The Spookening (Android) Review

It's a simple enough premise - scare the civilians, collect the "Souler" energy that they drop and make it back to Herman's body to end the level. On top of this, there are time limits with more rewards for faster completions, but it's the added dimensions to the game that make it something worth investing some time in. When scaring civilians, for example, Herman can just chase them around, yelling "Boo" and getting small amounts of energy, or he can make use of interactive aspects of the environment. There are plenty of these that can be interacted with the Souler power to get bigger and better scares - there are rubbish bins that can explode with spiders; trees that can grow a giant hand and snatch at the hapless NPCs; and cars that can be controlled to tear through the level, terrifying the populous.

The Spookening is played top-down, and provides the classic mobile HUD of a virtual analogue stick in the bottom left, and meter that tracks how much energy or Souler power has been collected, along with a button to shoot out a scare, which can be held down for bigger scares or to fill things with Souler power. The controls are surprisingly reactive and fluid; it's one of the common failings of these types of mobile games that the controls are jerky or sticky.

There is a downside to the scares; too much terror will scare the NPCs quite literally to death, resulting in them becoming ghosts, too. These ghosts will chase after Herman, absorbing all of the hard-earned Souler power, unless he manages to catch them in a power-up or uses the streetlights on the level to stop them in their path. Similarly, there are demons wandering around who will try to interfere with level progress. Enemy mobs aren't the only thing to avoid - there are also pitfalls within the environment, such as power lines that can spin the camera around and cause strange inversion to the controls.

To help combat these monsters, there are power-ups that can be purchased using gold. There's an interesting way of purchasing these; there is a "Crypt tree" inside levels that, when charged with Souler energy, rewards with gold. It means levels need to be replayed and energy stored up for spending here, instead of using it to revive the character and ending the level. There are eight powers available to choose from, and up to three of these can be equipped at any one time. They can put a whole new direction on the game, and when used right, can be a lot of fun. For example, there is a gramophone that can lure hapless NPCs to it, and is great when combined with some of the big environmental scares to make for big multipliers that can finish the level in a single scare. The problem is the game just rewards speed, so setting up complex scares that can be quite fun and interesting can be counterproductive, as it ends up taking more time and giving less rewards.

Unfortunately, there are only 24 levels in total to play through, although there is the added challenge of attempting to get the highest reward score on each one. This can be quite difficult on some of the levels, with numerous playthroughs needed to get the best scores. Other than the high scores, there is sadly little replayability. Achievements for certain scares, longer or more levels, and perhaps challenge levels without a time limit with a specific goal, would really make The Spookening something special.