Haunted Heist: Rob a Mansion, Get Murdered by Dave
Haunted Heist launched on October 12, 2026, with a rather wonderful idea: one team robs a mansion while the other plays ghosts who can impersonate the burglars themselves.
It's an asymmetric multiplayer horror game for 3-8 players. The Heisters must collect gems and get them back to safety before time runs out. The Tricksters use invisibility, disguises and voice manipulation to stop them.
Imagine hearing your mate Dave calling for help upstairs, only to discover Dave is downstairs, wondering where everybody's gone, and the thing upstairs has apparently learned to speak fluent Dave.
I can see friendships ending over this.
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A simple robbery, complicated by extremely unreasonable homeowners
The Heisters' objective is straightforward. Enter a procedurally generated mansion, find valuable gems and return them to the safe room before the timer expires.
Ordinarily, the biggest concern during a burglary would be the homeowner returning unexpectedly. Here, the homeowner is already present, dead, and apparently still rather possessive about the jewellery.
At least the Heisters come prepared. They have handguns, flashlights, flares and defibrillators, along with power-ups affecting their equipment and resources. Ammunition and battery power need managing, so there's more involved than running around stuffing diamonds into your pockets.
The defibrillator is particularly amusing. Someone evidently looked at the equipment required for a successful robbery and concluded that what the average burglar really needs, alongside a handgun and a torch, is the ability to restart his accomplice's heart. Presumably this is covered under the gang's employee benefits package.
Procedurally generated layouts should also make memorising robbery routes harder. Finding valuables and getting them back safely requires coordination, particularly when resources are limited and supernatural unpleasantness is roaming the corridors.
Unfortunately, the Tricksters have other plans.
Identity theft has finally reached the afterlife
The Tricksters are what caught my attention. They're playable supernatural defenders with invisibility, disguises, surprise attacks and abilities that interfere directly with the Heisters' communication.
They can mute players, swap voices and manipulate how someone sounds.
Think about that. Most multiplayer games give you proximity chat so you can work together. You hear someone's voice, recognise them and know roughly where they are. It's incredibly useful, particularly when you can't see one another.
Haunted Heist has decided that this arrangement is far too convenient.
Now a familiar voice might belong to your teammate. Or it might belong to a supernatural bastard who's discovered that impersonating Dave is considerably more effective than chasing you around.
And suddenly, you've got a problem that goes beyond surviving the next attack. How exactly do you prove you're you?
You could introduce passwords, I suppose. Agree on a secret phrase before entering the mansion. But then you're wandering around a haunted property shouting authentication codes at people who may or may not be your friends.
Congratulations. You've invented two-factor authentication for burglary.
Worse, somebody could genuinely be in trouble while everybody else refuses to believe them. Your teammate might be shouting for help, and instead of rescuing him, the gang decides to conduct a full identity verification procedure. Name, date of birth, mother's maiden name, last four digits of your Steam purchase history.
Meanwhile, he's being murdered.
These are hypothetical situations, of course. We haven't personally tested the game, but the abilities themselves are confirmed, and the potential for ridiculous multiplayer situations is obvious.
Trickster abilities also have cooldowns, so choosing when to disappear, impersonate someone or attack matters. They can't spend every second invisible while shouting obscenities in someone else's voice.
Probably for the best. Otherwise the entire game would resemble a Discord server after the moderators have gone to bed.
If haunted mansions seem unnecessarily complicated, meet Crime Simulator. You can rob ordinary houses instead, where your biggest problem is being a terrible burglar rather than Dave secretly being a demon.
The ghosts don't even need to kill you
The Heisters need to find gems, manage equipment, coordinate movements and escape before time runs out. The Tricksters can interfere simply by making communication unreliable.
If you can't trust the person giving directions, do you follow them? If someone claims they've found valuables, is it worth investigating? And if a teammate calls for help, how much time can you waste deciding whether they're genuine?
There's a lovely contradiction here. Good communication normally makes multiplayer teams stronger. In Haunted Heist, communicating can make you vulnerable because the enemy can manipulate the information you're relying upon.
Even better, once you've been fooled, you may start questioning perfectly innocent teammates. The ghosts could spend half the match doing absolutely nothing while three burglars argue over whether Dave is actually Dave.
Of course, experienced groups might eventually develop reliable ways to identify impostors. Whether the deception stays effective over time needs proper testing.
But turning trust itself into something the opposing team can attack is genuinely interesting.
A promising launch, but hardly a population explosion
Haunted Heist has made an encouraging start on Steam, although its audience remains modest.
At the October 13 research snapshot, the game had 69 Steam reviews, with the raw positive review proportion higher than its approximately 85% SteamDB-adjusted rating. Those are different measurements.
SteamDB also recorded a peak of 232 concurrent players and approximately 1,674 Steam followers.
The ghosts may have mastered voice impersonation, but they've apparently not yet discovered mass marketing.
With 3-8 players required, having a regular group of friends could be useful. Anyone relying on public matchmaking should keep an eye on the active population, although there's currently insufficient evidence to claim matchmaking is struggling.
We also don't know enough about technical performance, long-term replayability or team balance to deliver a proper verdict.
Haunted Heist is available now on Steam for Windows and macOS.
The premise deserves attention, particularly with friends who enjoy betraying one another. The real test is whether impersonation remains entertaining after everyone learns the tricks.
Because apparently you don't need a particularly clever monster to destroy a group of people. Sometimes all you need is Dave's voice and a room full of idiots who trust him.
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Haunted Heist FAQ
What is Haunted Heist?
Haunted Heist is an asymmetric multiplayer horror game where Heisters rob procedurally generated mansions while supernatural Tricksters use disguises, deception and special abilities to stop them.
Can you play Haunted Heist solo?
No. Haunted Heist is designed for 3-8 players, with opposing teams of Heisters and Tricksters. There's no confirmed single-player mode.
Can ghosts really steal your voice in Haunted Heist?
Yes. Tricksters can swap and manipulate voices, disguise themselves and mute players. This makes proximity chat considerably less trustworthy than usual.
How do you win in Haunted Heist?
Heisters must collect gems and return them to the safe room before time expires. Tricksters win by preventing the robbery from succeeding.
Is Haunted Heist worth playing?
The premise is promising, particularly for groups who enjoy deception-based multiplayer horror. Early Steam reception is positive, but it's too soon to judge long-term balance, technical performance or replayability.
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