There Are No Ghosts on the Grand: Renovate by Day, Hunt Ghosts by Evening

Revealed on the Xbox Video games Showcase, There Are No Ghosts on the Grand is a surreal, first-person, narrative-driven thriller. It’s part-renovation recreation, part-ghost story, part-musical. See the trailer beneath, and browse on for a full breakdown of our distinctive new recreation:

You play as a younger American man, Chris David, who unexpectedly inherits The Grand, a dilapidated British seaside lodge alongside the English east coast.

Gamers will assist Chris renovate and restore the outdated lodge utilizing a set of speaking energy instruments. However be warned… beneath the veneer of paper and paint you apply in the course of the day, one thing horrible shivers and slithers within the evening.

30 Days and 30 Nights to Full the Renovations

To renovate the lodge, gamers could have entry to exaggerated energy instruments such because the sand blaster, paint sprayer, furnishings cannon, and the daisy chain gun, to blast the lodge again to its former glory. This isn’t a simulation although, gamers don’t need to be actual. Adorning and renovating is quick, fluid and enjoyable. You don’t need to get each spot – simply sufficient is shut sufficient.

However with solely 30 days and 30 nights to finish the job, select every room rigorously – as a result of when the time runs out one thing will come for you.

Fortunately, gamers aren’t alone. Meet your AI DIY assistant, Robert C MacBrushy. He’s a cross between Star Trek’s Scotty and Microsoft’s Clippy. He’s additionally an skilled in all issues DIY – and the supernatural, however we’ll come again to that.

With MacBrushy’s assist, gamers will smash out outdated home windows, blast damaged furnishings, splash paint and paper throughout partitions, and shoot furnishings cleaner throughout the room, like some loopy cross between Mary Poppins and Marcus Fenix. However typically, you’ll must decelerate and suppose, as you’ll additionally come throughout environmental puzzles that may want somewhat lateral pondering, and a few hidden clues to resolve.

Progress is made via the sport by finishing rooms and revealing their secrets and techniques, however you’ll be able to solely adorn by day. At evening, you’ve gotten different issues to take care of.

Decorator by Day, Ghost Hunter by Evening

In There are No Ghosts on the Grand, the primary character, Chris, has a secret. Though he inherited the lodge, he’s not simply right here to renovate… not likely.

At evening, as soon as the adorning is completed for the day, he searches for one thing. Clues hidden behind partitions, outdated blueprints revealing hidden areas, unusual doorways resulting in unusual locations. Gamers will assist him while additionally making an attempt to determine what’s actually occurring. There’s one thing disagreeable lurking within the lodge, one thing historical that leaves multi-legged footprints throughout freshly painted partitions. Scuttling might be heard in these partitions, furnishings strikes by itself. At evening, the lodge isn’t secure.

However don’t fear, Robert C. MacBrushy is right here to assist with this too. At evening, when the world modifications, so do your energy instruments, and so they have hidden modes which have particular results on sure supernatural denizens. Unleash the vacuum on vengeful spirits. Expose invisible assailants with the paint sprayer. Take out an disagreeable spook with a properly aimed bookcase to the face with the furnishings cannon. If you happen to learn to use your instruments, you’ll be able to survive the evening.

Quirky Characters and a Sarcastic, Australian Cat

At its coronary heart, There Are No Ghosts on the Grand is a narrative about folks and the bags they depart behind. You’re by no means alone as you discover the lodge and the encircling city, and also you’ll meet every of our recreation’s quirky characters as you delve deeper into the lodge.

Every character is a custodian of a specific room which you could unlock: from Colin, the aged caretaker within the lounge, to his daughter Lily within the backyard. You’ll meet the city mayor, Maddie within the boathouse, and Adam the police officer within the cinema room, watching re-runs of outdated buddy cop movies.

Presiding over all of them is Mr Bones, the lodge’s cat, and maybe its most mysterious resident. Just like the lodge itself, he’s a creature of duality. By day, he’s an odd cat who follows you round and likes stomach rubs. By evening, he’s a sarcastic and mercurial character who waxes lyrical (in a deep Australian accent) concerning the lodge’s many secrets and techniques and hidden locations. However is he a buddy or foe?

Every character has their very own story, questline, and agenda, which you’ll assist or hinder as you play.  Additionally they every have their very own track as a result of There Are No Ghosts on the Grand is additionally a musical.

A Musical Ghost Story

There Are No Ghosts on the Grand is a musical, however not within the conventional musical theatre sense. Consider it extra like a cool, dusty album of British ska and punk songs from the Nineteen Eighties that you simply would possibly discover in your dad’s file assortment.

These are songs with perspective, chunk, and hummable hooks. Every character will introduce themselves via track, the fashion of which is exclusive to them, from spooky ska to wartime jazz, and even skater punk.

You’ll be capable to duet with them and make dialogue decisions in verse to discover their story additional. The songs are full gameplay sequences involving participant motion and decisions, while the lyrics and furnishings go flying.

Exploring Kingswood-on-Sea

Gamers gained’t be spending all their time within the Grand Resort. Proper outdoors the door lies the village of Kingswood-on-Sea, a crumbling, spooky, seaside city, stuffed with secrets and techniques and facet actions.

This small open world lets gamers depart the lodge at any time, even at evening, to discover its deserted retailers, winding streets and hidden mysteries. You may restore an deserted minigolf course and play a spherical or two, comb the seaside with a half-working metallic detector, or discover retailers to renovate and restore, every with distinctive rewards.

The streets of Kingswood-on-Sea are stuffed with unusual little secrets and techniques, and so they reward curiosity. Discover a rusty outdated scooter which you could restore and trip via the village, uncover an outdated fishing boat that gamers can repair up and take out into the shallow coastal waters, or discover the hidden coves and sunken bays. It even has a winch to dredge for misplaced treasures, if you will discover the places hinted at in clues discovered within the lodge.

Simply… be again earlier than dusk. Below the inky blackness of the frozen North Sea, one thing stirs within the depth, and it slithers onto the land at evening.

Summing It All Up

There Are No Ghosts on the Grand is a recreation about restoration and damage. About unusual townsfolk and suspicious upholstery. About music, reminiscence, ghosts, and the awkward legacy of inherited property. It’s a spooky, humorous, barely tragic thriller, wrapped in ska riffs, speaking instruments, and night-time terrors.

You’ll renovate. You’ll examine. You’ll duet. It’s a musical the place you’ll be able to skip the songs, a comedy with a darkish secret, and a recreation that lies to you continuously, with a narrator you shouldn’t fairly belief. If you happen to’re very fortunate, or very unfortunate, you would possibly simply uncover the reality concerning the Grand Resort. Assuming the Grand doesn’t uncover one thing about you first.

There Are No Ghosts on the Grand is a ghost story the place the ghosts is perhaps recollections, or lies, or one thing crawling up the seaside within the moonlight. The Grand Resort is ready, and is coming to Xbox Sequence X|S, Xbox PC, and Sport Move in 2026. Simply… don’t belief the upholstery.