Recent reviews by Bubbles

This game is one of the most beautifully crafted - in terms of environment and textures - Slender games I have played and seen. The problem with this game is though, that unlike its predecessor Haunt, Haunted Memories is quite more buggy, and cannot be finished due to a glitch not allowing me to pick up the pages.

First and foremost, what set Haunted Memories/Haunt apart from the other Slender games, was its graphics, scenery, and the overall atmosphere that the game gives. It's beautiful, dreamy, and a tad bit surreal, making for a great experience gameplay-wise. There is a backstory, but there are many plotholes that the game sadly falls into. Another thing I found somewhat sad about Haunt in opposition to the original Slender games, was the abruptness of Slender's appearance in the original games. In the original games, Slender's appearance was completely unannounced, leaving for some terrific experience. In the original Haunt, Slender's appearance was quite announced by the static on-screen. It wasn't less terrifying, but it was a sign of "KEEP RUNNING FOOL" and "DON'T LOOK BACK", which are, sadly, clichés. Hell, if you looked well through the shadows in Haunt, you could easily spot Slender in the distance by his distinctive shape in the shadows. In Haunted Memories, the developers tried to fix the issues of the obviousness with which Slender appears by instead destroying the static and making for a loud WHOOSH while Slender just bumps right in front of you. Terrifying and menacing, so that's a big plus from Haunt. The infamous teleport mechanics we saw in Haunt are back in Haunted Memories, only this time they seem to be on steroids, leading to an even more infamous teleport mechanic that teleports you every 5 seconds to the most inconvenient places! Can help if you seek to escape Slender though and just happen to get teleported away from him.

The map and the areas we see, are somewhat like Haunt. The starting area with the car is almost the same, except for the fact that now there's a typewriter here, and the gas can next to the car. Also, you pick up your flashlight now instead of already having it with you like in Haunt. Now, we make our way into Green Park, and the appearance of Slendy like it was in Haunt has now changed to an appearance accompanied by the aforementioned loud WHOOSH. The player character is temporarily petrified as he exclaims, "WHAT WAS THAT". In the original Haunt, he was not petrified, but still exclaimed the same thing. It's quite predictable, sadly, unless you're a new player to the game. Onto the starting area of the map itself, which has changed a LOT. Unlike Haunt, where the starting area was some paths leading either to the Green Inn or the big tower - whichever direction you wanted to take - this starting area places you right in front of the entrance of the hill. Walking up the hill is impossible considering just how dark it is right in there. It's pitch-black! And also, there is just one path up AND down from the hill, so whatever you do, if Slendy finds you on the hill while you are going either up or down, you have no choice but to turn back and wait. I'd have wished they changed the hill to a two-way entrance/exit thing. The story could have progressed better with that as well.

Another big plus of this game is that the map isn't as astronomically large as it was in Haunt. Quite less so. Instead of the vast swathes of forest and plains we saw in Haunt, Haunted Memories leaves us with a much more claustrophobic forest-only environment. Several locations we saw in the first game have remained as they are. For example, the bunker is pretty much the same as it was, except for the cutscene part, and the hill remains with its lookout house, which has now become two lookout houses. We even get to see the tower, but that has been merged with the hill/lookout house area. The tower has also increased in size from big to humongous. Sadly, the pine forest has been phased out of the game in favour of a smaller, more claustrophobic and hard-to-navigate forest. The TV still exists too, but in a more story-connected way, and so does the Mary statue and the Holy Cave/Holy Passageway. A slightly changed factory/power plant area still remains as the final area of the game, and so does a now heavily adjusted death camp.

The death camp, though, was the focal point for Haunt, and in Haunted Memories it seems much less so. In Haunt, the death camp was accessible immediately right off the hook, and provided one of the most thrilling puzzles I've ever played, with its buttons and chaoticness and the need to avoid Slender. In Haunted Memories, the death camp's claustrophobic puzzle game has been exchanged for a game of "Guess Which Building Item A And Item B Are In!". Generally speaking, instead of the menacingly claustrophobic areas we saw in the death camp of Haunt, this death camp only is claustrophobic inside the buildings, most of which are just empty placeholders anyway, which is sad.

Now, Green Inn. This was my favourite location in Haunt, as it was perhaps the safest. In Haunted Memories, the Green Inn maintains most of its original looks and atmosphere, and some key items can be found here. Sadly, though, the Green Inn has lost its horse doors, and you now require a key to open both the front AND back doors. I miss the old Green Inn.

Basically, Haunted Memories is a really nice game, visually, map- and gameplay-wise. Some areas of the map have, sadly, been "remade", taking away some of the elements that made the original Haunt as sh*tting scary as it was. Haunted Memories is also more buggy, sadly, and it doesn't allow me to finish the game. Other then that, if you're an enthusiast of this kind of games, I'd recommend Haunted Memories just for a playthrough. Its predecessor, Haunt, is better though.