Hauntii [Review]
Indie adventure Hauntii is a work of art that enchants with its touching story and unique visuals.
Hauntii. Credit: Moonloop Games / Firestoke
Moonloop Games’ Hauntii is a twin-stick shooter with a neat possession mechanic that tells an evocative love story between a ghost and angel. It’s also one of the best looking games of the year, perfectly executing its visual style that adds a sense of whimsy and wonder, perfectly encapsulating the game’s storybook quality.
In Hauntii, you play as a ghost living in Eternity, home of all souls, where a mysterious race of beings known as Eternians guide souls to ascend. You meet an Eternian and yearn to ascend with her, but you’re chained to the limbo of the lower levels of Eternity by attachments to a past you can’t remember. Against all odds, you set off to regain your memories, all so you can let go and ascend with your love, fighting off corrupted ghosts along the way. You’ll meet many other ghosts on your journey, including those who would stop you because they distrust Eternians or want the power of your memories to themselves.
Hauntii. Credit: Moonloop Games / Firestoke
Playing the game, you explore Eternity from an isometric 3D perspective, seen from a fixed camera angle. Controls are like a twin stick shooter; you move around with one stick and then fire in any direction with the other. You can also dash a short distance, at first just once, and later in the game more times if you choose that upgrade path, before needing to wait a short time for the cooldown to reset. Likewise, you can only fire your ghostly energy for a limited time before your power needs to recharge. Like the dash, firing is also upgradable, as are your hit points.
What separates Hauntii from an average twin stick shooter is that while your bullets will destroy corrupted ghosts, they’ll also let you possess creatures and objects around you. The ability lets you move or activate things in your environment to solve puzzles, or use special abilities a creature might have that you don’t for either traversal or combat. This creates a lot of interesting gameplay opportunities and scenarios. Using a possessed creature’s ability consumes special possession energy, but it’s not a true limitation because the energy is plentiful in the world and you pick it up constantly. Needing to be too judicious with it would make the game much harder, and frankly I think it wouldn’t be as fun, so I’m glad the developers made that choice. I’m also glad that as I was playing, the developers patched the game so that after death your health regenerates completely when you respawn. Before, you’d only regain two hearts—an unnecessary and unfair penalty that made certain situations very tedious.
Hauntii. Credit: Moonloop Games / Firestoke
Throughout the game, your goal is to find stars in the world which you’ll use to populate constellations. Stars are hidden all over the world, sometimes in plain sight and sometimes behind combat challenges or environmental puzzles. The bulk of the gameplay revolves around finding these stars, though there are boss fights that you must win to advance the story. Each constellation you complete reveals a memory from your past life; regain enough memories in each of the game’s areas and you’ll earn one of the keys you need to destroy one of your chains.
I had more fun finding stars and solving puzzles than I did with combat, which isn’t very remarkable outside of the possession mechanics. There are far more stars in the game than you need, so there isn’t much pressure to be skillful enough to beat combat gauntlets or solve puzzles that stump you. If you can’t unlock a particular star, you can just move on; if you like challenge, you can fight to push through. Having so many stars to find also gives completionists far more to do in the game.
Hauntii. Credit: Moonloop Games / Firestoke
Huantii’s graphics are wonderful. The game is in 3D but all the characters are hand drawn. Everything is depicted in two or three tones, with each biome featuring different colors, and all detail is rendered with dotted shading or hatching. The graphics are great because the game has a clear vision in its art direction and the developers have pulled off the style flawlessly. Playing the game is like exploring and controlling a living storybook. I also loved the character designs and the visual design or the world. A particular favorite for me is the design of the Eternians, depicted as cute little angels who can transform into “biblically accurate” angel monstrosities that are all wings, eyes, and rings.
Michael Kirby Ward’s sumptuous orchestral score for Hauntii is also one of the best game soundtracks I’ve heard in a while. It fits the game perfectly and is crucial to its storybook feel; it swells with emotion and brings the game to life. The music is simply gorgeous.
Hauntii. Credit: Moonloop Games / Firestoke
I finished Hauntii in between 10 and 11 hours. I spent some extra time hunting for more stars, so if you decide not to do that, the game will run a bit shorter. However, it was a pleasure to spend extra time with the game. Moment-to-moment gameplay doesn’t stand out, but as a whole experience it felt wonderful to explore the world of Hauntii and unlock its mysteries.
Hauntii is available now on Steam for PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch.
Overall Score: 7/10
Played on: Steam Deck
