Haunted Mission Adventure

You enter a former hospital and the same question hits you as it does your character: what the hell are you doing here? Haunted Mission Adventure from 1987 is a text-based adventure for DOS, which today we'd probably call interactive fiction, except without the slightest hint of what that actually is. The game simply exists, you're in it, and you figure out the rest yourself.

It's a classic point-and-click affair without the clicking — you enter commands, explore rooms, collect objects, and try to survive something that lives in that house and isn't exactly friendly. The atmosphere is built more on imagination than graphics, which wouldn't matter much here anyway. The scenario describes gloomy rooms, strange sounds, you feel the presence of something dangerous — and then maybe you die because you entered the wrong room in the wrong order.

The mechanics are primitive in the best sense of the word. You type EXAMINE DESK, and either you get a description or nothing. The logic of puzzles isn't always obvious, which can be frustrating or exactly the kind of fun difficulty that the nineties loved. Your inventory is limited, movement across the map is mandatory, and a mistake costs you lives. The game didn't harden in the grip of modern convenience — it's pure survival with a minimalist approach where you're simply uncertain about everything.

Haunted Mission Adventure isn't a breakthrough by today's standards, but in 1987 it was one of the attempts to make a horror adventure on a computer without silly graphical limitations. The game doesn't believe in explanations, doesn't show you the way, just leaves you in the dark. That uncertainty is actually the most effective scenery the game offers.

Who will enjoy it? Fans of old text adventures and those who like to bite blindly into a map. You can try it online, it takes patience, but you'll find out if it's an archived mystery for you or just boring tedium without a guide.