Poltergeist: A Pixelated Horror (PC) Review

The story of Poltergeist: A Pixelated Horror is simple, but harkens back to classic ghost stories. Henry B. Knight passed away, becoming a poltergeist and looks to scare away anyone who dares move into his house. Other than being a poltergeist, there is not much horror going on, but it is a strategy puzzle game based around using Henry's various abilities to scare people (which he calls 'tenants') out of the house.

The gameplay is simple; use Henry's powers the scare away people to successfully to complete each level. Henry's abilities include anything from possession, throwing household objects, calling the tenants into another room, and even summoning demonic creatures or a vortex as tools to clear a room. There are 60 levels in total, split into 'eras' (Classic Era, Eighties Era, Modern Era, and Office Era), which represent a different time period in the game. The mechanics are point and click, involving simply clicking on the ability for Henry to use and then clicking on the area to use it on. The challenge comes from only having a limited set of powers to use for each level, which can result in a Game Over if Henry runs out before every tenant in the house has been scared away. Henry will also encounter 'special characters,' which will block certain powers from being used if the abilities are used in the room they are in. Each of the levels are fairly repetitive, except for the three 'boss levels' that can be played at the end of each era.

While Poltergeist: A Pixelated Horror does increase in difficulty as more levels are completed, very few are challenging. While some levels may take a bit of thinking, most can be solved with just figuring out what power to use in what room and in what order. There is no way to increase difficulty and the levels are not randomised, leaving very little room for replayability. However, Poltergeist does offer a time trial, which offers some form of challenge by having a timer as all sixty levels are played through again in order to get the best time. While the time trials are only with the same stages played before, it does offer some difficulty to those looking for a challenge.

The art is a mixed bag of 2D and 3D pixelated graphics. The pixelated character art is somewhat decent, but clashes harshly against the environments. Characters will often clip in and out of the objects and will sometimes even get stuck on an object, with the only action left to reset the level. After completing an era of the game, a cut-scene will start before the next fifteen levels start. Each cut-scene consists of a few static images with some text of narration at the bottom. The art is improved in the scenes, but the characters and background art style are different, the characters not even really being pixelated.