The primary-ever public demo of There Are No Ghosts on the Grand takes me just below half an hour to complete. And but, in that quick time, this sport morphs from a comedy lodge renovation sim, into boat restore, then an interactive musical, then a small-scale survival sport, then a story horror and, lastly, (checks notes) a first-person shooter that entails firing furnishings at haunted armchairs with spider legs.
In case you, like me, watched the Xbox Video games Showcase reveal and puzzled “can it presumably embody this a lot stuff?”, I’m pleased to let you know: a) Sure it could possibly, and b) That is going to be an actual deal with.
For such an sudden execution, this sport begins from a remarkably grounded place. You play Chris David, an American who inherits The Grand, a dilapidated seaside English lodge – and subsequently upsets your entire city by deciding to renovate it (and, hopefully, seek out its spectral secrets and techniques alongside the best way).
Lest you suppose this a po-faced tackle gentrification, nonetheless, only a few moments with the demo will present you fairly how wild developer Friday Sundae are going to get with that primary concept. Your major interplay with the world comes by a set of sci-fi tinged energy instruments – a blaster for breaking down ineffective objects, a vacuum to clear them up (and eject them when you’ve got a brand new use for them), a furnishings placer that may transfer or create home goods, and a paint sprayer. Oh, they usually’re outfitted with an… overenthusiastic Scottish AI.
When the demo begins, they’re put to deeply satisfying use within the lodge – first, blast the paint off of the partitions, repaint them in a color of your selection, destroy damaged furnishings, adorn the room with new objects, and vacuum up the particles, leaving a recent new lounge behind you. It walks a line between letting you recognize precisely what you’ll want to do, however with sufficient freedom to allow you to really feel as if the ornament is your selection. Portray partitions, for instance isn’t a case of meticulously overlaying each floor – when you’ve crammed sufficient house, it auto-completes the remaining – however the paint you select, and its accompanying vibe, is as much as you.
I genuinely may have spent my half-hour simply doing this – however as quickly as you get a deal with on it, the demo switches gears. A less-than-friendly native, Maddie Inexperienced, exhibits as much as introduce you to a wider thriller – unidentifiable slime has been washing up on the native seaside, and she or he’s received a principle that it’s originating from a close-by island. Cue a (totally controllable) moped journey by the fantastically rendered city to the seaside, a spot of boat upkeep (utilizing the identical instruments to take action), a fast puzzle to enter the best coordinates to get to the island, after which a ship journey there.
It turns into very clear, in a short time that it is a a lot greater sport than it first seems. And that’s earlier than Maddie begins articulating her emotions about David by music. Sure, that is additionally a musical – and a musical you possibly can participate in. Midway by the music, you’re given dialogue choices, each of which trigger David to sing a special verse of his personal. It’s a joyous second of shock.
After an unlucky crash onto the island, you’re then requested to make use of your instruments for an additional objective – scouring the world for supplies with which you’ll be able to patch the boat again up… earlier than Maddie “by chance” floats away, abandoning you on the island for the evening. Out of the blue, you’re in an entire new, freely explorable house – you search the island for a method into its deserted World Conflict 2 bunker, and use your instruments to renovate one among its rooms… earlier than the noises begin, and an entire different piece of this sport reveals itself.
At the hours of darkness, you start to search out “reminiscence bubbles” within the bunker – and puzzle sequences ask you to interchange furnishings that was a part of these reminiscences as a way to study extra. At this level, you understand that is now a mild horror sport – with leap scares thrown in (to not point out that Bones, a cat that’s been accompanying you all through, can discuss, and is unaccountably Australian).
In spite of everything of this, you emerge from a hidden passage again onto the seaside – which is now lined in armchairs, a really surreal second that solely will get odder as soon as they sprout hideous legs and start chasing you. Your energy instruments provide the choice to “change mode” – and immediately it’s a first-person shooter for a scorching minute, as you fireplace vacuumed furnishings on the monsters chasing you throughout the island.
If all of this sounds weird – effectively, it’s. However the actual achievement right here is that it holds collectively – Friday Sundae has managed to make use of the identical set of instruments to tug collectively all these disparate concepts, and constructed a sport that feels cohesive, not scattered. It begs a contented query – if all of that is in a single demo, how a lot farther will the total sport go?
There Are No Ghosts on the Grand arrives in 2026 for Xbox Collection X|S and Xbox on PC. It is going to be out there day one with Sport Move, and is an Xbox Play Wherever title.
There Are No Ghosts on the Grand
Friday Sundae Studio Ltd
When Chris David unexpectedly inherits a dilapidated English lodge, he has precisely 30 days and 30 nights to revive the crumbling edifice earlier than it…or one thing else…claims him.
Nothing is because it appears within the lodge – lurking beneath the veneer of paper and paint he applies by day, one thing horrible shivers and slithers within the evening. Don’t imagine them once they let you know that there are not any ghosts on the Grand.
Decorator by Day, Ghost Hunter by Night time
Whereas the daylight lasts, restore the lodge’s pale grandeur by wielding pleasant, speaking energy instruments – a sand blaster, paint sprayer, furnishings cannon, and daisy-chain gun. When evening falls, those self same instruments rework into weapons towards the supernatural. Unleash the vacuum on vengeful spirits, expose invisible assailants with the paint sprayer, or subdue slithering spooks with a well-aimed bookcase to the face utilizing the furnishings cannon.
Restore the Resort and the Surrounding Village
Restoring the lodge by day calls for sharp purpose and a few occasional lateral considering. You’ll shoot paint and paper on the partitions, blow out damaged home windows, and smash outdated furnishings. At different instances, you’ll have to decelerate to contemplate mild environmental puzzles, utilizing the lodge’s darkish previous to unravel cryptic clues.
An Eerie, Intriguing, Supernatural Thriller
On the coronary heart of the sport lies a wealthy, supernatural thriller – one which winds by the Grand Resort’s storied historical past, its former homeowners, and the participant’s personal buried previous. The lodge and its surrounding village maintain greater than meets the attention, with each townsfolk guarding secrets and techniques of their very own. But beneath the floor, even Chris harbors truths but to be revealed…even to himself.
A Ghost Story in Music
There are No Ghosts on the Grand is many issues, together with a musical. Every mysterious character you meet or select to assist has their very own story and music ready to be uncovered. From spooky ska to wartime jazz to skater punk, every music is uniquely theirs and generally surprisingly so. Duet with them to disclose their deeper truths.
A Village Value Exploring
The pale English seaside village is filled with actions. Discover the streets in your scooter, play mini-golf, comb the seaside with a steel detector, or snap images on the outdated pier. Take the fishing boat out to discover hidden coves and dredge up sunken treasures. Simply make sure to be house by dusk, as a result of round right here, issues change when the solar goes down.
