The Haunted

Intro

"The Haunted" is a broken mess of a game that was developed by Undead Lord using RPG Maker XP. In fact, this game is so broken I'm left wondering if it was simply meant to be a joke pulled on the community as a whole since it's hard to believe someone could release a demo project in this state and be satisfied with it. Especially when complaints about the game's numerous issues started rolling in within week or two of the demo becoming available for download. Though, I suppose before I start explaining why this demo is terrible. I should probably take a moment to explain how to get this broken mess of a project to run as best as it can.

Getting it to Work

The first thing you'll probably want to do after unzipping this demo is open up the folder containing the game and create a folder named "Data". You'll then need to put a text document in that folder titled retry.sg. After that you'll need to install the chiller font onto your computer. Other wise you won't be able to see any of the dialogue in this demo. You won't even be able to read the standard options found on the title screen without it.

Story

There really isn't a story behind this project. At least not one included within the game. We simply start things off with a man named Jake running towards a bunch of zombies and blowing them to pieces with some explosives while saying one of Arnold Schwarzenegger's most famous catch phrases from "Terminator 2: Judgment Day". That of course is "Hasta la vista, baby". As for why Jake says this. I guess it's because it sounds cool. This is followed up with Jake saying "he was as good as dead".

Oddly enough this line is nonsensical for a few reasons. For starters we took out at least a dozen zombies with that explosion so Jake should be saying "they were" at the start of his line. Secondly zombies are already dead as far as most people are concerned. Thirdly that phrase implies the zombies had it coming. So what exactly did they do to Jake to deserve such a brutal and violent form of execution? I guess we'll never know, but it is a question that the developer should have answered.

Unfortunately this covers about half of the dialogue in the game. The remaining few lines spewed by Jake are in reference to the game's ultimate zombie being another mutant. Though how he can tell this is beyond me considering all of the zombies look the same beyond a few minor palette swaps.

Gameplay

The game features the standard combat system found in RPG Maker XP. As such the game features turn-based combat with touch encounters. Unfortunately the combat balance is really off in this one with the player and zombies basically exchanging blows of equal strength. And while the player can find a few potions to regenerate lost HP. You'll take far more damage than you'll ever dole out if you try to take out all of the regular zombies. If you want to stand a chance at reaching the final area you'll need to focus exclusively on the zombies that have been given slight palette swaps from the standard zombie.

And while you do start with a basic healing skill in this game. It's effectively useless since it can only be used once without needing to make use of your limited potion supply as well as only heals about 20 percent of the damage a zombie can inflict with a single blow. As such it's only use is outside of combat in order to give Jake just enough health to survive an additional hit. Albeit even that feels rather dubious considering enemies tend to go first in this game. So you'll want to heal well before you get super low on health.

Another oddity about this game is that you receive money for defeating zombies in this game, but this money is utterly useless considering there isn't any sort of shop in this game. As a result there is little difference between having $0 and having $999,999 dollars. The only difference being you'd meet the legal definition of being a vagrant in Illinois for your inability to show that you have $1 on your person.

Graphics

Graphically the game is alright I suppose, but one of the enemies is able to simple ignore all of the game's rules.



I've even seen this enemy start walking through the black areas of the map. I guess this zombie might be Persian since we know they come from the blackness. At least that's the iconic line you'll hear in one of the trailers for "300" at any rate.

Sound

The game does make use of a few background tracks, but they all seem to come with the RTP for RPG Maker XP. So don't expect this game to create much of an impression on this front. If anything the game's soundtrack and sound effects will probably only serve to irritate the player since they tend to get grating pretty fast in my experience.

Game Breaking Bug

If you enter the game's final area before you've defeated the palette swap zombies you'll find yourself helplessly trapped in a small room with no way to advance and no way to escape to the city's streets again. Though defeating the palette swap zombies is nearly impossible even if you approach those battles with as many potions as you can find since one of them loves to spam moves that stun the player. And will regularly stun lock the player for so long they'll die before they even get a chance to turn things around with the use of healing potion or two.

Conclusion

The sad reality is it took me longer to write this review than it takes to experience everything this demo has to offer. And what it offers is an experience that is utterly disappointing with the game's only highlight being a zombie that can walk on and through everything, but that really isn't a good enough reason to play this game in my opinion. Especially when you can play the "Shawshank Dead Redemption" by NewBlack and wield the power to walk through anything yourself.