The Séance of Blake Manor is over!

Nothing says gothic horror more than an dreary graveyard...

When I first started playing The Séance of Blake Manor, I wasn't sure I would be able to do the job well. The time limit really bothered me. You can't play this game like you would any regular point 'n click adventure game, both regarding dialogue options and examining hotspots. Everything costs time. It's an investigation game, a deduction game, but also a time management game.

I bet the Ark of the Covenant is in here somewhere...

After I finished the second in-game day, however, and I started to experience a kind of snowballing effect, finally putting things together succesfully, solving mysteries and "saving" people from harm during the eponymous séance, nervousness made place for elation and the accompanying adrenaline rush, causing the game to become quite addictive.

Fill in the blanks!

I was astounded by the amount of detail in this game. Not only graphically; the manor is indeed an amazing setting to roam around in, the characters are very recognizable, and each dialogue topic has its own little icon. But that dialogue as well; you can talk to almost everybody about almost each topic. Not everything is voiced, though: only the important bits show some great acting talent from the entire cast.

A whole lot a lecturing going on...

I started Sunday morning at 11 am, which was pretty late thinking of all the things I still wanted to do that day. So I went about my business, at first much more smoothly than on the Saturday, but then right after lunch I found myself once more standing in the middle of the manor's atrium thinking where I was supposed to go next. While a moment before I was never lost for leads, and more importantly, clear ideas on how to actually follow up on them, with everything starting to make sense to me, there were still a couple of not-so-obvious secrets to uncover, which took some extra snooping and questioning and peering a bit closer in a couple of dark corners of the manor.

We're all in the red now!

Then suddenly I had about three in-game hours to kill, because after I finally succeeded in figuring out each character's backstory, for the last mysteries I needed special access to a location that would only be opened up to me at a designated time. I was scared that I might have missed something earlier, so I went around asking people all the questions I thought weren't important and would only suck up precious time. But in the end that didn't really provide me with any new info, except for some extra topics I could read up on in the library but weren't essential for the investigation.

Great job, Spooky Doorway!

The game's final in-game hours blew me away, once again going smoothly. And as the credits rolled after an astounding 25 hours of gaming, I sat staring at my screen feeling sad, because the game was over. The investigation was done. I had figured it all out. And even though it was a tough job in places, and kind of stressfull as well keeping an eye on the time, I thoroughly enjoyed myself. This was an amazing game with captivating gameplay, and if Declan Ward ever goes on another investigation, a new mystery but in the same style as this one, it will be an immediate buy for me!

Sunday morning at "The Séance of Blake Manor"

When in doubt...

After the quick Friday evening arrival, I woke up Saturday morning at The Séance of Blake Manor, surrounded by a coachload of suspects, one of whom is supposedly responsible for the disappearance of Evelyn Deane. So I went around questioning them. Until I found a key. And then another. And suddenly I had access to a whole bunch of rooms of the other guests. And people who read my blog and reviews probably know how much I love snooping around in places I shouldn't be.

Yay, maps!

I felt a bit like Grace Nakimura sneaking into each and every Rennes-le-Château hotel room in Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned. I found lots of documents and clues, but I didn't feel like I was making much progress. After "saving" the first two people, nothing much happened, for a very long time. The game did urge me to investigate rooms and suspects even further, but I didn't know where to go, what to do or who to talk to in order to succesfully complete those tasks. It is indeed one big investigation game where you have to make those deductions and decisions and choose how to spend your time. And I had this constant feeling that I wasn't very good at it. Probably because all other mystery games often hold your hand and guide you along a bit too much.

I often feel so lost in this game...

Then finally, I made some headway near the end of Saturday when I could connect some dots and uncovered some secrets. With five people "saved", either by them chosen not to attend the séance or protected from its evil effects one way or another, and with a bunch of mysteries solved, I feel like I'm getting the hang of this game. I even "cracked" some codes, but still not enough to my liking; there are at least two more locked places which I hope contain the final clues I need to wrap up some of the mysteries.

Lots of stuff hidden in and around this mansion...

Right when I was finally able to search Evelyn Deane's room, the clock struck 9 pm and the game automatically transported me to the masked ball. I was kinda bummed out by that, and seemed once again proof that I was being too slow. I had hoped to skip out on the ball and burgle some more rooms instead, but at least the whole scene took a Lynchian turn, and I saw some of my assumptions about the supernatural goings-on in this manor confirmed. 

Things are getting kinda weird here...

So after 14,5 hours of gaming, it's now 11 am on Sunday morning, a brand new day, and I got lots of new leads to follow. I also know one extra location will upon up to me soon, so I hope I can finally go "save" the majority of the guests now!

New game: "The Séance of Blake Manor"

New game!

Developer Spooky Doorway already made an incredible entry in the adventure game business with their two pixel art style Darkside Detective games. Under publishment of Raw Fury, they have now released a totally different game: The Séance of Blake Manor. It's a first person point 'n click game which combines a mouse interface with directional keys to move around the 3D environment; or you could play it with a controller, of course.

How huge is this place?

We find ourselves in Ireland. It's the year 1897. Detective Declan Ward has been summoned by an anynomous party to Blake Manor. A woman, Evelyn Deane, has disappeared. This is linked to a séance that's planned for the weekend. Ward is tasked with figuring out where Evelyn went.

Cozy...

But that's not all... There are seventeen guests staying at the manor, hoping to participate in that séance. One of them is indeed responsible for the fate of Ms Deane. Yet everyone else has their own mysteries for Ward to solve. Doing so will make them change their plans regarding the séance. And once that happens, the dial on a mysterious, green glowing device drops down.

Looks like something out of Steampunk Ghostbusters...

I've played The Séance of Blake Manor for 100 minutes and already two guests have said bye bye to their séance plans. So I think I'm doing a good job. However, Ward only has a good 45 hours to make sure nobody attends the séance. And contrary to regular point 'n click adventure games, almost everything you do here takes time. Each hotspot you examine takes away one minute of your time. You are assigned different tasks over the course of your stay, and they all have a strict deadline. Miss the deadline, or get caught doing something you shouldn't, and it's GAME OVER! Thankfully there's both a manual save system and an autosave function...

I'd barely done anything!

I think I already have ten save files. The Séance of Blake Manor is making me extremely nervous. It looks and feels a bit like a combination of Return of the Obra Dinn with a bit of The Case of the Golden Idol and some Sherlock Holmes thrown in, and also a bit of Cruise for a Corpse and The Colonel's Bequest, in that you need to go to specific places at specific times to get a whiff of all the secrets. There are maps and timetables and connections on a type of deduction board, and frankly I'm very much overwhelmed by it all. I think I'll be seeing that FAIL screen a lot, but for now let's just hope for the best.