Hauntsville from indie.io and solo developer Michael Janisch is a first-person Western survival horror experience on PlayStation 5. Check out our Hauntsville review!

 

Hauntsville from indie.io and solo developer Michael Janisch is a first-person Western survival horror experience on PlayStation 5. You’ll be placed in the role of a traveler with no name, stranded in a deadly ghost town in the Cursed West. There are nasty things that go bump in the night, and you’ll need to find a way to defend yourself against the monsters. You have not much on you, barely holding onto the clothes on your back. At least you’ll be able to take on this one on your own or with up to three of your – hopefully – closest and most reliable friends. Search the town for any resources you can get your hands on, build a homestead, and see what you can find out in the wild to keep your stomach as full as possible.

As expected, the game will feature a day and night gameplay cycle, with your potential for survival considerably increasing while the light shines over the land. Once the sun goes away and the darkness begins to engulf everything, you’ll quickly know that you’re in big, big trouble. Monsters lurk around every corner, ready to jump and snag you as a quick snack. You might also be fighting against the weather, with rain turning trails into muddy paths that can hinder your progress.

You’ll be playing from a first-person perspective, so you’ll be taking control of your character by using the left analog stick, and you’ll use the right analog stick to look around you as needed. Jump by pressing the X button, and crouch by pressing the Circle button. Sprint by pressing in on the left analog stick. Do know that this will require that you use up some of your stamina, which you can see right below your overall health bar. Below this one will be two gauges for water and food.

 

You can interact by pressing the Square button. This will allow you to do things like, say, opening doors, as well as collect items and resources to help you. The items that you collect will be added to your inventory, which you can review by pressing in on the right analog stick. Found some canned meat? Then keep that in mind so that you can eat it as soon as you start to feel hungry.

Since darkness will be part of the gameplay loop, you should make good use of your lamp, which can grant a bit of light to cut through the void. Just press the L1 button to bring it up, and press the same button to put it away. Pressing left on the D-Pad will open up your map, so that you can see where you are and where you might want to head next. And as you find new locations, you’ll be able to use the map to fast travel there.

Found yourself a good, classic revolver? Then you’ll be able to aim it by pressing the L2 button as you shoot it by pressing the R2 button. You’ll need to be careful since ammo is very limited, so you’d better make every single shot count! The good news? Right after finding the revolver, you’ll be given a pickaxe to mine some coal, and you can also use it as a melee weapon.

You can craft items from the inventory menu with the resources that you collect. Just open up your inventory and switch to the crafting section to review your options. Crafting is split into tools, building, farming, railway, and furniture. The tools section is where you’ll get to craft items such as a hatchet to aid you in obtaining more resources, a bandage to heal some of your wounds, bullets for your weapons, and even a tent so that you can camp and skip the night.

The building tab is where you’ll be working on the base building side of things, starting with a building foundation and placing a bed on top to make your first base. Crafted building components will be added to your inventory as regular items, and you’ll need to select them and place them on the ground as needed. You can dismount components by pressing right on the D-Pad if you’ve made a mistake. You can also try to repair a building if it’s damaged.

The farming section will allow you to craft a forge, a cooking pot, a rain barrel (you know, so that you can get some water), a wheat field for food, flour for making bread, or a corn field… for corn. The railway section is pretty straightforward, since you’ll be using it to build rails, as well as a cart for transporting stuff. As for the furniture section, it’s for building chairs, tables, and other things to decorate.

Getting from point A to point B as quickly as possible will definitely be a good choice, but you’ll sometimes want to take things slowly so that you can avoid conflict. Crouching will reduce the chance of an enemy hearing you. You should also try to avoid their line of sight. But if you do fight, you’re going to have to give it your all to survive! As you defeat enemies and complete quests, you’ll be rewarded with experience points. Obtain enough experience points to level up. When this happens, you’ll obtain skill points which you can spend to increase your stats for health, stamina, food, and water.

Trophy-wise, this release does not feature a full trophy list with a Platinum trophy for you to work on. The available list is a very short one, since it’s composed of only 4 Gold trophies. What are the objectives that you’ll need to work on in order to 100% this game? You’ll get a trophy for finding the ghost village soon after booting up the game. Another one will pop when you mine some coal. There’s a trophy for starting to build your first base. The fourth trophy will be added to your collection once you make it ot the gold mine.

Hauntsville is a first-person Western survival horror experience on PlayStation 5. You’ll be placed in the role of a traveler with no name, stranded in a deadly ghost town in the Cursed West. There are nasty things that go bump in the night, and you’ll need to find a way to defend yourself against the monsters. You have not much on you, barely holding onto the clothes on your back. At least you’ll be able to take on this one on your own or with up to three of your – hopefully – closest and most reliable friends.

Search the town for any resources you can get your hands on, build a homestead, and see what you can find out in the wild to keep your stomach as full as possible. The game goes for a period-accurate experience as far as the weapons, architecture, and clothing are concerned. You know, because there were no monsters in the old West… right? Hauntsville is out on PlayStation 5 with an $18.99 price tag.

Disclaimer
This Hauntsville review is based on a PlayStation 5 copy provided by indie.io.