The Haunting of Joni Evers

A great walking simulator with some paranormal moments, focusing on atmosphere and story rather than jumpscares. The game explores heavy themes like grief, family and memories in a subtle, emotional way. If you enjoy games that focus on mood and storytelling, this one is worth checking out.

HoJE seems very familiar at first—clearly in the tradition of Gone Home and What Remains of Edith Finch, as the player-character Joni—the elder sister--arrives home to explore the dark, rambling family home in a fierce thunderstorm that knocks out most of the lights. As familiar as this seems for the genre, the further one goes the more it becomes clear that HoJE is pushing the walking sim (or strollplayer) in unexpected directions. Childhood terrors (ghosts, specters) are used as a metaphor for the fear of family secrets that must be confronted, as they are in Gone Home, but HoJE leans into horror more directly, with more complexity and a deeper stratum of myth. The Cunningham house is indeed a “terrible place,” labyrinthine and queer in its challenge to familiar domesticity, but its riddles do not resolve around the crimes of an uncle Oscar (Gone Home) or a Mark Jefferson (Life Is Strange). Rather, the house is embedded in an extended, if elusive, mythscape of paranormal forc...

An incredible experience from start to finish — the visuals were gorgeous, the voice acting brought every moment to life, the entire game pulled me right in. The puzzles struck a great balance between fun and challenge, and the spooky vibes were just enough to keep me on edge. 1,000% recommend!

I loved exploring this story and house. You can play the game through faster but I took the slower route. So many things to explore and I have a feeling a lot of clues were left to what a I hope is more to come for the Cunningham saga. Music was wonderful companion to the play and can't say enough about the voice of Joni. Struggled a little bit with the ritual restorations but stuck with it and it payed off. Left me wanting to know more especially about Grandma Noreen and the "worlds". Recommend you give this debut game from Causeway Studios a try and hope they have many more.

I've really enjoyed playing through this game. The voice acting is great. The story is really interesting and as you start to understand what's happening - the story (with the voice acting) runs you through several emotions. I'll probably play through again to see about picking up more of the achievements. But this has to be one of my favorite walking sim/puzzle/story games in recent times.

So this game is short and more thriller over horror. Very well done and if you like gone home you will like this. I got this during the steam sale and it was worth it. I would say it can be worth full price given the quality.