Hugo House of Horrors is an action text adventure game that involves the skill of a text adventurer combined with the logic of a simulation gamer. Designed by Gray Design Associates in early January of 1990 the original Hugo worked on DOS and Windows based personal computers.
From the start of the third person perspective game, some eerie music greets you as you watch the door to the front of the house shut. Creepy eyes glare through the darkened windows of the House of Horror as you try to figure out how to get inside to save the love of your life! Your dear girlfriend Penelope was sent to the house on a babysitting job and has been kidnapped by the head of the household, who, I’m sorry to say, you never get to actually see.
Hugo House of Horrors is an action text adventure game that involves the skill of a text adventurer combined with the logic of a simulation gamer. Designed by Gray Design Associates in early January of 1990 the original Hugo worked on DOS and Windows based personal computers.
From the start of the third person perspective game, some eerie music greets you as you watch the door to the front of the house shut. Creepy eyes glare through the darkened windows of the House of Horror as you try to figure out how to get inside to save the love of your life! Your dear girlfriend Penelope was sent to the house on a babysitting job and has been kidnapped by the head of the household,
who, I’m sorry to say, you never get to actually see.
The puzzles throughout the game are complex at first, but once you find your niche, they seem to get simpler. It is recommended that you gather any and all items that you find because you will most likely need them as you progress through the game. Just as games that are played these days, you’ll want to save often as you might find yourself attacked by butlers, dogs, bats and more surprises than you can shake a stick at.
Using the word “graphics” to start talking about the characters and surroundings is a strong word, but one has to remember this was 1990, putting Hugo House of Horror at a brisk sixteen years old this year. Combinations of simple shapes are put to together to form the characters that you encounter throughout the game. The background landscapes appear to be drawn by hand and are adorable. There is however a large amount of detail for the visual end of the game such as the blinking eyes staring at you in the beginning to the trees in the backyard.
Although tricky at times, the first in the Hugo series has some great ideas as far as game play is concerned. Most problems that gamers encounter can be answered with any game guide online these days. Hugo House of Horror was a pioneer game in its day and is just as fun now as it was in the 90’s on DOS based systems. If I had to rate the game on a scale of one to ten, I would give it a six based on the fact that we have to keep in mind how far gaming has come in twenty years.
