HAUNTED: Are You Alone? review: The horror takes place in your own living room
Half an hour of story, three endless arcade modes, and arms that burst out of your real walls: this is how the mixed-reality horror plays on Quest.
HAUNTED: Are You Alone? moves a classic haunted-house plot into the room where the headset is worn. The Meta Quest game launched on October 9, 2026, and cost £3.99 in the British Meta Horizon Store on October 10. It offers a story of roughly 25 to 35 minutes, three endless arcade modes, and two secret chapters. At its core is story-driven jump-scare horror with light action, not a pure shooter.
The premise: a witch, a house, a phone
The setup is told briefly. A witch has lived in a house for 100 years, she kept every family that moved in, and now she has found the player. You are guided by a little girl who whispers through an old rotary phone. The store sums up the concept in one line: “YOUR ROOM IS THE NIGHTMARE.”
Technically, the game relies on the Quest’s room scan (Space Setup). Walls, floor, and ceiling become the play area, and according to the studio, any room size works. At launch, the game lists all scanned rooms; “Scan a new room” lets you create a new one. Before that, a two-page content warning appears every time the app starts.
The story: a new mechanic per chapter
The campaign consists of a prologue, seven chapters, a finale, and an epilogue. The chapters are called The Witch, The Hands, The Doll, The Hole, The Darkness, The Mirror, and The Puppy. Notably, almost every chapter introduces its own rule instead of pitting the same weapon against ever-new enemies.
- The Witch: The witch glitches like a disturbed video signal. Look away and she comes closer; stare too long and you provoke her. She is fought with an axe.
- The Hands: Knocking announces which wall the next arm, three to four meters long, will burst from.
- The Doll: A porcelain doll copies every movement of the player before attacking; you fight with a baseball bat.
- The Hole: A hole opens in the real floor. After that, there is a revolver and flashlight in an almost dark room.
- The Darkness: A wall breaks open to a moonlit graveyard from which undead come; here you hold a pistol.
- The Mirror: A mirror reflects beams back at the enemy.
The game never moves the camera. Your body is the controller: turn, duck, crawl, lean forward, strike, grab. It is played with hand tracking or touch controllers. The store lists the modes as “Room-scale” and “Standing”; there is no seated mode.
What mixed reality delivers here
The effect thrives on scares appearing in familiar places. Arms burst from your own living room wall, sounds come from real positions in the room: footsteps behind the player, knocking in the wall, voices under the floor. Add to that strong haptic feedback on every scare, grab, and hit.
For streamers, there is a “Hide my room” mode. Instead of passthrough, it shows a virtual, padded asylum cell mapped onto the real walls. According to the studio, all scare moments still work, but your home stays private.
The three arcade modes and the Bone Market
Under “Games” in the main menu are three endless wave modes. Each turns a story monster into a score game:
| Mode | Origin | Core idea |
|---|---|---|
| Grave Rush | Chapter V | Zombie shooter through a hole in the wall, headshot bonus, slow-motion kills |
| Arm Cutter | Chapter II | Knocking reveals the wall, arms are cut off with an axe or sword, “CLOSE CALL” bonus |
| Skull Hunt | Chapter IV | Flashlight in the left hand freezes skulls, revolver with laser sight in the right; shaking recharges the battery |
All three share the same system: combo multiplier up to ×8, three hearts, coins, and a top-5 leaderboard per mode. Coins go into the “Bone Market” shop. There, weapons can be upgraded in five tiers each and supplies bought, such as an armor plate as an extra heart or “Second Wind” for a revive. Shotgun, sword, and assault rifle cost 450, 600, and 900 coins. The shop and extra weapons belong exclusively to the arcade part, not the story.
Accessibility: no one gets stuck
For a horror game, the help system is unusually generous. After every death, the game-over screen offers “Help,” an explanation of how to beat the chapter. From the third death in the same chapter, “Skip chapter” is added. Through chapter select, all chapters are open from the start. After the credits, “New Game+” follows with changed menu texts and dialogue.
The store rates comfort as “Comfortable for some” (Moderate). Because the game requires ducking, crawling, and quick turns, the play area should be free of furniture edges, pets, and objects on the floor.
Limitations and open points
The story is short and can be finished in one evening. Anyone expecting a multi-hour campaign won’t find it here; the long-term motivation comes from arcade modes and leaderboards. The game is a single-player title without co-op. The language is English, according to the store. The listed version number is 0.2.0; the game does not carry an early access label.
The age rating is PEGI 18 with the descriptor “Extreme Violence.” The studio warns of sudden loud noises, flashing lights, blood, and intense jump scares. According to its own warning, it is not suitable for children, pregnant people, or people with epilepsy, heart conditions, or anxiety disorders.
There were no store ratings yet on the day after launch. ThreeFlavors LLC is listed as publisher; the store’s developer field names Special Games.
Technical specs
- Headsets per store: Quest 2, Quest Pro, Quest 3, Quest 3S
- Install size: around 410 MB
- Internet: not required
- In-app ads: none, according to the store
- Microphone: not used, according to the privacy policy; progress is saved locally
The store page can be found at HAUNTED: Are You Alone? in the Meta Horizon Store.
The bottom line
HAUNTED: Are You Alone? is a compact mixed-reality horror game for adults that consistently uses your own room as a stage. The story is short but changes the rules in every chapter. The three arcade modes with shop and leaderboards give reason to return. If you own a Quest, are of legal age, and can handle jump scares, you get an evening of horror in your living room at a low price. If you’re looking for long campaigns or multiplayer, you should look to other titles.