Heart of the House

Reviewing (mostly) every game (or DLC) in my library, part 606: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️☆☆ (8/10) When I was in elementary or middle school, I was sent to a high school to learn Vietnamese every Sunday. It usually was in a classroom I knew, but one Sunday, we changed locations. I was late, so I told my dad not to walk me to class. I wanted to be cool, you see. However, I realized I didn't know my way around the high school. The walls were made of stone, cold, and loomed large. So I attempted to get to Room 25 or whatever, but I got lost, turned around like I always read about in books. Now, I was an anxious kid (still am), so I started crying. I was late, and I was lost, and I was [i]scared[/i] so perhaps I caved. I wasn't bawling, mind you, but I quietly sniffled to myself until some teacher found me wandering the halls and guided me to the right room. Turns out, it was only a hallway down from where I originally started. Figured. And when I sat down, everyone looked at the late girl, who was crying. Which ... yeah, it wasn't that deep tbh. Anyway, I say all this because that feeling—of wandering cold stone hallways, turned around, embarrassed, aware of being watched, almost hypervent…

I cant completley recommend this on. Yes, its a decent game, with okay stat-managment and a creepy atmosphere. But it keeps meandering between gothic horror, lovcraftian horror, character story and classic ghost story. This gets confusing and hurts the horror, as you constantley switch genres. It would have worked better if the author stuck with one of them. But it is to well done (general writing and stats) to give it a downvote because of it. Would be to mean, considering its just not my taste to switch horror themes like that.

I enjoyed the story very much. The writing was good and I especially liked the descriptions of the manor. The characters didn't feel flat and felt like real people (I need to replay this for Bastian). However, the ending felt a bit too fast paced and it came off as being rushed. The lack of a saving feature is a detriment to the replayability of the story, as you have to play the entire story again just to make a few different decisions. I understand it's to give weight to the decisions you do make in the game, but a good middle ground, at least in my opinion, would be to allow for going back in the text for a second playthrough. The spicier scenes were also well written and while I did enjoy them I was a bit disappointed that choosing to be trans didn't have any effect on them (at least for Dev). Writing several scenes to account for the different combinations of pronouns and genitals would be a lot more work, but it would've made the scenes more impactful for me.

I'm not 100% on board with this one, but the story is interesting enough that I still finished it. Though, I admit I really had to push through some parts. The flow wasn't my favorite, and the outcomes of the choices sometimes felt a bit random and unintended. Nevertheless, the writing style itself was pleasant. The romance was present, but for my taste, there could have been a bit more.

not my favorite story, the Dev romance was a bit forced. Not a terrible story, just not for me.

[h2] Introduction / TLDR [/h2] Heart of the House is an absolutely delightful interactive Gothic novel written by Nissa Campbell. Excellent pacing, a story that has kept me engaged throughout, really evocative and imaginative environments and really well done characters with some of the most delightful (optional) romance I've read in a CoG book. If being trapped in a haunted manor in Victorian England sounds appealing to you, or if you just want a good Gothic horror story that maybe isn't too dark, then this book is for you. (Also check it out if you enjoyed any of the World of Darkness books, lots of overlap with themes and atmosphere what with the Gothic literature inspiration.) [h2] Writing and setting [/h2] Pacing is great throughout Heart of the House. The story is given the room it needs to never feel rushed while still being engaging, and a well planned mystery progression has made it feel like there has been a constant through-line running through the story that still has kept me reevaluating characters and their motivations as new things have been revealed. One of the highlights of this interactive novel has been the environments. Campbell is very good at setting scenes,…