Deck of Haunts is a roguelike deckbuilder strategy and simulation game that places players in control of a malevolent haunted house on PS5. Set in a 1970s American mansion with art deco roots, the experience centers on constructing a deadly domain by day and unleashing supernatural threats by night to trap and drain the essence of human intruders.
Gameplay
The core loop divides each night into distinct phases. During the day phase, players expand and arrange rooms throughout the mansion to form protective mazes around the central Heart room. Room placement influences how visitors move through the space, with larger rooms and strategic corridors creating longer paths that increase tension and opportunities for intervention. Special rooms carry unique effects that support haunting efforts or hinder intruders directly.
At night, a deck of haunt cards becomes the primary tool for action. Cards allow players to summon spirits, generate fear, shift hallways, trigger traps, or inflict direct damage. Tension builds as cards are played on individual humans or within rooms, pushing visitors toward madness or death. Essence harvested from defeated or driven-insane targets funds further mansion growth and card unlocks between runs. The Heart room serves as the vulnerability point; any intruder who reaches it costs the player one of eight health points, ending the run if all are lost.
Procedural elements ensure variety across runs. Human groups arrive with different behaviors and preparedness levels, and escaped visitors return stronger in subsequent nights. The 28-night structure demands consistent defense while adapting the deck and layout to escalating threats, including eventual encounters with groups like the Stone Masons.
Game Modes
Standard runs follow the 28-night survival format, where the objective is to eliminate or madden every intruder each night while expanding influence. Success yields persistent unlocks for cards, rooms, and upgrades that carry into future attempts.
Nightmare Mode introduces a more demanding structure consisting of 13 escalating challenges, each spanning 13 nights. Accumulating modifiers and new threats intensify the experience, with opportunities to collect souls and summon the Grim Reaper for additional power. Curated Scenarios provide standalone challenges with preset mansion layouts and rule variations that alter standard progression.
Meta-progression ties these modes together through missions that reward additional cards, rooms, creatures, and gameplay modifiers. Console versions incorporate over a year of post-launch content, including expanded starter deck options and refined building systems that emphasize room size and navigation paths.
Progression Systems
Players unlock new cards featuring effects such as bone-chilling screams, phantoms, creaking floors, and shifting walls. Deck composition evolves through collection and experimentation, supporting different approaches focused on damage, sanity drain, or mixed strategies. Room variety grows similarly, allowing customized layouts that incorporate traps and special abilities.
Creatures join the arsenal in updated versions, adding direct supernatural allies that interact with visitors alongside card plays. Essence management remains central, converting harvested power into permanent improvements that encourage repeated runs with fresh strategies.
Is It Worth Playing?
Deck of Haunts delivers a distinctive reversal of typical horror perspectives by casting the player as the environment itself. Its blend of deckbuilding decisions and spatial planning creates engaging short sessions that reward careful preparation and adaptive play. Reception highlights the satisfying core loop of mansion construction and intruder torment, though some note reliance on procedural generation can lead to repetition over many runs.
The PS5 version arrives with substantial post-launch additions, including new modes, creatures, and quality-of-life refinements, making it a more complete package than the initial PC release. It suits players who enjoy roguelike strategy games with simulation elements and a horror theme, particularly those drawn to unique premises over narrative depth. The single-player focus and escalating challenges provide solid replay value for fans of tactical card play and defensive building.
