It’s that spooky time of the year; when ghosts, vampires and other forces of the undead come out to play. Join Mike and Sally as they go on a trick or treating journey through spooky old houses, haunted cemeteries and mutant filled sewers. Something is about to go bump in the night and it has nothing to do with your stomach...
Not content with seeing Christmas covered developers VirtualIt’s that spooky time of the year; when ghosts, vampires and other forces of the undead come out to play. Join Mike and Sally as they go on a trick or treating journey through spooky old houses, haunted cemeteries and mutant filled sewers. Something is about to go bump in the night and it has nothing to do with your stomach...
Not content with seeing Christmas covered developers Virtual Playground (aka Flair Software) decide to try their hands at a Halloween game. Halloween: Trick or Treat (2011) has a setting that provides a little more conflict than their Christmas Wonderland series but it’s still nothing earth shattering. I admit Trick or Treat holds some nostalgia for me as it was one of the first HOGs I ever played (2011 I guess?). I have fond memories playing it but over the years having got more into the genre and experienced some proper examples of the genre it’s not quite a game I can honestly recommend. We join Mike and Sally as they journey through various places collecting candy. Considering they go through sewers, cemeteries and other iffy places you have to wonder why they aren’t being accompanied by an adult. Is that what trick or treating is like in their town? They get locked in someone’s basement twice which of course twice necessitates escape: first time they wind up some senile old man, the second time it’s some old woman they accuse of being a witch. Ouch, that’s a bit harsh especially when the two kids look scarier than anybody else in the game! The kids have puffed up faces. Imagine you’re pension age and you’ve let these kids in only to be told by them you’re a witch. You were doing them a favour! Morning conversation around town must have been interesting... This won’t go down in history as the most difficult HOG ever. It’s certainly a game aimed at kids. There isn’t anything too taxing on offer here. Hidden object screens are nicely animated with a bit of spooky animation to scare you. I question the decision as to what apaches and a T-Rex has to do with Halloween; it seems a little random. Puzzles are incredibly easy and the hint system fills very quickly. There’s a nice scoring system where you can collect candy canes hidden in each screen for points. There are also ‘trick or treat’ flippers to be found which when stopped either give you a trick or treat. Basically treats add to your overall score while treats deduct from your score. You’re encouraged to get the highest score you can in order to beat anyone else that decides to play. It’s a terrific idea and I wish more HOGs or HOPAs used a scoring system. The music is pretty good as well if slightly repetitive. On Halloween everyone needs some camp music and the game delivers on this well with some memorable themes. Probably the scariest thing about Trick or Treat is finding out you spent £7.99 for a game that will only take you an afternoon to complete. With that money you could buy a lot of sweets, just saying. Trick or treat? You decide.
Halloween: Trick or Treat is not the best Halloween game out there but it’s not the worst. It does a reasonable job of capturing the Halloween atmosphere yet it feels like a cash in. I have nostalgia towards this game and going back into this HOG has brought back fond memories the first time I played it. I can’t quite recommend it due to its lack of length and its general lack of plot. However it remains a charming game for kids to play with some light in difficulty hidden object collecting and enjoyable camp music; just don’t expect the game to last longer than a day.… Expand
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