Two sides in one mansion
Haunted Heist is a round-based asymmetrical party game for 3 to 8 players. One team plays Heisters, who move through a procedurally generated mansion looking for gems scattered around its halls. The other team plays Tricksters, who haunt the same building and try to stop them. The Heisters win by getting their gems back to the safe room before the timer runs out. If the clock expires, or the Tricksters pick the crew apart, the mansion keeps them.
Every round builds a new layout, so routes, hiding spots, and sightlines change each time. You never learn the map well enough to coast on memory alone.
How a group plays it together
Heisters work as a team and lean on proximity chat to stay alive. Their kit includes a handgun, a flashlight, flares, and defibrillators, and they have to watch battery levels and ammo while staying close enough that nobody gets isolated. Powerups scattered through the mansion restore resources, improve equipment, or help with navigation. Splitting up is fast and usually fatal.
Tricksters play a completely different game. They work from the dark with night vision, invisibility, disguises, player muting, voice swapping, and voice modulation, plus ambush attacks that let them strike and vanish. Every ability runs on cooldown, so timing matters more than spamming. The fun for Tricksters is psychological: mislead the Heisters, mute the one calling out directions, wear someone's voice, and turn a quiet hallway into a trap.
Before you start
Team sizes are flexible between 3 and 8 players, so a small group and a bigger lobby both work. Rounds are short, which makes rematch cycles easy and gives you room to try different splits, roles, and tricks.
Expect a mix of tension and comedy rather than pure horror. The tone is cartoony and stylized, but the Trickster abilities are built to genuinely unsettle the people on the receiving end. Communication is the core mechanic on both sides: Heisters who talk and stick together survive, and Tricksters who abuse voice and sound cause the damage. If your group likes blaming each other after a round, this will give you plenty of material.