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Subway Invasion
Game
Game2025
Deck of Haunts
Developer Mantis
Deck of Haunts invites you to become a malevolent Haunted House. Lure humans into your cursed halls, manipulate their fears, and drain their essence to grow your power. Use strategy to build your mansion and expand your dark influence, turning your home into a terrifying, inescapable nightmare. From the Steam store page
376 reactions from 4 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Lemmy, Mastodon) · newest Nov 4, 2026 · last updated Nov 5, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
82
LovedLoved
233 positive · 51 negative
95% range 77–86%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 233 | 51 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 26 | 0 | 57 |
| Lemmy * | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Mastodon * | 1 | 0 | 3 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
Steam's own rating
Very Positive
894 of 1,014 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What players are saying
81% recommend · 196 yes, 47 no
Counted from the reviewers’ own thumbs up/down on the 243 English Steam reviews we collected, not by the AI. Valve’s all-language rating: Very Positive (1,272 of 1,482 positive).
Players praise the unique concept of playing as a haunted house. [1][2][3] Many find the gameplay loop repetitive after a few hours. [4][5][6] Some reviewers note the game is too easy even on harder difficulties. [7][8][9]
Liked
Representative posts
- [4]
"Great Idea, Limited Longevity." Deck of Haunts was a game I was genuinely excited for. A deckbuilder–tower defense hybrid where you are the haunted house is such a unique concept that it immediately stood out to me. It’s rare to see a game take such a creative angle on the genre, and at first glance, it feels like something special, the kind of idea that could really shake things up if executed to its full …
- [1]
Before you Buy: This is a deck builder. You will have a deck and when you use all the cards in that deck, shuffle the discard and keep going. You will have a set of cards, and will gain more cards, remove some cards, and construct a deck that will help you achieve your goal. Also, your goal is to kill people investigating a haunted house... and you, are the haunted house. Building the House to make its layout …
- [3]
**I have never been a house before, but I think I like it.** **Recommended if** you like strong theme, clean central hooks, and strategy games that feel built around a clear fantasy. **Not recommended if** clunky or confusing UI pulls you out of the experience fast. **What it is:** *Deck of Haunts* is a strategy game built around the fantasy of being the haunted house. That central metaphor is not just flavor pasted …
- [2]
Get to play as a Living Haunted House, and teach those nosy humans who wander into your realm that yes, they should've picked a better house to stay in off Air BnB. It's a pretty fun game, with cards that allow you to directly attack trespassers, either in health or their sanity. You can set up traps and creatures to increase the odds in your favor.
- [7]
It's a cute and fun game, but it's missing a certain something. Even on the hardest difficulty, it's fairly easy to go nearly infinite and knock out dozens of intruders with a single card (40 seems to be around the spawn limit), and I've unlocked all but two cards after about eight hours of play. There is only one "boss" human, and he is just an existing enemy type with significantly more health, and if you've …
Summarised from 34 of the 329 public posts collected about this game; every point cites the posts behind it ([n] opens the post) and the split is counted from the posts’ own ratings. Updated Oct 10, 2026. How summaries are made
RottenBot@rottenbot · automated account
81% of the 243 Steam reviewers we collected recommend Deck of Haunts. The complaint that keeps coming up: gameplay becomes repetitive quickly. Deal-breaker or nitpick?
Reactions
60 of 376 · most liked firstHello everyone! I'm Aleks, a music producer / composer in the video game industry. I've written music for PHANTOM FURY, DECK OF HAUNTS, and SLAVE ZERO X : EPISODE ENYO If you would like to work with me on your next project, please email me! [email protected]
neutral · AI labelView post →I kidnapped the @Mantis_GamesBE Deck of Haunts devs to interrogate while I play the latest update :D youtube.com/live/SVLLNIg...
neutral · AI labelView post →We hope you enjoy this sinister demo for Deck of Haunts. We've been crafting this game with passion for the past year and are finally ready to lift the veil! store.steampowered.com/app/3313700/... #DeckofHaunts #demo
neutral · AI labelView post →"Great Idea, Limited Longevity." Deck of Haunts was a game I was genuinely excited for. A deckbuilder–tower defense hybrid where you are the haunted house is such a unique concept that it immediately stood out to me. It’s rare to see a game take such a creative angle on the genre, and at first glance, it feels like something special, the kind of idea that could really shake things up if executed to its full potential. From a presentation standpoint, the game does a lot right. The visuals…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Very cool premise to begin with but as others stated, the gameplay loop is very repetitive. You will find the optimum way to build the house like a funnel, and it is mandatory to build this way. So what could be a really creative game of building a haunted house, just becomes building countless 1x1 rooms every game an the house looks really dumb. Has a ton of potential to be a really cool game but just locks you in to building the house one way or it is unbeatable by very repetitive NPCs
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Before you Buy: This is a deck builder. You will have a deck and when you use all the cards in that deck, shuffle the discard and keep going. You will have a set of cards, and will gain more cards, remove some cards, and construct a deck that will help you achieve your goal. Also, your goal is to kill people investigating a haunted house... and you, are the haunted house. Building the House to make its layout confusing is fun... however, because the rooms often only apply their effects to…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →"...a sort of reverse horror game: I’m the haunted house, and my goal is to protect the villainous beating heart lying at the centre of it from anyone foolish enough to enter." Got a new article for you on the recent indie game Deck of Haunts! kimimithegameeatingshemonster.com/2025/08/07/d...
neutral · AI labelView post →2025 might just be the best year for Cthulhu and Lovecraft-inspired games, from the horrors of The Sinking City 2 to indie gems like Deck of Haunts. Lovecraftian games have been blowing up over the past few years. Dredge already has three DLCs, Darkest Dungeon did so well we got a sequel, and Still Wakes the Deep is sitting at almost 90% positive reviews on Steam. And the list keeps growing – smaller titles like Worshippers of Cthulhu and Do No Harm have also been getting plenty of love from…
neutral · AI labelView post →There is so much to like about this game. It's basically a gothic mansion version of Boss Monster with some of CoC/Arkham Horror attributes in a roguelike deckbuilder. Sounds ideal right? The music is great. The vibe is on point. There are so many wonderful details. However: Very quickly (I mean under an hour in) it gets EXTREMELY repetitive. There is really only one strategy that you'll clock onto pretty quickly...and then, that's it. I know the devs have added some 'mission' type…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →'Deck of Haunts' Plays Cards to Create Terrors in a Creepy Manor. cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/29855066
neutral · AI labelView post →I saw this being discussed on Reddit and decided to give the game a go. As of the time I am writing this I spent the last few days playing the game. Deck of Haunts is an interesting concept but it feels like it's executed poorly. You play as a haunted house and must drive human visitors insane or kill them. In order to do so you are equipped with a deck of cards that you may choose from every turn. The general gameplay loop is play a night, deal with the humans, gain essance, upgrade cards,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's a cute and fun game, but it's missing a certain something. Even on the hardest difficulty, it's fairly easy to go nearly infinite and knock out dozens of intruders with a single card (40 seems to be around the spawn limit), and I've unlocked all but two cards after about eight hours of play. There is only one "boss" human, and he is just an existing enemy type with significantly more health, and if you've gotten far enough to see him, then he shouldn't be an issue. Don't get me wrong, the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's alright. Once you figure out a good loop, though, you've basically got a solved game. Basically had everything except the challenge mode stuff unlocked by the end of hour one. Certain things, like what the cards that allow you to directly use house residents do and how they function, aren't explained at all and require trial and error. Needs some more variety and a slightly more thorough tutorial. Get it on sale maybe, at 75% off or more.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →"Deck of Haunts is a cozy game, like playing The Sims, when you remove the pool ladder." 🪜🏚️ -Our favorite quote from a Game Force demo player #indiegame #halloween #spookytober
neutral · AI labelView post →I've gotten the odd look from some of my friends when I try and describe my experience with this game. I'm a haunted house trying to kill or drive my occupants mad so I can grow and expand. It's a great premise and I love it. Reminds me of similar card games I've played like Slay the Spire, Inscription, or Balatro. As you progress each round you add a card or ability to help you get stronger and face tougher obstacles. Very simple and fun. I like giving two different reviews. One for the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Found it. In the store; in the game section; down on the indie selects row, all the way to the right where there’s a Deck of Haunts image
neutral · AI labelView post →A good premise but fundamentally flawed game The core concept of the game is fantastic, you have a sort of tower defense using your deck of cards and a house (your maze) that you would grow and customize. At the beginning all this works well, but soon you discover that the part where you grow your house is broken -- it is mandatory to built a lot of 1x1 rooms, in particular in the last 1/3 of the length of the house, otherwise you won't survive the latest days. That dependency on a lot of…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Looking for something different? The shortlisted nominees for 'Innovation & Creativity' at Debug's 2026 Indie Game Awards are... Banquet for Fools CYCLIA JOURNEY DEAD LETTER DEPT. Deck of Haunts Into the Restless Ruins Ruffy and the Riverside Debug's IGAs are proudly sponsored by @gamemaker.io
neutral · AI labelView post →Really enjoyed the demo (and a great take on the genre) and then, to my surprise, the game is such a let down: - Game detected my demo progress (yay!) until I realised that by loading the actual game and clicking settings, the game CTD (11 times over). I had to delete my demo progress in order to fix this. - I experienced 7 or 8 unreal engine crashes in the time I played. - The UI is problematic at best (some text is cropped and formatted incorrectly, other times you can't see what's on screen…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This year has been crazy for the Mantis team, the year we started production on Deck of Haunts. We're working hard on this game that we believe in so much and we were finally able to share a taste of it with you all through our demo. The reception has been heartwarming. Thank you. You're great! 💜
neutral · AI labelView post →Can't say I'd recommend the game as is now. A lot of strategic elements, even on easiest difficulty is simply not applying here. NPCs beeline towards the heart. IF 8 of them get to it, it's The End. Even if you design your house like a maze, there's so many of them with Pathfinder trait (which means they can enter wherever, not only through the enbrace), that it makes your effort and resource management (rooms cost, and they do cost quite a lot!) pointless. As is now, I can't say it is fun. I…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Pitching our next game at Gamescom, think Deck of Haunts in space. If you're into horror or just love being an evil entity and are looking to invest and/or publish, let me know, so we can grab a beer, or a cola zero 🖖
neutral · AI labelView post →Terribly balanced A big part of this game is about making a maze of rooms for the ai to move through to delay them from getting to your heart long enough to deal with them, but some of the traits the ai can get are ridiculous and unfun. Pathfinder (Enters through a random room) and holy book(Gives invulnerability when not alone) can just instantly lose you the game. Why have such a huge part of the game completely invalidated with just a couple of traits? What is the point of making a maze…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Ok, so I like this game but it feels like it's still cooking even though it's not early access. The store page shows you building these elaborate mansions but it's bunk. It's more like a tower defense game because so many enemies will waltz straight to the heart if you don't have a single, trapped, long path from start to end. Building costs so much energy that you have to focus on that one path. Let it cook and revisit in a few updates.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Get to play as a Living Haunted House, and teach those nosy humans who wander into your realm that yes, they should've picked a better house to stay in off Air BnB. It's a pretty fun game, with cards that allow you to directly attack trespassers, either in health or their sanity. You can set up traps and creatures to increase the odds in your favor.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →There’s plenty of smart choices that went into designing this game, but as it currently stands, it’s not for me. The problem is the most incentivized strategy isn’t much fun. I like the basic premise of the two damage types: health and sanity. Tension is also a neat idea, acting as a temporary multiplier to sanity damage that feels thematically appropriate: keep building up the tension on a human, and the payoff of scaring them keeps getting bigger. There’s also a fun essence resource…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Today for @cardgamer.com, I reviewed Deck of Haunts -- a roguelike deckbuilder where we play as *the* Haunted House! Made me feel like I was playing some kind of The Sims/rts game with a card game on top of it. Excited to see where it goes! #DeckofHaunts #deckbuilders cardgamer.com/reviews/deck...
neutral · AI labelView post →Just a few VFX I made for Deck of Haunts✨ Reach out to me if you need any VFX support 🖖 Also, feel free to look the game up on Steam 👀
neutral · AI labelView post →I tried to like it for longer than I should. First few runs are fun as you are still figuring out the game, a lot of novelty to this uniques setting for a card game. However, once the novelty runs out the game doesn't do much to change things up to keep it fresh and interesting. The overview of survivors is clunky and tedious at best and could have benefited from more variety in portraits, icons, and whether they are running or not. The house building aspect is kind of endearing, but like…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →"Deck of Haunts is a roguelike deckbuilder where you're a haunted house harvesting essence from human intruders to grow your halls ever outward. Drive them insane or kill them before they gaze upon your heart." willow: "oh, so it's a sex game???"
neutral · AI labelView post →The concept is actually novel and well-done. The execution is passable, with a fair bit of floaty animations and bugs that are, at times, impacting gameplay (such as humans being visually in rooms different from where they are located, mechanically). But what makes or breaks this review is that, for a Roguelike Deckbuilder, starting up the game on non-easy difficult and just cakewalking through your first ever run, whilst also unlocking ~25% of the cards, is just a biiiiiig red flag for…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Overall: It was alright. No glaring bugs, nothing game-breaking. But the overall ui and playability was off and not really enjoyable for me. I could barely see what was happening half the time, could barely read the text without half of it disappearing entirely, and it felt like a "find the new person" simulator more than a unique card battler/tower defense game to me. Maybe if you enjoy repetitive stylistic games that don't change much and are far more reactive than proactive, then this might…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I am soooo mad because I really wanted to like this game. The gameplay is unique and fun but has one single major flaw. There is just no fun with random doors appearing and disappearing on your house from one day to the other. Having enemies show up 2 rooms from your core away because a random door appeared is not fun and makes creating a layout useless. Unless this is changed to something like "add +1 door to the ouside" where players can choose I don't see me enjoying this as much as I want…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Hey all! Deck of Haunts just got nominated for the "Best Game Design" Belgian Game Award 🥳 But we need your help to also claim that lovely Audience Award 👀 You can vote here: docs.google.com/forms/d/1xww...
neutral · AI labelView post →New schedule for the week!! AND IM AHEAD OF TIME YIPPEE- More continuations, playing a nifty game I was gifted by @Dangen_Ent called Deck of Haunts, a collab Saturday with some of my best beans, + a HAND CAM stream as part of our debut stream rewards!! #vsky #vtuber #ValkSchedule #ValkLIVE
neutral · AI labelView post →Deck of Haunts is a horror game... where you play as the haunted house. Setting up traps and driving people out is a fun, moreish experience. store.steampowered.com/app/3179730/...
neutral · AI labelView post →This is a great idea limited by modest execution. The theme and setting of this game are brilliant. Playing out the essence of a haunted house attacking visitors is great. My first couple play throughs on this game were really enjoyable and there is so much to be commended about the way this game kicks things off. From my perspective, the primary drawback is replayability. The visitors you get to the home are barely distinct from one another. They differ by traits that, for the most…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Belgian Game Awards today at 20H00 CET! Deck of Haunts is nominated for the best game design. It will be livestreamed here: www.twitch.tv/rtbf_ixpe
neutral · AI labelView post →"I am the "Who" when you call, "Who's there?" I am the wind blowing through your hair" ☝️ Rings a bell? Always wondered what this would feel like in a video game? Wonder no more, the demo for Deck of Haunts is here! Be the haunted house, play with your victims and scare them to death!
neutral · AI labelView post →Good chill out game, gives something fun and interesting to do while listening to music or podcasts. Dev(s) actually listen to player feedback, which is always a plus.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →So here I am about ~22 hours in and still finding new ways to drive people insane and feed off their lifeforce for some precious essence. Other recent reviews seem to think this game loses novelty after just a few hours, but that hasn't been my experience. I haven't even begun to touch "Nightmare" mode yet, so maybe I'm missing something or maybe those reviewers didn't stay long enough to really dig into this game. Deck of Haunts's progressive unlock system offers more cards, more modes, more…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Deck of Haunts got nominated for @debugmagazine.bsky.social Indie Game Awards 2026 in the category Innovation & Creativity 🥳
neutral · AI labelView post →Indie game studios continue to be the real heroes of the games industry, producing all the really enjoyable games at a fraction of the price of AAA. Deck of Haunts is a great example. It's simple enough of a core concept to understand, and gets elaborate enough that you have to think about what you want to do as the game progresses. If I had any complaints, I find the names in the intruder's little avatars too small to read well, but that doesn't really matter much in the game. The other…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →So Deck of Haunts is REALLY FUN. A shorter stream today, but man is it such a cool game, you can even add in custom human names for your random spawn victims! We raided out to @chichentv.bsky.social , who's playing Stranger of Paradise and fighting CHAOS!
positive · AI labelView post →The Haunted Hoard continues with a review of the new Switch 2 indie game Deck of Haunts! thegamehoard.com/2026/10/08/t... #gaming #videogames #indiegames
neutral · AI labelView post →Incredible concept, but the game design is fundamentally flawed. The cool looking sprawling houses from the screenshots just don't make sense to build. It's similar to a tower defense, you clearly want to make the longest path possible, so you just make 1x1 tunnels. The UI also does not feel good to interact with, it quickly gets tedious to find specific people (made much worse in 1x1 rooms) and playing targeted cards feels annoying. This all makes gameplay feel very repetitive
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I don't know, man. It's a really great concept for a video game but the execution (pardon the pun) isn't great. Building the mansion just isn't that fun. Each turn survivors will move from one room into another regardless of how big it is, so there's really no strategic incentive in making rooms bigger than 1 tile unless a certain size is required for a special room. This could easily be solved by scaling room size with how long it takes before a room is "explored" and survivors are ready to…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Feels like a board game that would be an instant favorite, and doesn't need a whole group of players. Surprisingly addictive, each run adds new strategy.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game was a bit undercooked at launch, so I held back on a review at the time. I revisited it recently and a lot of content has been added and the feedback of the players has been taken into account when making changes.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →**I have never been a house before, but I think I like it.** **Recommended if** you like strong theme, clean central hooks, and strategy games that feel built around a clear fantasy. **Not recommended if** clunky or confusing UI pulls you out of the experience fast. **What it is:** *Deck of Haunts* is a strategy game built around the fantasy of being the haunted house. That central metaphor is not just flavor pasted on top. The game commits to it, and that commitment gives the whole…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game is fun, and I am enjoying it but it keeps crashing every 15-30 minutes, and I lose my progress every time. Would recommend if that gets fixed.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →One day to go for the big Deck of Haunts free content drop! The game will be growing by a whopping 25% 👀👻
neutral · AI labelView post →♠️LIVE SOON🩸 Thanks to @mantisgames.bsky.social & @dangen-ent.bsky.social 's generosity @ 6 PM BST-ish, I'm taking a look at their recent release, Deck of Haunts! Twitch: twitch.tv/adreancard YouTube: youtube.com/@adreancard ~♠️ #VSky | #VTuber | #IndieVTuber | #IndieGame | #DeckOfHaunts 🩸~
neutral · AI labelView post →Deck of Haunts has my attention. It's a roguelike card-based game where you play as the house trying to be rid of Investigators. There's a demo on Steam that I'll be looking into.
neutral · AI labelView post →Positives: At its heart this is a very fun and challenging game. The deck builder aspect is interesting and adds a degree of randomness to runs. The base building/room building is a great mechanic in concept. • The option between psychological drain and physical damage is a cool mechanic. Different room types and layouts can make the house feel very interesting; • Game shows an immense amount of potential with base building and stacking card effects for maximum carnage; • Rooms that…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The deck building part is great so far, managed to combo some crazy card draw and ap regen which is always fun. Difficulty curve also seems reasonable on Normal, and really enjoying the variety of human occupations. Oh and really glad there's controller support, but instead of scrolling through my 20+ rooms on the d-pad, would be awesome to just control a cursor when targeting rooms. Absolute recommend.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →As the player base has been growing, so has the game! We decided it was time to have a recap of some of the free updates we rolled out for Deck of Haunts, since it's release in May. Proud of our tiny team & thankful for all the players ❤️
neutral · AI labelView post →Deck of Haunts is something of a channel darling with long-time viewers, and it's a really good game to boot, which I enjoy playing, so I think we're going to continue doing runs of it on the channel after Halloween is over. Look for it to become a periodic, recurring series.
positive · AI labelView post →Ever wanted to be a haunted house and also murder me? As a thank you for checking out the game a while back the developer has added me to Deck of Haunts in this update. In the custom name options put in "Flik" and my portrait will be among those chosen for people showing up at your house.
neutral · AI labelView post →youtu.be/aStxHPCAwuk www.twitch.tv/giza666 trovo.live/Giza666 vk.com/video-603342... Tonight we are building cursed house hehe Game: Deck of Haunts by @mantisgames.bsky.social #indiegame #horrorgame #stream
neutral · AI labelView post →
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