In 1986, ICOM Simulations released the haunted house point-and-click adventure video game Uninvited. Per most point-and-click adventures, the user must negotiate the landscapes to look for clues, develop inventory and use the acquired items to solve puzzles within the game in order to advance the plot.
The setting of Uninvited is a presumably haunted house. The unnamed hero of the tale awakens in his car after an apparent car crash and finds himself in front of a spooky old mansion. As the boy exits the car to look over the damage, he realizes that his sibling is missing, and the car spontaneously bursts into flames.
In 1986, ICOM Simulations released the haunted house point-and-click adventure video game Uninvited. Per most point-and-click adventures, the user must negotiate the landscapes to look for clues, develop inventory and use the acquired items to solve puzzles within the game in order to advance the plot.
The setting of Uninvited is a presumably haunted house. The unnamed hero of the tale awakens in his car after an apparent car crash and finds himself in front of a spooky old mansion. As the boy exits the car to look over the damage, he realizes that his sibling is missing, and the car spontaneously bursts into flames. The boy enters the house in hopes of finding his little brother, and hopefully some help. Unfortunately, the house is
occupied by denizens of the undead, who have no intention of helping the young hero. The boy learns that a sorcerer and his apprentices once lived in the house until one corrupted apprentice killed the others in an attempt for absolute power. The house then became haunted.
The boy has to rummage through the many rooms of the old house looking for clues. There are also three buildings in the back of the house that the boy can enter: the chapel, the greenhouse, and the observatory. Many doors, stairs and other entry ways are guarded by weird monsters and demons. The user has to find ways to gain entry to the locked or guarded doors to advance the plot. Of course, there is a time limit involved, so there is a sense of urgency that reflects the boy’s increasing panic as his searches continue to reveal monsters and other creepy facts. The time limit is based on the spirit of the haunted house, which is threatening to take over the boy’s will and turn him into one of the many zombies in the mansion.
While the spooky premise of the story is interesting and the plot is fairly simple, there are about a million and one ways to die in Uninvited. The graphics are also dated and not especially entertaining, but the sound effects are good, which is a bonus in a horror game. The game can also be completed in a short amount of time, which can be viewed as good or bad, depending on what you are looking for. It is a “one time around” sort of game, meaning that if you solve it once, you won’t need to go back to look for alternate endings or alternative routes to the same goal. Still, its an entertaining little play.
