Haunted Hollow

Haunted Hollow gets a thumbs-up from us for offering something genuinely different on the App Store. But fun though it is for a while, it is a little rough around the edges - particularly when it comes to its premium purchases and AI performance.

A cleverly original strategy game that won’t be challenging the genre’s greats but does offer fun multiplayer at a reasonable price.

Haunted Hollow (Free, Universal) is a fresh new strategic board game experience that fits very well with the online multiplayer turn based structure. The game does a great job of balancing strategic elements with a friendly set-up making it worth picking up for a good time.

Haunted Hollow has so much going for it that it pains me to say that it could be even better. It’s a five-star concept that ends up something less in execution because of poor design choices, but that shouldn’t scare you off from giving it a free download and seeing if it matches your idea of a ghoulish good time.

Haunted Hollow is too simple a strategy game to last longer than a just couple of games. The in-app purchase part is poorly designed, there is nothing I would need or want to buy. [June 2013]

Haunted Hollow’s biggest fault is that you have no incentive to keep playing; the asynchronous multiplayer works well, but all you earn for successful Haunted Hollowing are Game Center achievements. No new worthwhile content is unlockable without spending money.

Haunted Hollow is a disappointing game that wastes its good ideas with a gameplay that's way too limited and an horrific use of the IAP.

Haunted Hollow’s charismatically ghoulish visuals can, at times, make for a cluttered board, and its decision to hide certain units and items behind micro-transactions grants those who pay more tactical breadth. Accept this last point in particular and there’s fun to be had with Haunted Hollow, but Firaxis’ creepy monsters can’t quite compete with its extra-terrestrial threats.