah, this was fun. Simple but enjoyable. Despite the limited interactivity, the design and addition of videos went a long way to building an atmosphere, making for a worthwhile 90 minutes! Would I have liked the game to be a little more interactive? Sure, but I think it kept things simple and concentrated on the polish rather than throwing too much into the experience and feeling cheap as a result. There’s a lot to be said for keeping a steady focus and doing one thing well than lots of things badly.

This was fun to play, with its videos breaking up the text and puzzles, offering a more immersive experience. The added humour was a nice touch too. There’s a good amount of content and it’s varied with some original ideas. It wasn’t overly complex either, with approachable games that were quick to get stuck into.

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Not to revisit our last review but this game was actually pretty similar in that it was a linear procession of standalone screens. Greater attention to detail as well as the addition of videos lifted this experience immensely. And at £10, it was half the price of that game. Clue Cracker have a very tight handle on what they’re doing, offering a simple but well-finished game at a reasonable price. It’s one that I would easily recommend but just know that it doesn’t have the pizzazz of some other games out there as it was a bit of an adjustment for us at first.

The quality of these online puzzle games can vary hugely. Some are pretty basic affairs, whilst others are very professional looking. Haunting of Harlequin House is above average with a decent design and a well thought out set of puzzles. It’s also perfectly playable over the likes of Zoom if you want to play remotely with friends. It is pitched about right at £10. Or you can reduce the cost by purchasing the complete collection of Clue Cracker’s online games for £25.

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