Do Ghosts really need to renovate?
When I first booted up Haunted House Renovator on Xbox Series X, I expected a quirky simulator with a spooky coat of paint. What I found instead was a strange but oddly compelling blend of home improvement busywork and light supernatural problem solving that kept pulling me back in, even when I thought I was done for the night.
The hook is simple and weird in the best way. You buy rundown houses that just happen to be infested with ghosts, clean them up, deal with the paranormal tenants, and flip the property for profit. One minute you are scraping grime off the walls and placing furniture just right, and the next you are chasing a floating menace through a hallway with tools that feel more like DIY gadgets than traditional ghost-hunting gear. It creates this constant tonal tug-of-war between cozy renovation sim and haunted adventure.
MSRP: $19.99
Platforms: Xbox (reviewed), PlayStation, Switch, PC
Price I’d Pay: $19.99
The renovation side of the game will feel immediately familiar to anyone who has spent time with titles like House Flipper. You clean, repair, paint, decorate, and try to meet objectives efficiently. The twist is that each house has its own haunting, and those hauntings have to be addressed before you can truly move on. Sometimes that means figuring out what kind of ghost you are dealing with, other times it means making a choice about how to resolve the situation. You can deal with spirits in a kinder way or take a more aggressive approach, and those decisions affect how the job wraps up.
That choice-driven element is one of the more interesting ideas here, even if it does not always feel as deep as it wants to be. The game hints at moral weight and consequence, but in practice it often feels more like selecting a different exit ramp than forging a truly different path. Still, it adds a layer of personality that most simulators never bother with, and I appreciated the attempt.
Visually, Haunted House Renovator is serviceable rather than impressive. The houses are atmospheric enough, with dim lighting and clutter that sells the abandoned, cursed vibe, but you are not here for cutting-edge visuals. Sound design does a lot of the heavy lifting. Creaks, whispers, and unsettling audio cues give the houses character, even when the visuals themselves are fairly plain. The music stays in the background, letting the ambience do the work, which fits the tone perfectly. It is spooky enough to keep you alert without ever turning into full-on horror.
The biggest issue I ran into was clarity. The game does not always do a great job explaining what it wants from you, especially when it comes to ghost-related objectives. There were moments where I felt like I had all the right tools but not quite enough information. Sometimes that sense of discovery is rewarding. Other times it just feels like trial and error padding out the runtime. But the game has other problems like textures that don’t load, items glitch into the floors and walls and the ghost busting side of the gameplay just feels underbaked.
By the time the dust settles, Haunted House Renovator is far from flawless, yet it remains an oddly engaging detour that leans heavily on its personality. Anyone looking for a straightforward, turn-your-brain-off decorating sim may come away disappointed. Honestly though I think those that come for the haunted bits might be more disappointed. While a really neat idea, the half-baked ‘ghost busting’ brings the whole house down.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
