Horror puzzle Horror escape Mascot horror

Puppet House

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A detective, a ventriloquist's empty mansion, and the puppet he left behind.

Platforms: PC, PlayStation, Xbox
Stores: Steam, Epic, GOG
Price: Paid
Rated: Very Positive on Steam (89% of 218 reviews)
Players: 1
Made by: Vecube Studio and Spirit Games Studio
Released: 2024

Not on Mac. Puppet House is on Steam, Epic, GOG, PC, PlayStation and Xbox. It is not in the Mac part of the site you came from.

Get it on Steam GOG Epic Games Store PlayStation Store (PS5)Xbox (Series X|S)

What frightens An old ventriloquist's puppet, brought to life as a demonic killer by a freak ritual, hunts anyone who enters its dead owner's mansion. You go in alone as a detective looking for missing townspeople, solving puzzles in dark rooms where, as the store puts it, any wrong decision could have dire consequences.
Content: blood.

Puppet House is a first-person puzzle-adventure horror game with escape room elements. As detective Rick you search an abandoned ventriloquist's mansion for missing locals and solve its puzzles, while the old puppet, brought to life by a ritual, kills anyone who comes inside.

About Puppet House

Puppet House was developed by Vecube Studio and Spirit Games Studio and published by Gaming Factory in October 2024, on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. People in the quiet town of Field Town have been disappearing, and detective Rick follows the clues to the abandoned house of the late ventriloquist Peter Hill.

Inside, the game plays as an escape room in a decaying mansion. You walk its dark corridors and grounds, look closely at old memorabilia that hide the keys to the next door, and work through puzzles that ask for logic as much as attention. Reviewers note that there is no combat; a few quick time events break up the exploring.

The fear is the puppet. A freak ritual brought it to life as a demonic killer, and it is loose in the house. One critic describes it toying with you, sometimes seeming almost to help and at other times out for blood, so you never quite know what it will do next. The look draws on VHS-era horror films, and the store leans on sound and lighting to keep every room tense.

It suits players who like Poppy Playtime or The Tartarus Key: a puzzle game first, with a sinister toy-like figure in the walls rather than a monster to fight. Critics call it short, a game for an evening or two.

How to play Puppet House

Buy it on Steam, GOG, the Epic Games Store, the PlayStation Store (PS5) or the Xbox store (Series X|S).
Start a new game and follow detective Rick to the ventriloquist's mansion outside Field Town.
Explore each room and look closely at objects: the memorabilia hide keys, codes and clues.
Solve the puzzle that bars the way to move deeper into the house.
Watch for the puppet and be ready for the quick time events that come when it appears.

Screenshots

The ventriloquist's puppet, its face cracked and stained, peering round a door in a dark room

The mansion's entrance hall with a twin wooden staircase, a red rug and blood on the wall beside a mask

The puppet standing behind a barred iron gate next to an electrical box

A pipe-connecting puzzle on a metal panel with a red and a green light

A decaying bedroom in the mansion with an old television, a single bed and peeling walls

The wooden mansion at night seen across its overgrown yard under a street lamp

Tips

Examine everything in a room before you leave it; clues for one puzzle are often in the next room.
Keep a note of numbers, symbols and dates you find, since the house reuses them.
Play with headphones: the sound design tells you a lot about where things are.
Go in knowing as little of the story as you can; the critics who liked it most say the same.