Disney's The Haunted Mansion Review

The Haunted Mansion ride at the Disney parks has amassed quite the cult following. There are many fans of various ages that enjoy the numerous incarnations, from Disneyland's original to Phantom Manor over in Paris. Though the ride is touted as a 'haunted' attraction, there's very little that's frightening in Disneyland's original. Analyzing the symbolism inside the manor down to the bones may unearth some creepy speculations but face value presents just another attraction with some goofy characters and a safe ride home, despite the narrator's ominous suggestion of taking his way out. It would be safe to say that a video game based on the attraction would be just as fun, just as pleasant. The Haunted Mansion game offers what the ride never did; some real scary stuff.

Being a fan of the Haunted Mansion and all of it's many different stories myself, I had to get a copy of this game. It was released in 2003 by High Voltage Software, a company that has worked with Disney once previously and once again since this game was distributed. There are three difficulty settings to choose from before starting the game: Easy, Normal and Nightmare and three different consoles to play on. I chose the Playstation 2 version, though it is also available for the XBox and Nintendo GameCube.

I'm not sure this cover conveys how creepy this game really is.

Right from the get go the player is thrown into the story with the main character, Ezekiel Halloway (better known as Zeke), coming to the decrepit Louisiana mansion in search of employment as assistant caretaker. The characters speak without the option of having a subtitled accompaniment at the bottom of the screen, which some players might appreciate while others might not. The beginning of this game is one long cut scene, not too badly animated given the year it came out, but it does seem a bit too long when all I wanted was to get started.

The controls aren't hard to figure out, but the camera can be a headache. Left analog stick is for moving Zeke, the right analog is for moving the camera. Instead of mashing x or ◻ for attacking, R1 is used to shoot beams of light from the Beacon of Souls at enemies. ◻ in this game is actually used to interact with light switches and moving objects, which indicate the presence of good souls waiting to be sucked up into the Beacon. L1 can be used to 'lock on' to enemies, but I actually didn't bother using this feature at all since turning to face them ended up being easier. The ○ button is used to collect souls to power the Beacon, your one and only weapon, and I'm pretty sure I never once used the Δ button the entire time I was playing.

For those more familiar with Mansion Lore, and I'm talking really familiar, the name Zeke should ring a bell. The old, white haired caretaker in the graveyard scene with the skinny dog is reputedly named Zeke, and the game alludes to the main character eventually becoming this only living human to be shown in the ride. He's one of many characters from the attraction that made it into the game. We also get to meet Madame Leota, though her speech is less Lady Tremaine and more Southern Belle, and certain famous ghosts like the opera singer, the headless knight, one of the duelists and even the organist from the ballroom. Sorry, no Hatbox Ghost in the attic.

Do you see any resemblance between these two?

One major surprise when playing this game came with the unveiling of the plot. None of the traditional mansion stories are in use for this game. Instead we find ourselves in the middle of a war between good ghosts and the evil undead, led by a man named Atticus Thorn. Thorn is in search of the Beacon of Souls so he may suck out the life force of all living creatures in order to conquer the Land of the Living. Those opposing him and his Order of Shadows are the Brotherhood of Souls, a group comprised of friendly spirits intent on helping Zeke defeat Atticus. The Brotherhood is made up of all those familiar ethereal characters mentioned earlier, six in total, whom will award Zeke with the necessary Soul Gems used to strengthen the power of the Beacon, giving Zeke more powerful energy blasts to use against enemies.

As intriguing as the story was, and as easy as the controls are to work with, this game proved to be nothing but frustrating and even terrifying for me. When enemies come out to attack they come in droves, driving poor Zeke to drink bottles of what appears to be whiskey in order to regain health. Taking a stroll through the hallways attracts the attention of zombies trapped behind boarded doors, getting touched by them invariably makes Zeke take more damage. Little spiders skitter about and bite at your feet while their much larger bright orange counterparts shoot lassos of webbing to snatch Zeke and drag him in for a chomping. Frustrations come in many flavors here, including aggravating puzzle solving challenges, collecting of tarot cards for extra lives and really bad camera angles. During an early "boss fight" when I found myself running around a gigantic pool table, trying to lure the phantom player into hitting the right ball at the right time while fending off a constant stream of enemies, I wondered what in the world this had to do with the Haunted Mansion while swearing profusely at the giant invisible pool player.

All in all, The Haunted Mansion isn't a bad game, I just don't have the patience for it. Even on the Easy setting, I had trouble fighting off hordes of ghosts and stomping on spiders while trying to problem solve. Despite game play issues, particularly passing the Ballroom stage which will never happen for me, the frights are good and creepy and the music fits the mood. A pre-owned copy for the Playstation 2 might cost five bucks and any Disney gamer looking for a bit of fun could do a lot worse than this.

Rating: 
Demographic: 12+ years, boys and girls.
System(s): Playstation 2, XBox and Nintendo GameCube.
Players: 1