Haunted Paws demo review: cute dogs, well-staged scares
Haunted Paws demo review: 8/10 after a complete 45-minute Fedora playthrough. Small puzzles, fitting music, cute cosmetics and chaotic co-op driving.
The Haunted Paws demo is a spooky co-op adventure that makes a good case for putting two puppies at the centre of a horror story. Its music, small puzzles and carefully staged scenes give the cuteness something to do, while a driving sequence adds some wonderfully undignified chaos. If you enjoy spooky co-op with room for a laugh, this is a demo worth trying with a friend.
My demo score: 8/10. I completed it in 45 minutes on a PC running Fedora. This rating covers the demo, rather than the unreleased full game.
A co-op adventure with small puzzles
You and your co-op partner are trying to rescue your missing owner from a haunted mansion. The puppy premise also gives you ways to interact with the world: sniffing, digging and barking belong to the adventure, alongside solving puzzles and dealing with creatures. LazyFlock also advertises a Friend’s Pass, which lets you invite a friend to join for free.
The opening investigation gives that mystery a useful shape. You explore a cluttered apartment, find photographed clues and take them back to a large yellow board. There, you place the cards and connect pieces of evidence to work out what happened. Searching the rooms and arranging the discoveries are separate activities: finding a clue gives you something to think about, rather than just another item to tick off.
I liked the little puzzles in the demo. The board makes their appeal concrete: both players can see the evidence and consider how the pieces belong together. It is a pleasant change of pace from searching the rooms.
The puppy-sized view of the apartment helps, too. Furniture becomes something to climb over or work around, and objects that would be mundane to a human become obstacles for the dogs. Later tasks keep changing the immediate problem: finding lost keys, fetching fish for a cat, moving crates and helping a mechanic find his tools. The demo gives its small puzzles a setting and a reason, rather than presenting a succession of unrelated puzzle rooms.
The vent scene shows why the presentation works
The demo's scene direction stood out to me. The sequence where the dogs crawl through a vent above the monsters was a particular highlight. The camera shows the puppies moving along the upper part of the frame while the creatures and unsettling shapes below remain visible. You can see what you are passing over, even though the dogs are taking a different route.
That framing is what makes the scene work. The two little puppies stay small in the shot, while the space beneath them gets the attention. The threat is visible without needing to put a monster directly in front of their noses. It gives the spooky part of Haunted Paws room to develop, and it makes the cuteness feel vulnerable rather than decorative.
The construction site is one of the demo’s most effective spooky environments. Blue light, piles of tyres, hanging cables and cluttered machinery make it feel much less comfortable than the dogs look. Glowing eyes give you something to pick out in the darkness. Changing the viewpoint then lets you look down into the danger.
The music fits very well, too. This is the strongest part of the demo for me: it can move from dogs doing something silly to a carefully composed horror scene without making either side feel misplaced.
Co-op becomes especially clear behind the wheel
Moving a crate can require both puppies, and interaction prompts show when only one of the pair is ready. You cannot always finish the action while your partner is elsewhere investigating another corner. That gives the dogs shared jobs as well as a shared destination.
The driving sequence makes the division much more explicit. You share one car, with one player controlling the wheel and the other handling the accelerator and brakes. The little portrait views show one puppy steering and the other working the pedals, while the main view follows the vehicle through the construction site. Both players have an immediate job, and those jobs have to agree.
I found the driving both fun and difficult. My driving looked as though I had been drinking, which is probably the least dignified way to describe rescuing your human. Tight turns and the narrow route give that shared control something to contend with; steering sensibly will only get you so far if the speed is wrong.
For me, that difficulty was part of the fun. The dogs look ridiculous at the controls, but the joke also comes from trying to get a shared job done. It changes the rhythm after the searching and spooky exploration.
Cute cosmetics give exploration a small reward
The cosmetics are cute, and the demo lets you buy them with in-game currency. You can customize your puppy’s breed, coat pattern and colour, and add accessories. The character editor also includes voice choices, so the puppy identity goes beyond choosing a different coat.
The collectible bones feed into the hat shop, giving small detours another purpose. A detective hat, a flower crown or a green cap changes how the dogs look without changing the tone of the adventure. The accessories remain visible later, including in the driving portraits, so a purchase becomes part of the character you keep seeing. It is a modest reward loop, but a fitting one for a game whose puppies are part of the attraction.
A useful option if spiders put you off
The demo's setup includes an arachnophobia mode. It offers the original spider designs or purple creatures as an alternative. The menu says you can change this in Settings and that the choice affects spider enemies only.
This changes the spider designs; it does not remove the rest of the horror imagery. If spiders are your particular problem, the option is useful to know about before you start. The vent scene gives you a clearer idea of the broader spooky tone.
Who should try the Haunted Paws demo?
Try it if you like cute characters, small puzzles and a spooky adventure you can share with a friend. The music and scene direction are a substantial part of why I recommend it. The clue board gives you something to discuss, and the shared driving controls give both players a concrete job, with room for comic difficulty.
If you want an assessment of the full campaign's length or how its puzzles develop over many hours, this demo review cannot settle that. My completed run took 45 minutes, and the full game's release date remains unannounced.
Questions before you play
Is the Haunted Paws demo free?
Yes. The Steam demo is free to download. It gives you a chance to try the puppy adventure before deciding whether to follow the full game. My impressions and 8/10 rating apply to that demo.
Can you play Haunted Paws in local co-op?
You can play locally in shared/split-screen co-op, or team up online. It is built around two puppies working together. Choose the setup that suits you and your partner; this review does not compare the two modes.
How long did the Haunted Paws demo take?
I completed the demo in 45 minutes. That is my playtime, rather than a fixed completion estimate for everyone. Time spent exploring, solving the puzzles or trying the cosmetics can change how long your own run takes.
Does Haunted Paws work on Linux?
I completed the demo on a PC running Fedora. That is a firsthand result for my setup. Steam lists Windows system requirements, so my playthrough should not be read as a promise of official Linux support or universal compatibility.
Does Haunted Paws have a full-game release date?
Steam currently lists the full game's release date as “To be announced.” The demo arrived on 8 October 2026. There is no confirmed full-release day to put on your calendar at the time of this review.
My demo verdict
Haunted Paws earns an 8/10 from me for this demo. The fitting music, well-staged spooky scenes and nice little puzzles make the puppy premise work, while cute cosmetics and my very questionable driving keep it playful. Crawling above the monsters is the scene I would point to when explaining why the presentation impressed me; sharing the wheel and pedals is the clearest example of how the co-op produces its own comedy.
If that blend of cute and spooky sounds like your kind of co-op evening, the free demo is a good next step. It gave me a satisfying 45-minute introduction to what LazyFlock is making. I will be interested to see how that balance holds across the full adventure.
Sources
- Haunted Paws Demo on Steam: demo availability, release, premise and co-op features; checked 12 October 2026.
- Haunted Paws on Steam: full-game release status and Windows requirements; checked 12 October 2026.
- LazyFlock’s official website: clue board and character customisation; checked 12 October 2026.
- Personal demo playthrough, handwritten notes and gameplay recording; PC running Fedora, 45 minutes, demo completed.
