In an era of reboots, remasters, and endless rumours of new and old Resident Evil games, it’s refreshing to look past the noise and play an actual game whilst you wait for the latest shenanigans of the Umbrella Corporation. There’s plenty of indie counterparts these days, whether they’re looking to reinvent the genre or pay strict homage to the classics. The Mute House is very much in the latter category as it is very much Resident Evil by the numbers. This isn’t as damning as it may sound though, as I am always in the mood for some spooky mansion action.
The most impressive thing about The Mute House is how polished the game feels considering it is the work almost entirely of a solo developer. There is some excellent use of Unreal assets (all credited) and a clear understanding of just what makes the genre work. The level design, puzzles, and combat are all first rate with only a few minor niggles leading to some frustration.
Alongside being a very faithful take on Resident Evil’s style and design, The Mute House is also a return to the more hardcore nature of the early games. There are no initial difficulty settings here and the intended experience is challenging in a way that reminded me of my teenage days grappling with the first Resi game on PS1.
You begin by playing as Amber, a young woman lost in the woods on her way back from a night out. Immediately you are thrust into a chase scene as a ‘maniac’ is following her. Amber soon finds herself taking shelter in a cabin near a mysterious mansion. The relief is short-lived, however, as this is just the beginning of her nightmare. Cut to a week later and Amber’s elder sister, Emily, a local cop is investigating her disappearance. Upon entering the mansion, the entrance is sealed behind her and her quest begins.
At first glance the mansion is almost a carbon copy of the original Spencer Mansion even to the point of having a concealed door behind the staircase. The rest of the levels do find their own style though, and you’ll find yourself navigating a cemetery and sinister gatehouse before you have any chance of finding Amber.
Navigation is familiar genre fare, with perfectly implemented tank controls and inventory management being the name of the game. One big departure from other games in the survival horror genre, though, is also perhaps the most controversial aspect here – there is no map function whatsoever. This could be a deliberate move to increase the hardcore aspect but it does take some getting used to, especially once you start unlocking shortcuts and alternative paths around the mansion. I can see the appeal of this in a second playthrough (and Dead of Darkness has an achievement for not checking the map) but it did lead to some annoying backtracking at times. The ideal situation is to play through in one sitting, but the 5 or 6 hour initial playtime makes this difficult.
Combat plays a significant role here, with the narrow corridors in many areas not being conducive to dodging the zombies and mutated monsters that you will face. Initially you’re restricted to your police issue handgun which is fine, but soon becomes underpowered. Once you find a shotgun it will become your main go-to, although ammo management is an issue for much of the game. This area could do with some rebalancing as zombies taking 8 or 9 shots to die makes the pistol barely usable when a single shotgun shell will do the trick. I ended the game with around a dozen clips in storage and others left in the environment.
Inventory management is another key survival horror staple that The Mute House takes and gives a distinctive hardcore twist. Rather than the magically linked item boxes that are typical for the genre, the shelves here only act as local storage, so you need to remember where you put things and return for them. This was another aspect that took me a while to get used to, so entrenched was the usual approach, but there are a couple of centrally located shelves to work with and nowhere near the deluge of items that are in other titles. In fact, aside from some key items you’ll only need to juggle health restoration and your weapons and ammo. This, however, is also made more difficult by the odd decision not to allow item stacking. This means that each clip or box of shells is a single item and reloading with partial clips drops the bullets already in the pistol.
Equally central to the world of survival horror are puzzles, and The Mute House has a nice mix of key finding, item use, and some more involved environmental ones. I was especially impressed by an audio-based puzzle that required you to memorise a tune and play sections of it in the correct order, and an Indiana Jones-like floor tile puzzle that requires you to take notes from five different pictures throughout the game. The latter was less exciting the fourth and fifth time I had to repeat it though as it preceded an instant death boss encounter with no save point in between, despite there being a room in which one would have worked.
