Haunted Hotel: Personal Nightmare – Review

You recently received an anonymous letter hinting the whereabouts of your mother and sister, both of whom went missing 20 years ago. This leads you to the Freedom Hotel, the place where your fears are turned into reality and ready to eat you alive. Can you survive this madness and find out the truth about your missing family?

The storyline in Haunted Hotel: Personal Nightmare deals with the concept of fear; which might sound exciting, but has actually been done a couple times in the history of HOPA. What differentiates this new Haunted Hotel game from other games with a similar theme (Sable Maze: Twelve Fears and Haunted Halls: Nightmare Dwellers to name a few) is that Personal Nightmare is set primarily in a hotel. We were intrigued by how the developer managed to transform harmless hotel locations into horrifying scenes of fear.

Haunted Hotel: Personal Nightmare follows a typical set of guidelines for a HOPA game; an adventure part with substantial backtracking, some hidden object scenes, and puzzles for a change of pace. Each location in Haunted Hotel: Personal Nightmare is packed with a variety of tasks, making the game slightly more challenging than we first expected it to be. We also appreciate the creativity and thought that put into the designs of the hidden object scenes, as well as all the twists on the classic puzzle concepts.

The experience is further enhanced by the fantastic production. The graphics in Haunted Hotel: Personal Nightmare are appropriately dark and gloomy, while the soundtracks are of course, suspenseful and dramatic. Moreover, we loved the art direction of this game; some scenes look as if they came straight out of a horror movie.

The main game and the bonus game took us a total of five hours to complete. Haunted Hotel: Personal Nightmare is offered as a Collector’s Edition, with an Extras section that includes a strategy guide, wallpapers, concept art, soundtracks, a screensaver, achievements, collectibles, morphing objects, replayable hidden object scenes, replayable mini-games, and a secret room.

Haunted Hotel: Personal Nightmare is a stellar horror-based entry to the series. It is a pity it was not more innovative or daring.