Haunted

In [i]Haunted[/i] we play as a young girl Mary who is living on the streets of 19th century London. Haunted by guilt and visions of her dead sister she falls into the hands of a creepy duo, Professor Ashcroft and her simplistic assistant Ethan. Mary learns that prof. Ashcroft is doing some experiments with ghosts at the University - she captures them and wants to use them as an energy source for some strange machine. On her run from the University Mary frees her first ghost helper, captain Oscar. With him by her side she sets on an adventure through gloomy dark London, Scottish outskirts and deep forests of Transylvania. With the help of ghosts she encounters on her quest she gets closer to saving her sister from the clutches of our devilish duo. The game starts all right. The atmosphere is fine, introduced characters play their role well, and the story is showing some potential. Sadly, this impression didn't last till the end. There are no puzzles, you are just required to combine items between themselves or use your ghosts on them (which I liked actually), the problem is that you have to do it in the right order or it won't do anything. I got stuck a few times because I tried to do one obvious thing which was pretty clear, but Mary declined to do it. And I didn't know why she refused it as she didn’t say any lines about me getting too ahead of myself… it just left a feeling of frustration in me. The humor is focused on bickering between the characters. Some bickers more than the others, but mostly all of them participate in it. What was a little bit amusing at the beginning turned to be annoying at the end. I would say that this kind of partnership works well for two of the ghost group, others are caught in it only because it seemed funny…? Your ghosts are usually on the screen and talks to each other, which seemed as a great idea, but they talk slowly or to better put it, it takes some time until each line begins, so if you want to listen to their whole conversation it turns into a huge time sink, ultimately I have decided to ignore it. The graphics are not so bad, somewhat cartoonish and colorful, but also blurry and with almost non existent facial expression or lip movement. Music is fine, it reminded me a little of [i]Fable[/i] I think. Whole game consists of 6 chapters, after you complete the main story you can play a bonus story. The middle of the game lost its breath and I wasn't particularly enjoying it. The last chapter was fun though. Few aspects of the story, especially about Mary's parents, seemed somewhat off. I suppose there was a plan for a sequel, otherwise I don't get it. I have not encountered any game breaking bugs except for a horrible lag. It occurred every time after +-20 minutes, not sure why. Simply closing the game wasn't enough as the lag continued even after getting back to the game, deleting saves also didn't help. Also the lag was only in game itself, cutscenes worked without any problem. Only solution was to play in a short sessions, which just prolonged my agony. Overall disappointment with the game just reminds me of another adventure game with ghosts - [url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/344030/Ghost_Pirates_of_Vooju_Island/]Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island[/url], which also showed wasted potential ([url=https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198036297204/recommended/344030/]My review[/url]).