If you can think of a studio that aren’t ready to be pigeonholed, it’s probably Firaxis. They’ve gone from being in charge of the foremost respected strategic colony building and diplomacy sim, to a popular sports title, to a game about naval bandits, then trains, then back to the first one again. It makes the news that they’ve gone from a recent turn-based tactical game about alien invasions to an iOS game about spooky mansions. They’ve announced today that their next game is going to be called “Haunted Hollow”.
It’s still very strategy focused, that’s sort of their one through-line. It seems designed to be played competitively, but has a singleplayer option alongside.
The game tasks you with expanding a haunted house, each new room providing different kind of monsters. This facilitates your ability to complete your ultimate goal of capturing houses in the level’s town by having your monsters scare their owners. You can attack claimed or unclaimed homes, defend your turf or retake places that you’ve already lost.
You’ll also have to defend against bands of townspeople that aren’t happy with your spooky ways and attack the mansion.
It’s pitched as a free to play title, with the microtransactions based on unlocking different types of monsters. We can’t say if that’ll provide additional variety or whether it’ll offer a tactical benefit.
The pedegree of the developer demands your attention and the concept is enough to suggest you stick around. Call us excited to see what comes of this. It’s confirmed as coming out in spring, so you’ll probably play it soon!
