Hugo’s House of Horrors

About Hugo’s House of Horrors

Hugo's House of Horrors is a parser-based adventure game, and the player interacts with the game by typing commands into the parser. This includes actions such as looking or grabbing items. Some synonyms are recognized and work as alternative inputs. Most puzzles are solved by using an item in the inventory to interact with the environment. The player controls Hugo's movement with the arrow keys on the keyboard. Pressing the key starts Hugo's movement, and pressing it again makes him stop. The numeric keypad is also supported, which allows diagonal movement.

Picking up items and completing certain actions gives the player points, and the points counter will reach its maximum once the player has completed every action and finished the game. Hugo's House of Horrors allows the player to freely save and load at any point, and it provides a boss key to hide the program. The game is short and can be completed in under ten minutes if a player is familiar with the required actions. In the Hugo Trilogy release, the text parser is replaced by a point and click interface.

As with many adventure games of the time, some puzzles result in an immediate game over if the player responds incorrectly, and the game can become unwinnable if certain items are not collected while they are available. This includes four different points in which the player must react immediately to avoid a game over. This sometimes means that the correct command must be typed and ready to submit before the player enters the next room.

The plot of Hugo's House of Horrors is limited to what is necessary to explain the game's premise. Hugo ventures to a haunted house after his girlfriend, Penelope, goes there for a babysitting job and gets kidnapped. As he explores the house, he finds a vicious hungry dog, a mad scientist, and a dining room full of classic horror monsters. No explanation is given for why these characters are present in the house or what their motivations are. Hugo discovers a secret cave underneath the house where he evades a mummy and then encounters an old man who asks him trivia questions before letting him pass. Hugo answers the man's questions and goes into the next room to find Penelope. He frees her, and the two escape from the house.