Haunting Starring Polterguy

In the single-player game, the player controls a rebellious dead teenager, Polterguy, in a house occupied by a yuppie Italian family, the Sardinis, through an isometric , 3/4 perspective. The player's task is to scare each family member out of the house by possessing various household objects through the use of colored indicators called "Fright 'ems". These are shiny indicators on objects that allows the player to know what objects in the houses are available to haunt. To activate these, Polterguy must jump into the object that has a Fright 'em glowing on it to "load" the object for a jump scare to one of the family members.

There are three different types of Fright 'ems to interact with, though they can be tied to virtually any object in the game. The Fright 'ems found in the game are as follows: Blue Fright 'ems These Fright 'ems work automatically, meaning they will activate as soon as a family member gets close enough to one after Polterguy has decided to activate, or "load" it. Orange Fright 'ems These are manually triggered scares. The player must keep Polterguy inside of the object until a family member is close enough to scare; it may then be triggered by a button press.

Green Fright 'ems These allow Polterguy to take control of certain objects. With the use of green Fright 'ems, the player can use the D-pad to float around ghostly heads, possessed toy airplanes, or severed hands, to name a few. These objects can be moved around to frighten the Sardini family, and usually, an added effect can be triggered, such as flying toy aircraft shooting projectiles for an added fear effect to the family members. Polterguy uses these Fright 'ems to interact and possess objects in different rooms of the house until every family member's fear level reaches "Very Scared", at which point they'll possibly run out of the house if in a room that leads to an exit door.

Once every family member runs out of the house, a level is completed. During gameplay, Polterguy's "ecto" energy bar gradually depletes over time, which can be partially recovered after successfully frightening a family member out of a room, or using certain spells at Polterguy's disposal. When Polterguy's ecto tank is depleted, he is sent to the underworld stages of the game to recover the ecto he lost during the house stages. Houses There are four houses which Polterguy must drive the Sardini family from.

Over the four houses, Polterguy will encounter approximately 400 objects which he can possess and interact with. Polterguy cannot ordinarily be harmed in these stages, but his ecto slowly decreases over time. His ecto "tank" can be further decreased by the barks of the family's dog, as well as by taking damage from the ecto beasts who may appear after a family member flees a room.