Your House

YOUR HOUSE, a new narrative puzzle game from PATRONES & ESCONDITES, had me hooked on its premise alone. It promises a compelling mystery that takes place within the walls of a mansion that our main character inherits after she is sent a mysterious letter. This immediately fired up the adventurous child within me, who had devoured books such as The Borrowers and Narnia, due in no small part to the endless mysteries the houses in each seemed to contain. After finishing this four-hour experience, I’m pleased to confirm YOUR HOUSE delivers on this fantasy, though there are a few rough edges that make enjoyment inconsistent while unravelling the many layers this mansion hides.

The story of YOUR HOUSE is separated into five chapters, with each being represented by either an open or closed door on the menu screen. A clever touch. Right away, we are introduced to Debbie, a delinquent student who has just had a day from hell. Her best friend has betrayed her, and a motorcycle crash nearly sent her straight to the afterlife, all on her 18th birthday! Debbie is disturbed, not just by this singular day but by her life as a whole, so when she mysteriously receives a cryptic letter that seems to hold a way to escape, she latches on to it in spite of her confusion and doubt. This opening act does a wonderful job characterising our lead, and I found myself getting attached to her rapidly. This is helped immensely by the amazing voice acting done collectively by Julia Kino and Alysson Becker. Personal is the word I would use to describe it, as each line conveys Debbie’s emotional state incredibly well, giving believability to the motivations and struggles she goes through in this journey. 

Identity, motherhood, and the need to work for the life you desire are all key themes this story dabbles in. Without getting into spoilers, these themes all play a role in Debbie’s journey. The developers have done an impressive job connecting the titular HOUSE to our main character’s emotional trauma, with the layers of both being pulled back the more we learn about this mysterious building. This creates a strong foundation for reflection, but I unfortunately feel some of the important revelations lack the emotional punch they should have. The root of this disconnect is found in the game’s short length and minimal setup, which doesn’t allow us to be fully on the same page as Debbie. When she is shocked by something within the house, the player will more often than not just be confused, missing some of the key personal facts that would allow this information to start building intrigue. This misstep didn’t ruin my enjoyment of the story, but it did make it harder to really care about what was happening. Thankfully, I did find myself caring about Debbie due to her strong depiction, which made this less of an issue than it could’ve been.

The way you interact with this story is very unique, utilising bolded words in the text and icons to interact with the different elements of this world. The main two genres are pulls from text adventures and point & click puzzlers, but there are a lot of extra clever touches present that make it consistently surprising and engaging. A strong example of this is found early on in the first chapter, which requires the player to keep clicking on the word “run” to help Debbie escape within a time limit. There are many surprising uses of this interactive script found throughout the game that breathe life into the gameplay in a very refreshing manner, helping make you feel like an active participant in what is going on and not just a spectator. This is when the gameplay is at its strongest, when it’s subverting the players expectations and flaunting its creative ideas. Unfortunately, there are many occasions when cryptic puzzle design takes away from the enjoyment, which is a shame as there are so many compelling innovations throughout the experience. 

Challenging puzzles, in and of themselves, are not a bad thing, which is shown in genre classics such as The Witness and Portal 2. The issue YOUR HOUSE runs into is an inability to create clear expectations for the player. For me, this disconnect was present in two main areas: objects I didn’t realise were interactable and the inconsistent way the game expects you to use cyphers for the clues you receive. There were at least three times I got stuck just because I missed a bolded word hidden within a wall of text, with one of these roadblocks happening right at the start of the game! This isn’t helped by the very linear progression of the experience, which means there isn’t anything to do in the meantime while stuck. All you can do is beat your head against a puzzle until you either give up or stumble upon the solution. The game does try to avoid this with an optional hint system that progressively gives bigger hints the more clues you find, which is a nice touch, but ultimately one I never found helpful in the specific moments I was stuck. To a certain extent, I do think these problems are subjective, and they may not be as big of an issue for you as they were for me. Regardless of that fact, though, it would be a universally beneficial change to make interactable objects a little more obvious.

One of the more striking elements of the game is the art style, which embraces colourful hand-drawn visuals that just look incredible. It reminds me a lot of the pop art movement that came out of the mid-1950s, led by artists such as Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. Every object drawn like this has a mysterious pull I can’t explain, similar to the feeling I get walking through an antique store. This adds so much to the knick-knack-filled mansion the story takes place in, helping each section feel exciting to poke around in. Though there isn’t a whole lot of complex animation, this style works perfectly for the story PATRONES & ESCONDITES are trying to tell and gives it a strong identity that jumps out at you right away!