Scarlet’s Haunted Hotel Review

You’d think ghosts would be a tad more helpful rather than messing with my sleep.

Well, it took me way longer to get to this one than I thought. Though, at the same time, the little break I had from Gamehouse games was nice. It was like a little refresh and I didn’t feel as burnt out as I was before (and trust me, it is pretty easy to get burnt out on Gamehouse time management games if you play too many close to one another). Well, let’s get into it.

In Scarlet’s Haunted Hotel, we open up to a family on a ferry heading to an island. This family is one that we’ll be following throughout the game as we’re first introduced to Scarlet, who shares the name with the game’s title, her lawyer husband Charles, and their son Ian. Scarlet recently got a letter from her Great Aunt Maud, who she actually hasn’t seen (and possibly hasn’t communicated with) since she was five. So her family is taking a small little weekend vacation to visit her and stay at her hotel. It’ll be great for her and her husband to have a little break and good for their son to get some of that fresh sea air. Though, little did they know, this little vacation is going to change everything.

After learning that the hotel is, in fact, still in service, you learn that Maud is Scarlet’s last living relative and she called you over to give it a much needed woman’s touch. You see, it turns out that Scarlet’s Great Grandfather, Maud’s father, split the hotel between his daughters upon death. One half was given to Maud and the other to Scarlet’s Grandmother, which is now Scarlet’s. Maud, not wanting her life’s work to go to waste by letting the state take over, wants Scarlet to take over the hotel. They don’t need to make a decision now, but Maud hopes that they fall in love with the hotel and she’s having one of her employees, Arthur, show her the ropes. Charles is pretty against it and wants to sell it since he needs to be in New York for his job, there could be hidden debts, the condition of the building could be worse than they think, and they know nothing about the hotel industry. However, Scarlet is being won over by the hotel as she does seem to have a knack for it, they’ll have plenty of room, their son loves it here, she’s getting along with the staff, and I’m sure she wants to keep the hotel within the family too. However tragedy soon strikes as Charles is called back to his law office and on the journey back to the mainland, an accident happens causing the ferry to sink leaving no survivors.

Now stuck on the island until the coast guard comes, Scarlet has a lot of time to think. Paired with the nightmares Scarlet is having where she has to serve ghost customers, Scarlet comes to grow suspicious about the circumstances of her husband’s death. Was it really an accident? Or was he murdered? Is the hotel actually haunted? Or is it just a product of her mind? What is Great Aunt Maud hiding about her past? Will Scarlet end up taking over the hotel? Can Arthur back the hell off of a newly widowed woman?

I have some thoughts for the story here, that’s for sure. I do think it has an interesting premise, started out well, and I liked parts of it; but it overall was a bit disappointing. I think part of it was due to me already having expectations in mind, but I also don’t think the story is well executed. It does start out good, like I mentioned already, but it just drops down a cliff. I think the easiest way I can describe it is a bad melodrama. One that you can’t stop watching cause the reveals are pretty crazy, but also one that is somehow also boring. For the latter, I just didn’t really care for the romance subplot and I just didn’t care for most of the dialogue being the characters arguing. I also felt that there was just too much packed into the game. The story definitely needed to be ironed out, more levels, longer cutscenes, or just have some story aspects reworked or taken out entirely. The ending was also pretty underwhelming. Not in a sense of unresolved plotlines, I’m pretty sure all the mysteries the game presents were revealed and I did actually like the game ending in a “I wonder what’s going to happen next…”, but just the outro. The outro just left me thinking “Wait…what?” and when I rewatched it I went “Wait…that’s it?” out loud. I’m pretty baffled at the outro cutscene as it was really unsatisfying.

I also felt this game just had the weakest reason for the characters serving customers. Especially the levels where Ian was the server. Also I was a bit disappointed with the haunted aspect. It was interesting how it went with the “is it or is it not haunted?” route in retrospect*, but I thought ghosts would have had a more prominent presence.

I also did find some inconsistencies. I felt the time period this game was taking place was inconsistent. While the game doesn’t outright say when it takes place, just the way everyone dresses implies that it’s not in the modern day (I was going to go by the hotel too, but it easily could be an old hotel still standing in the modern day). I’d like to say maybe the 19th century (note, I just noticed the Steam store page mentions this game does in fact take place during the 19th century haha. Well at least I got it right). However, the game’s script does include some modern slang and characters called the dumbwaiter a “wall mounted elevator”; both of which did take me out of the story. The others are surrounding a character that has a twist tied to them. While part of it is a bit muddied by the characters lying, in retrospect, it made that character’s age not make any sense and what happens in the first quarter of the game (and the whole scheme that was cooked up) so gross. Also like…you’re told Maud is Scarlet’s last living relative (not counting her son) and I feel she could have gotten what she wanted in another way other than the scheme she cooked up. Like, did Maud even try to contest it?

I also found it a bit funny that Charles is included in the key art and he barely has a presence in the game. He dies within the first 5 levels, appears as a ghost a couple of times, and gives Scarlet a hint which now that I’m thinking about it I’m not sure we ever got a confirmation what he was pointing to. I do wonder if he was supposed to have a bigger role, especially since Ian mentions knowing the ghost twist before you learn about it.

To be honest, I feel this is just a worse Delicious – Emily’s Mansion Mystery with an added supernatural twist.

Now onto the gameplay! If you’ve played any Gamehouse time management game, you’ll already be familiar with it. If you’re not, don’t worry, it’s pretty easy to understand and get the hang of. Every level starts and ends with a story cutscene, with the meat of the game being the time management goodness of serving customers (or hotel guests in this one). Your shift starts once the level does and customers will start walking in and either going to a counter or a table depending on what they want. Once seated or at the counter, they’ll take a bit time to think on what they want before telling you and all you need to do is to click on the item to make Scarlet (or Ian or whoever you’re controlling in that level) to pick it up and then click on the customer to give it to them. Some customers may only want one item, but a lot will want more than one and luckily you can carry a handful of items at a time so you can do full orders. Once a customer has their full order, the ones at the counter can be checked out right away while the ones at the table will take their time before going to the counter to be checked out. You do need to clean the tables so the next person or group wanting to use it can sit down. Some areas also have what I’ll call “To Go Orders” where all you have to do is give them the item and you’ll get the points. One area is even built on it being more or less “To Go Orders” as there’s no check out counter.

There’s also minigames, which each area sadly only has one of. The minigames go with the area and are easy to do, like the Hall having you click to clean up the mess guests left behind in their rooms or the Reception having you sort mail. The level continues with hotel guests coming in and the level ends when the shift ends (which you can see how much longer it is by the clock) and the last customer is checked out. How many guests that come in, what they order, and how frequently depends per level and you’ll get points for everything you do.

Of course, there’s the time management aspect to think about that does put in some difficulty here so it’s not all smooth sailing. Each guest has a timer on them, whether it’s for a minigame, their order (which is represented with hearts to show their happiness level), or for a side objective. Customer hearts tick down the second they walk in (so don’t think leaving them waiting for a counter spot or a table stops it) and it determines how many points you get from them when you check them out. If you don’t serve them in time, they’ll also storm out. So it’s best to serve your guests as soon as you can. Though, there are a couple things to take into consideration. Some items you need to keep in stock so you have to keep an eye on them and restock them when you’re low or out. Some items require you to combine multiple parts and you do get multiple combinations so you have to be careful and make sure you pick the right ones to make what the guest wants. Some require them to be cooked or prepped so you have to wait a bit for that timer to go into the green area on the gauge, but not too long to where it goes back into the red. You also have to think about your inventory and the other guests you have. You do get bonus points if you do things like serving full orders, serving customers quickly, or serving multiple customers in a row (requiring you to keep track of what you need to still get and not get confused). In addition, you get a bonus when checking out multiple customers at once, so you have to think whether you should check them out now or if it’ll be fine to make them wait for the other guest(s) to be ready to be checked out. Some customers will also order twice and as far as I can tell, there’s no indication so you have to risk that happening. Plus, you do get a bonus for having everything clean so you have to not check out the last customer until you do if you want that bonus.

Not to mention different areas have different setups and you have to adapt on the fly when you get a new item. Each level also has a side objective that’ll ask you to do things like not stay still for more than a couple seconds, serve only full orders, do quick serves, or to fill up a meter. Most objectives are pretty easy to do, but some aren’t or is just tricky like the one where you can’t talk to a character when you’re conditioned to not let a timer run out.

It can be a bit hectic at times, but it’s manageable.

Carl the Mouse is also replaced here! Instead, we get a raven statue, which cracks open to reveal a real raven when clicked. That’s not the only change though as they also are in the level from start to finish. Yep, you heard that correctly, they stay on the screen and don’t appear and then disappear if you don’t find it. I really liked this change as it certainly made it easier to play this game while listening to something else (which I usually do for Gamehouse games), but it was a bit hard to get out of that habit of waiting for it to appear. There were definitely a few levels I had to replay when I realized I didn’t look for the raven statue or when I desperately looked for it when I remembered right at the end. I’m so used to looking out for that sound cue haha. The raven statues themselves can be tricky to find despite having the whole level to spot them. Sometimes they’re in plain sight, but sometimes they’re placed in a spot that it just blends into or is easy to overlook.

Each level will end with checking out your score and seeing if you did the side objectives. The amount of points you earn determines how many stars you get, which grants you a diamond each. Plus finding the raven statue and doing the side objective will give you a diamond each, making it a total of 5 earnable diamonds per level. However, you do need to at least get one star to progress (which you really have to be trying to do as it’s pretty hard to fail levels).

Just like every Gamehouse game, you’ll be building a little scene with the diamonds you earn from levels. Though, instead of only building one scene you’re building three. Here, you’ll be building Scarlet’s dreamscapes with each of them representing one of her dreams. Each collectible costs a certain amount of diamonds and you’ll be able to complete one dreamscape every 20 levels. The only thing I wished was also added was a little blurb on what her dream meant. Most of the collectibles tell you what it means in terms of how it correlates to what the dreamer is feeling or experiencing; but you can’t access it again. And it is pretty easy to just not notice it (I didn’t as I wasn’t really expecting it). The dreamscapes were pretty cool nonetheless.

As always, I enjoyed the time management goodness here in Scarlet’s Haunted Hotel. The difficulty also felt like it was at a good place and ramped up gradually. I wished there were more minigames, but they were good as well and the only one I had trouble with was the Library minigame where it can be a bit unwieldy. I also had a lot of fun here, despite it being more on the basic side, as I juggled all the orders and other tasks. It still felt rewarding as well seeing that I managed to get all 5 diamonds. I did like all the different areas of the hotel as well and how it did try to mix it up a bit between areas. I surprisingly ended up completing this game in one day rather than in a couple days like I was planning to. I still recommend taking a break every so often so you don’t get burnt out on it, but I think it helped that I took a break from Gamehouse games as I didn’t feel like I needed a break.

There was also only one achievement that you’ll probably need to grind for, which is really nice.

However, I do think there was lost potential here with the ghost levels. It would have been the perfect time to be a little bit ambitious and turn the minigames on their heads. I probably wouldn’t be mentioning this if they didn’t do it for one minigame, as the whole spooky vibe and the changes to the models to make them ghosts was enough for me. The minigame for the Hall location has different visuals as it’s normal during normal levels, but it’s spooky during the ghost levels. Being the first minigame you do in the game, it did get my hopes up only for me to realize that it was the only minigame that has a difference between normal and ghost levels. It was just really weird, especially since it was a good idea. It would have been nice if the other minigames had different visuals too or, even better, required you to do something different (turning it on its head) or replacing it with a different minigame. Though just making it spookier is enough considering there’s not that many ghost levels.

The visuals here look as beautiful as ever, which isn’t surprising from Gamehouse. The characters looked great (I especially loved Scarlet’s design), the various locations were beautiful, and all of the items you’ll be serving to guests looked great (with the food items looking delicious). The music and sound effects were done well here too. The music in particular does give off a vibe that there are mysteries and hidden secrets here, with some spooky undertones for the ghosts. That spooky undertone does come more to the forefront when it’s the ghosts’ time to shine during their levels.

Verdict

Despite finding the story here disappointing and boring, I did have a good time with Scarlet’s Haunted Hotel. So much that I ended up completing the game faster than I thought I would. I’d say if you like the time management gameplay that Gamehouse games have, don’t mind the possibility of not liking the story, and don’t mind the haunted aspect not being as prevalent as you probably expect; it’s worth picking up on sale. Heck, I’d even say it’s worth picking up for the gameplay alone as it’s pretty addicting and gives you a nice challenge. And maybe a bit for the crazy reveals and the aspects of the story that was done well.