A Ghostly Card Game in the Haunted Room is the latest creation from Belgium's Mantis studio, continuing the concept of the classic game A Shadow Prison, allowing players to experience the thrill of being Haunted House. In this uniquely crafted blend of card, tower defense, and construction game, players are tasked with designing the layout of their abode, luring in and dispatching invaders to acquire Soul essence, thus facilitating their own growth.
As a haunted house, your mission is to survive for 28 days and transform into an ultimate haunted experience. At the start of the game, players begin with just a small room and must think strategically to expand their haunted house. Each day, intruders enter the haunted house, exploring room by room in search of your heart, while you set traps and design rooms to thwart them, using cards and spirits to fend them off.
The cards are categorized into damage types and support functions. The former directly inflicts damage on the invaders, while the latter is used to limit their actions or cast curses. Invaders have health points and San values; if you choose to kill them outright, other invaders might flee upon seeing the corpse. However, if you can drive the enemy to madness, this risk dissipates. Yet, this choice also increases the difficulty, as their regular health is generally lower than their San value. So, you need to carefully decide how to repel or eliminate your foes.
As the days go by, the invaders become stronger and their abilities increasingly diverse. They can heal allies in the same room, break through blocked doors with a handgun, or even act twice in a single turn. Therefore, you need to think carefully about the priority of each enemy you eliminate. To more effectively wipe out foes, during the Room Construction phase after clearing a room, you must meticulously design the layout of the house. With more connecting doors between rooms, the chances of the enemies finding the right way to regroup are diminished.
The room types are diverse, including living rooms, guest rooms, and kitchens, among others. Once the number of the same type of room exceeds four, you can transform these into special rooms using room cards. This feature can cause intruders to lose health upon entry or even paralyze their actions for a turn, providing more strategic possibilities. Although the demo indicated that strategic requirements are quite high, the limited number of cards prevents the formation of large combos. Thankfully, the variety of rooms adds a lot of charm to the game, making it ultimately a very enjoyable experience.
A Ghostly Card Game in the Haunted Room has already launched on PC Steam, supporting Traditional Chinese, while versions for Xbox Series X|S, PS5, and Nintendo Switch are set to be released in 2025.
