Ho-Ho-Home Invasion

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[h1]Secret Santa's going to town[/h1] In the vein of [i]Merry Gear Solid: Secret Santa[/i] and [url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/500690/Secret_Santa/]Secret Santa[/url] comes [i]Ho-Ho-Home Invasion[/i], another stealth action game where you, as Santa, are setting out to deliver presents to the kids around the world. And as the tale goes, everyone's waiting. Therefore, anticipating that after a year of merry-go-luckying you might've grown rusty, the elves created a series of training houses with robotic inhabitants to get you ready for the big night. [h1]Seven trials[/h1] First ("zeroeth") level acts as a tutorial, as the elves introduce all the great stuff they've prepared for you. This includes sentries, patrollers, and sleepers, as well as ways of moving stealthily (walking and tip-toeing) and handing out presents in a quiet and efficient manner (i.e. a little timing minigame). You can also whistle as a distraction. Level is completed once you've delivered all presents and return to your sled. The rest of the seven levels put these skills into good use in various kinds of houses. If you want to go easy, you can set the number of lives to your preference, or set it to zero for semi-hardcore experience. Curiously, there are no traps nor does "the terrain" matter for noises' sake. There are no squeaky toys, jingly ropes or creaking floors to avoid, and it's all in one floor. You only need to watch out for the inhabitants or moving too fast (loudly) to be heard behind a wall and thus draw unwanted attention to yourself. A missed opportunity, I think. Still, if you want the 100%, even this keeps you busy for a few hours. For achievements, each level needs to be completed without disturbing the robots, and replayed to finish faster than your first time. [h1]The after-grind[/h1] I usually go for all achievements. For that, you may mind that there's a short grind involved. One has to deliver one thousand gifts, eat 100 cookies and get caught (i.e. lose) 100 times. After some 3.5 hours of story, I was almost done with gifts but to finish with the other things, I had to grind for about 45 minutes. Dull stuff but got the 100%. [h1]Merry days[/h1] Santa stealth is a brilliant idea that I've not grown bored with just yet, and this game was a fun experience. Free too. I can happily recommend it, except perhaps for the short grind involved. Thanks for the present, Whitepot Studios! [url=http://store.steampowered.com/curator/9997062/]~Twistorian Curator~[/url]