Do These Horrors Deserve a Home, or Should They Be Put Back on the Shelf?

The modern horror landscape is a crowded place, yet every so often, a title emerges that manages to carve out a niche for itself. The House of Toys arrived in October 2025, promising a fresh take on the investigation-puzzle-horror blend. Stepping into this old mansion, players are immediately confronted with an unsettling atmosphere generated by seemingly innocent, yet undeniably disturbing, toys. The core mission is straightforward: locate and free the soul trapped within a cursed toy. But in a genre saturated with jump scares and predictable mechanics, does this indie title offer genuine, compelling terror, or is it merely another doll on the shelf? Read on to find out!

A Nightmare in Three Acts

The central premise of The House of Toys is its three-phase approach to the horror-adventure experience. The story itself is focused, revolving entirely around the mansion, its inhabitants, and the dark secret behind the cursed object.

It is an overarching mystery, as the player’s mission is not just to survive a single night, but to return day after day, game after game, to free the soul of the cursed toy. Each session aims to deepen the mystery, prompting you to uncover the true origin of the curse. This gives the game a strong, single-minded focus, driven by the ultimate goal of solving the mansion’s sinister past. There are no major narrative branches outside of the central mystery, maintaining a tight, claustrophobic story focus which the genre often benefits from.

Clockwork Mechanics

The gameplay mechanics are explicitly structured around three distinct phases, ensuring a dynamic and changing experience within each run. During the first phase, investigation is the primary focus, requiring thorough exploration and clue-gathering throughout the mansion rooms to identify which specific toy is cursed. This leads nicely into the second phase where the gameplay shifts towards a blend of intricate puzzles and action, forcing you to solve problems while actively avoiding the identified threat. Success here provides the power needed for the final stage, which centres on stealth. In this concluding phase, you must use your accumulated power to release the trapped soul, a task that demands extreme caution as any mistake resulting in capture leads to immediate failure. In other words, pay attention and be careful!

The Doll’s House Aesthetic

The House of Toys focusses on a dark and oppressive atmosphere that brings the mansion to life with a chilling level of realism. Every room feels lived-in yet abandoned, with shadows that seem to cling to the corners and hide the very toys you are hunting! The contrast between the innocent appearance of a child’s plaything and the malevolent energy it radiates is unexpectedly striking, often keeping you on edge as you move through the corridors. This is paired with an audio experience that turns the mansion into a character of its own! Every creak of a floorboard or the distant, mechanical whirring of a toy serves as a warning, and certainly puts you on edge! Essentially, as one might expect, the soundscape is designed to keep you alert, using subtle environmental noises to build tension and providing essential cues that tell you when to hide and when it is safe to move.

Opening the Toybox Again

The House of Toys is designed to be played many times, as the mission to free a trapped soul is a recurring objective that changes with every attempt. No two trips into the mansion feel exactly the same, with the investigation, puzzle, and stealth stages shifting to keep the experience fresh and unpredictable! Success brings more than just the satisfaction of completing a run; it provides specific items and upgrades used to enhance a personal room and uncover hidden secrets. This sense of persistent progress makes returning to the mansion feel rewarding, as you slowly piece together the true origin of the curse through repeated efforts and tangible improvements to your own space within the world. As such, there are plenty of reasons to revisit The House of Toys multiple times over!

Conclusion

The House of Toys is a well-defined entry into the investigation-puzzle-horror subgenre. It offers a structured and dynamic experience, with a unique three-phase gameplay loop that successfully blends exploration, action, and stealth. While the absence of multiplayer and a limited focus on story means the entire weight of the experience rests on the quality of its puzzles, dynamic systems, and atmosphere, the concept itself is intriguing and promises solid replay value. Overall, it delivers a tense and rewarding experience for fans of the horror and puzzle genres.

Grade: 8/10 – Very Good