It’s John’s House Review (PC)

If being perfectly capable of spotting a foreign clause in an eternally binding contract is considered as a good trait to have, then I might as well take up the bar exam and challenge ol’ John to his own mind game. At heart, I’m not the ideal attorney, nor am I the poster child of athleticism, or even the type to successfully outmaneuver an elderly woman with a vengeance, for that matter. But I am, on the other hand, surprisingly good at spotting changes in the wind—a sleight of hand here, or more fittingly, an anomaly there. And I suppose that makes It’s John’s House an investment that bodes well for the senses. Sure enough, I cannot tackle a pensioner, but I can prevent such a ludicrous event from happening through speculative thinking and, on some occasions, dumb luck.

It’s John’s House is an anomaly-hunting horror, and so, the idea more or less sits on the same verge as most, if not all of its adversaries. Similar in design, it fosters peculiar events and ever-shifting curiosities, as well as a world that solely relies on your ability to spot the intricate details and establish right from wrong, fact from fiction. Yet, in It’s John’s House, you also have the bothersome goal of not only identifying the changes in the breeze, but pacifying the master of the house and, rather unfortunately, his mama, the latter of whom takes even the smallest of mistakes a little too seriously. But more on that later.

Eternally Binding

At the center of It’s John’s House is a rabbit hole of twists and turns, molting corridors and manipulative behavior. In each of its rooms, you have the same choice that any traditional anomaly game would have: do you identify a subtle change in the atmosphere, or do you discard it and move on to the next room? Like your bog-standard deduction horror, the choices you make bear drastic consequences. For example, if you fail to spot an anomaly, John, as well as his sprightly mother, immediately lunge out from beneath the woodwork to pursue you. You can run, and you can hide. But, no matter what you choose to do, the end is always the same: you receive a harsh punishment. And by that I mean, you return to the beginning.

It’s John’s House does something a little differently to the standard anomaly horror. Case in point, the host of the manor that you so hopelessly find yourself in—a former lawyer who, after succumbing to a thread of tragic losses and an eternal nightmare, binds you to a series of contracts. In each room, you essentially have the job of ticking one of two options on a contract. Simply, if the room feels ordinary, then you tick the one box, whereas if it feels out of the ordinary, then you check the other box. If you fail to sign the correct line, however, a chase ensues, and the only option you have is to bolt for the comfort of whatever hiding spot you can find and, well, hope for the best. Spoiler alert: you cannot escape the wrath of a pensioner.

His House, His Rules

The anomalies in It’s John’s House are reminiscent of your usual supernatural thriller. There are curious objects, jittering pieces of furniture, and a lot of faux depictions of ordinary environments. Oh, and not to mention an irritating narrator—John, that is—who likes to torment you with some rather spiteful words and smokescreen trickery. To make matters worse, It’s John’s House also adds a timer to your journey, which means that you have to complete each room within a certain time period before the consequences of your actions come to fruition. That, annoyingly, is what makes this anomaly thriller the unnerving terror fest that it is.

While the concept is vaguely similar to most modern anomaly horrors, It’s John’s House does bring some great features to the table, including a photorealistic setting, a great narrative structure, and plenty of belt-and-braces jump scares. Don’t get me wrong, it still fosters the same progression tropes, and it does punish you for making the smallest of errors, similar to how most games of its kind do. But, to be fair, it makes up for these harsh difficulty spikes and tender conditions with some great gameplay elements.

It’s John’s House isn’t all that long of a game, though it does accommodate a lot of intriguing rooms and procedural elements, which means that you probably won’t struggle to find an incentive to return to its world to sign a few more contracts after beating it. And I’d say that it’s a world worth walking into, too, given that it houses some great ideas and, moreover, elevates the basic DNA of an otherwise predictable vessel. It isn’t the best of the bunch by any stretch, but, to give credit where it’s due, it is a good horror that waxes the best of two worlds.

Verdict

It’s John’s House spins quite the compelling yarn with its curious clauses and its unpredictable contractual consequences, with its provoking circumstances and hourglass nature providing a genuinely fascinating and oftentimes harrowingly intense experience that ought to resonate with fans of the anomaly genre.

Although the game itself doesn’t push the boundaries of the traditional recipe of modern anomaly horrors, it does infuse its own collection of twists and turns into the procedure, with its rich inclusion of daring chase sequences and mischievous hosts serving as fantastic fixtures in an otherwise familiar depiction. To that end I’d say that It’s John’s House does more than enough to warrant your attention for an hour or two.

In an age where anomalies run rampant and most fledgling developers use the genre as a crutch to tell their own stories, it’s often difficult to spot one that stands out above the rest. In the case of It’s John’s House, it does a lot of things right, and honestly, I’d say that it does more than enough to keep you on tenterhooks as you gradually sift through its clauses and sign its dotted lines. It’s a disturbing little number that, while not mechanically perfect, brings a lot of good ideas to the surface. If that’s enough to coerce you into signing the contract, then you should get your money’s worth here.