The Haunted Mansion is Disney's ride that keeps on giving, having had a movie adaptation, a new movie adaptation in the works, comic books and even a videogame, our main attraction on this day. This is an adventure-puzzle game in which you play as Zeke Holloway, the Mansion's caretaker, as he collects all 6 Spirit Gem Stones and all 999 lost spirits. It's not as bad as it sounds!
The game has a decent premise, and an equally good set-up: you're thrown into the mansion, but each in order to open each door you require to have collected a specific amount of spirits. There are three main "areas" in the Mansion, the Foyer, the Hallway and the Upper Hallway(The last one I've paraphrased), and each one has a different amount of doors for you to visit. What's interesting is that you'll get to choose between different doors every now and then, so you can tackle a few rooms in slightly different orders.
Each room in the Mansion has its own puzzle to figure out and complete so that you can turn on the lights and begin collecting spirits. You may need to step on various rugs in order to change the furniture's layout so that you can reach the light's lever, you might need to finish a game of billiards in which the white ball chases you, or maybe platform through flying books acting as platforms, each room has its own unique puzzle, and that's pretty neat. Once you turn on the lights, you'll be allowed to interact with the room itself in order to search for Spirits, and maybe, if you're lucky, get yourself some permanent health upgrades. The game tells you how many Spirits are in each room, and you usually find them in bundles of five, so you won't find yourself struggling as you search for them.
As you try to solve each puzzle you'll be assaulted by evil ghosts, giant spiders, gargoyles and maybe even suits of armor, luckily Zeke is armed by a lamp that doubles as an energy machine gun that can shoot as much and as fast as you can tap the R1 button. Enemies will attack you both before and after turning on the lights, so you're never safe. As you progress through the game and collect the Spirit GemStones you'll get to upgrade your lamp, so that you can charge your shots up to two levels. That said, the final power up might not be as useful as the shot it replaces, which is kinda disappointing since there's no going back.
As interesting as the premise is, and as fun as the game sounds in theory, the gameplay is very janky. Movement in the game lacks weight, so jumping and running does't feel very good. Combat is downright boring, just hold L1 to target an enemy, and then mash R1 or hold it to charge your shots to hurt your enemies. The Mansion itself isn't very fun either, there are some interesting rooms every now and then, but nothing worth writing home about.
Disney's The Haunted Mansion is just your average run-of-the-mill licensed game. It does nothing particularly well, but it has a few good ideas, sadly, the execution really leaves a lot to be desired. That said, this is definitely a better alternative to the Eddie Murphy movie!
5.0 out of 10
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