Very imaginative writing, in the vein of Sunless Sea, but without much of what I've perceived as tedium in that game. HMD is far from perfect, and its criticisms are mostly warranted, and I am certainly not enjoying avoiding fights, having seen already a good 20% of the map, but being too poor to upgrade my ship, however the writing hits a magic spot for me that makes me ignore as best as possible the areas where this game comes short.

A House of Many Doors is a game that obviously pays homage to Sunless Sea while presenting its own version of reality. It's also noteworthy that Failbetter Games was fully supportive of this endeavor. So, what makes A House of Many Doors unique?


The story in AHoMD begins with you, setting out to find a way to escape The House, which pulls beings, objects, even the land/water itself from various realities/dimensions into this one, a realm of inherent darkness and madness formed as many rooms to a singular house (dimension).

The writing is pretty involved and has quite a few intricacies that fans of this budding genre will appreciate. It obviously borrows heavily from Lovecraft and other horror luminaries (but mostly Lovecraft). The story also evolves based on some of the choices you will be faced with. Beyond that, this is a living breathing world (well, mostly living and breathing) with plenty of bastions in the darkness for a person to take refuge at. Maybe questionable refuge, but at least you escape the darkness.

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/782985908098439309/4637A62751FC9406D9D47A57EA41D3CE3ED76734/

There are three endings. I played through two of them and they were quite interesting. The third is kind of a joke/extremely harsh reality ending and I wasn't quite ready for the repercussions of taking that route lol. The quests and side quests were all interesting, and honestly, despite having finished the game, there is actually a ton of other stuff to do in this world that actually also builds on the lore of the game.


The overhead world map which you travel through is set up like Sunless Sea, but with some key distinctions. For one, the world is, as mentioned before, broken up into "rooms," and so you will only ever be accessing a small part of the map at any given moment. Additionally, combat is not resolved on the world map, although the inevitable chase or clumsy driving leads to combat quite often.

Combat is resolved on a separate, tactical turn based map, where two ships duke it out with cannons and of course boarding parties, while also trying to control distance to prevent boarding (or encourage it lol). Whichever ship doesn't explode wins. :)

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/782985908099578141/45C19FD52AF05B58CBE1A586CE2777AF96AF15BF/

Navigating the world is mostly done via giant insect vehicles. Yours is modeled after a centipede, but there are a few others out there, including elemental and meat vehicles (lol). Your ship (centipede thingy) can be modified by adding more storage, a better engine and legs, and better armaments.

You have a ship light that is literally powered by a heart. Should you ever lose the heart, you will be forced to travel in the dark, which leads to some unique encounters, and as a general rule, nothing good can come of it other than being able to avoid the notice of other, potentially hostile ships. In each room, there is also a chance to find a building which will have special items, lost people, etc....

There is also a madness mechanics, which features the deterioration of your sanity via what you do and what you witness. Your character/crew is customizable as well with plenty of shipmates to choose from in the world, each with their own goals and motivations. You will gather "apprehensions" which is basically xp used to upgrade said crew and your overall abilities as a result.


The graphics are pretty simple, making use of some very basic assets. The artwork on the other hand is really cool and is featured in a lot of the text parts of the game. Most of your encounters happen in "choose your own adventure" style text, but, and especially in combat, you do get to see at least a little variety. Also, each city or unique area has its own cool print, which make for some neat screenshots. It all works well, but graphics are definitely not the focus of this game. Rather, they are more an enhancement and a means to an end. There is also an RPG Maker section towards the end of the game that I thought was pretty cool and a nice little change of pace.

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/782985908102605675/2138E864399F43AD54D06E1CE900EBC508B60CA1/


The audio is mostly of the background variety, although the music tracks are cool, and there are little audio alterations to the world as your mental state deteriorates. Overall though, this also is more an enhancement than a feature of the game in my opinion.

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/782985908102599463/E8201DB3EFFB173EEDEDD33A1C447B5090FAA913/


If you enjoyed Sunless Sea, you almost definitely will enjoy this. If you have never tried Sunless Sea, you still will probably enjoy this. I felt like the learning curve was a bit steep initially, but at some point, you'll become pretty overpowered and maybe even a god. There is a ton to see and do in this game. I'd say it took me about 15 hours to complete the game and see two endings, but there is at least another 20 hours of content packed into this game I'd say. Probably more. This is an easy recommended at full price.

Imagine if Sunless Sea didn't have ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ permadeath that precluded so many people from enjoying it, and instead allowed you to explore the world freely, even being somewhat lenient with save-scumming. It would still feature a quirky world, action-based combat, resource and crew management, cards, and text adventures... only without laughing in a clumsy player's face.

You would get A House of Many Doors.

It's a lesser-known game, which is a damn shame, because it's so much better at what Sunless Sea tries to do than Sunless Sea itself. Sure, the design and writing are slightly more derivative, and perhaps it tries a bit too hard to be quirky at times, but it's all nowhere close to bad, and some of its plots are genuinely brilliant (as is the premise of a world filled with numerous towns, all of them located in, well, a house of many doors).

See also: shark sex.

And yes, the game allows you to save-scum in towns, retrying chance-based challenges until you succeed. This is clearly a design oversight and not intended, but somehow it doesn't break the game, but improves it instead. Even if your success is guaranteed, you still need to travel so many places, collect so many resources, and unlock so many options, that none of it becomes trivial.

The game is mostly text-based, but its visuals, wherever present, are beautiful and full of character.

All in all, a must-play for any lover of "narrative-driven experiences" who don't shy away from surreal worlds and stories.

House of Many Doors is a brilliant game with rich lore and amazing mysteries that keep you crawling between the cities on your kinetopede.

In comparison with Sunless Sea, HOMD is more acceptive of your playstyle. If you are here for the story, generally you don't need to farm resources (unlike Sunless Sea, which is great game but... well, getting that metaphorical 9999th Echo to advance the story was hard). If you dislike fighting, just increase your Guile (evasion skill) and avoid enemies. On the other hand, you can keep a txt file and note prices in every city, gathering money for the best weapons in the game.

In my opinion, the only bad thing about HOMD is extremely repetitive landscapes. However, in the late game you can mostly use teleportation (Fetch Mirror) to reduce travel time.

Despite this shortcoming, I genuinely enjoyed House of Many Doors and want to recommend it to those who love solid worldbuilding and interesting stories.

Only get this game if you liked Sunless Sea's writing so much you'd play it even if you had to do it while sitting on the world's most uncomfortable chair with someone poking you with a fork every few seconds.

The writing in this game is very good. A lot of the quests are poorly designed but the overall story feels stronger and more consequential than Sunless Sea, and the locations are creative and diverse.

But that's not what you're dealing with for the vast majority of your game experience. This consists of driving a train thing that handles like a 1930s tractor through very ugly (the art in this game ranges from awful to serviceable) procedurally generated rooms filled with obstacles that cause you small amounts of damage if you run into them. It's not challenging, it's mindless and repetitive, literally some of the most annoying content-spacing-filler I've ever encountered. Sunless Sea's long, empty stretches of ocean eventually grew on me, but not this.

Combat is equally stupid. I found myself in a fully upgraded ship constantly dodging small bandits because I didn't want to sit through the game's clunky turn-based combat system any more than I had to. This is even aside from the bug that randomly makes your gunners disappear for no apparent reason.

Yes, there are bugs (the game crashes constantly) but they're generally not game-breaking if you save. The real problem is the fact that the Sunless Sea engine is really poorly suited for some of what this game is trying to do. Every time there's a choice with a lot of options you have to scroll through pages and pages (no mouse wheel support); every time you acquire an item with an action associated with it your start page for every location expands, making every minor decision that much more irritating. The map is useless, too large even at max resolution, and the protocol for finding new locations sometimes just doesn't tell you where they are.

Anyway, a frustrating game. Just play Sunless Sea instead.

Amazingly atmospheric, dark and exciting. Really enjoyable so far.

Plays like a much quicker version of Sunless Sea with better and more complex combat. If you liked Sunless Sea then you're going to love this game.

Furthermore, upon playing 20+ hours, this game is HUGE! Not huge like pointlessly grinding huge, but massive in terms of content. Many more cities, many more characters, many more interactions than Sunless Sea. At this price it's an amazing steal. Just buy it and go romance a million crows or something.

**Update**

I was one of the players who didnt' have many bugs at release, so no real complaints on my part. I do want to note that the developer has released a day one patch, so that may have fixed the problems for those who had them. Don't let a somewhat rocky first day from a one person shop deprive you of this delicious narrative experience.

tl;dr Bears more than a passing resemblance to Sunless Sea, and manages to be sufficiently different to be worth checking out.

Setting: A dark portion of a multiverse; this universe is called The House. From what I've seen so far, it's a post-apocalyptic wasteland of ruins, possibly-cursed locations, giant mushrooms, unexplained statues, large rocks, pirates, travelers, and more. All shrouded in darkness. The description of "rooms" makes you think The House will be a little more interesting than it is. Many of the rooms are essentially empty, or have a repeated random encounter, which can lead to some monotony. This is broken up with the occasional city (all rather unique) and other places of interest (the unmoving star, the burning god, etc). You will also get glimpses of other universes. The setting is imaginative and the pacing is decent. (Making money through trade, however, is less straightforward than Sunless Sea.)

Combat: Usually something to be avoided. It's sort of turn-based - interesting but not well-explained. In the beginning your weapons/hull aren't good enough for you to survive most encounters anyway. You'll spend a good portion of the game running from potential enemies.

Characters: There are a wide variety of lively characters. You have a few customization options for yourself, although for the most part you're stuck with the job of poet/writer/journalist/explorer. Your goal is to escape The House - if it's even possible. You run around in a steam locomotive with spidery legs.

Other stuff:
+ It seems the developer has patched most of the significant bugs. (June 2017) You can still find bugs. Some minor, such as NPCs passing through objects. I did experience one major bug: going through a door but then somehow it was locked after I passed through, which made me stuck in the doorway. I could see into the next room, but couldn't go forward or back. I was forced to exit the game in order to continue. (I was able to replicate this - just head east from Phobetor Quinn until you encounter a locked door, then head south.)
+ Music and graphics are decent.
+ You can save your game often, and you should, in case something goes wrong. (Autosave can't always help you.) I kind of wish there were more available save slots.
+ At the moment, this is part of the Steam Summer Sale, and costs just over $6. This is a good price point for people on the fence.
+ The available endings are satisfying and intriguing. I think for most people it'll take 10-15 hours to beat the game. 20+ if you do more exploration and don't focus on getting to the end ASAP.

Overall I would say Sunless Sea is the better game. A House of Many Doors is more forgiving and has a bit more in the way of character interaction. If you like exploration games or Sunless Sea, you'll probably like this game too. Read the game's description: what you see is what you'll get. A House of Many Doors isn't perfect but it's a decent game which has merits.

AHOMD is a well-written sunlessealike (that's a term now, it may be a hideous reality, but reality it is nonetheless), a journey of a myriad of cool stories:

I flirted with a ghost of an oil rig, kissed a shark gentleman, made passionate love with a clown detective, and assisted a fish monstrosity in wooing a toxic river.
I "fixed" undead elections, instigated a civil war of emancipation in an insect kingdom, and dethroned a mad emperor.
I built a lack of a monument to the void, strolled through a forest of friendly corpses, drank darkness, and got bribed by literary mice.

AHOMD's stories are just as good as Sunless Sea's, but they're much easier to reach and unravel. Unlike Sunless Sea, AHOMD doesn't toy with ideas of being a roguelite and with permadeath, neither does it usually require grinding a bunch of rare items to advance a story. It also has a more traditional main storyline with multiple endings.
A lot of story arcs come from your crew members' questlines, and the crew is generally quite memorable: from an abstinent vampire and a gangster ghoul to a civilized goatman and a fungal surgeon.
I also believe that AHOMD generally has a more coherent writing style than SS, benefiting from being written by a single person, which is quite an achievement in itself.

Now, while the writing is all good, elsewhere AHOMD falls short. The combat attempts to emulate FTL's turn-based battles, but ends up being very clunky, limited and, frankly, just not a fun thing to engage with. On top of that, your crew can get injured, temporarily blocking quest progress. Baffling design. Fortunately, all combat encounters are optional and always avoidable, either through skill checks or just fleeing, and that's what I did most of the time.
It is also a game about exploration, and while finding new places is always rewarding, the process of navigating your kinetopede through the various procedurally generated rooms is nowhere near as engrossing as the ghastly charms of sailing the Zee.

Overall, I greatly enjoyed my time with A House, its flaws are worth of being overlooked if you're itchy for a dose of weird fiction adventure. Also, you mostly level up by writing poems. There's even a whole system of procedurally generated poetry, and it's almost as insufferable as the real poetry!

First order of business:
1) YES THE GAME IS BUGGY AF
2) I can't stop playing because it's so damn addicting

I have a hard time finding a game that will hold my attention for more than a couple hours. Long gone are the days of playing an RPG for 36 hours straight while home "sick" from school. Instead I often find myselff playing an hour of a cheap Steam game, then moving on and never looking back. So to find this gem of a game on it's release day has been a breath of fresh air.

As you will see from other reviews, dev blogs, forums, etc... the game in its current state is still fairly buggy. I made it about 12 hours before I had any crashing, whereas others had it fairly early on. HOWEVER, the one-man dev team (yes it's all the brainchild of one man) has already addressed these issues and has been working around the clock to fix them. Mr. Tuffs has been all over social media and the discussion forums taking note of any and all issues, fixing them, AND answering all the questions players have had. So hats off to him!

With that being said, this game is an absolute delight. I have been able to easily look past any minor technical glitches. Hell, I haven't really minded the crashes either. The story-telling in so in depth that it completely enraptures your senses. Almost every conversation you have gives you a multitude of choices that can lead to nearly infinite possibilities. Some moments are blood-curdling terrifying (don't ever let your sanity go to 0, just saying), some are sombre and filled with melancholy, and some are so bizarre and outlandish that they are down right hilarious (looking at you Tybalt). This game is very text heavy, which makes me feel better about already spending 15 hours on it. It's no different from reading a book, right? And that's just it. This game feels like I am delving into an interactive book series filled to the brim with adventure, heartache, war, and glory.

The artwork is absolutely moody and gorgeous. At first I was unsure how I felt about a lack of imagery (example, you won't see a character portrait for each and every new face you meet), but the writing is done so well that it is easy to conjure up your own visualizations. Combined with an impressive, atmospheric score that is reminiscent of what Ramin Djawadi did for 'Westworld', each new location you visit immediately gives a sense of what it's all about. Maybe it's a nice safe haven or a seedy stopover for romantic pirates, or maybe you shouldn't stop in this room at all.

The characters themselves feel completely fleshed out, even those who technically don't have flesh. With character driven plot-points and missions, I quickly felt deeply connected with all members of my crew. While the lower deck crew just seems like a revolving door of bodies (seriously can they just for once not fall prey to the darkness?), the upper deck crew feels like that lovable rag-tag bunch of miscreants from all your favourite stories and shows.

Admittedly, I had difficulty getting a grasp on battles at first. Although there is a bit of a tutorial, I still had no idea what I was doing. I hope in the near future a full tutorial can be constructed, as I feel this will aid the gameplay tremendously. However, once you figure it out, battles are quite fun and IMO have the best music in the whole game (think 1920s carnival). Because battles are not random encounters, you can easily avoid them if you'd like. However, not every ship/creature/dirigible/kinetopede is an enemy, so why not try saying hello to all of them.

Overall, I am completely enamoured with this beautifully creepy, gothic, witty, and inventive game. It needs some polishing here and there, and could have benefitted from some early access time, but things happen and that's life. I have the utmost faith in the developer that all issues will be handled, so I encourage everyone to give it a shot. With the right support and backing I can see this game reaching cult status, especially due to it's replayability.

Ciao for now! I have to get back to fixing a ghoul election, seducing an oil rig, and aiding a mad underwater scientist destroy the House. XoXo

The game initially felt a little flat to me because I was very invested in the world of Fallen London/Sunless Sea, and the lack of underground world info in HoMD was a little disappointing at first. However, the writing in the crew's friendship and relationship stories and the many branches in their storylines more than make up for it. So the writing won me over, and ultimately seemed more fleshed out than Sunless Sea stories.

I rarely explored crew stories in Sunless Sea because they required so much grinding and rare items, and few of the stories felt fleshed out.

So yeah, I am very impressed with the writing in HoMD, though the elements that are similar to Sunless Sea almost seem to be identical in parts (Here is a spider area, a dream city, an empire to the east, a city of the undead, a frozen wasteland to the north. All elements which are repeated wholesale.)

I still recommend HoMD if you enjoyed Sunless Sea but would like to play a version of the game with no grinding, and with more stories to read.