The Séance of Blake Manor

A great game with a well built mystery. The setting, the art, the music are great. The cast is okay. What it could have gotten better: - I felt like I wasted ~25-30% of the game moving from A to B. There is a loading screen at every door you open too... - There wasn't that much detective stuff involved as I was hoping to find. You may find the culprit very early and the game feels somewhat blank after that. Solid 8 / 10

Отличная детективная игра. Есть руссификатор.

The Seance of Blake Manor is an investigation game where you look into the disappearance of the world's greatest rage baiter, who has pissed off seemingly all of Europe. Now to be clear, the story, art, music -- all of that is good. It creates a great atmosphere with some good intrigue and all that. My problems with this game are mainly about the gameplay and the investigation. The game regularly treated very obvious things as surprise reveals. For example, the fact that [spoiler] this one shaman lady who is vocally against the seance and is doing a ritual near the well [/spoiler] is, in fact, [spoiler] against the seance and is preparing a spell to protect against the seance for when it inevitably goes wrong. [/spoiler] Yeah? Doesn't seem like much of a secret, but I'll spoiler tag it anyways. See, investigation games often run into a very particular problem: When the player figures out something before the player's character does. Perhaps ironically, this doesn't always help guide the player in the right direction. It can lead the player to frustration as they try to find the correct trigger that gets the protagonist to realize something the player figured out hours ago. I ran into this problem quite a few times. One time in particular, I was very frustrated with trying to find the trigger to get the main character to realize that [spoiler] "Um, I was praying in my room alone" [/spoiler] is not a rock solid alibi, and should be something you press upon. There is no reason why I should not be able to knock on a door and get the room's occupant to come out and answer some questions for me. The most annoying thing about this game however, is how many loading screens there are. Every room gives you a new loading screen. And the amount of time you spend in loading screens adds up as you sprint around the manor looking for the one person you want to talk to. If you're into occult stories, give it a shot. But as an investigation game, I can't really say I recommend it, no.

Disappointed. The atmosphere is fantastic. The manor, the gardens, the dark tone, and the mystery surrounding the disappearances create a very compelling setting from the start. The problem is that the gameplay consists almost entirely of talking to characters and gathering clues to form hypotheses. Since every action consumes limited time and much of the information feels like filler, the investigation often ends up feeling random: you rarely know what will matter and what won't until you've already spent your time on it. There are also very few actual puzzles. Aside from a handful of simple ones, most of the game revolves around conversations. This is especially disappointing because the environments are large, detailed, and visually interesting, yet they are barely used for gameplay. Instead of environmental puzzles or meaningful interactions, exploration usually amounts to clicking on furniture, books, clothes, and other objects that consume time but rarely lead anywhere. The manor itself feels like a missed opportunity. The clue-tracking and document systems are good ideas, but I encountered several issues, including important clues and documents not always being recorded properly. Overall, a decent game with an excellent atmosphere and a promising premise, but a frustrating investigation system, very few puzzles, and an execution that never quite lives up to its potential.

really really good but its unfortunate that theres some critical scenes that are completely missable very early on in the game, before you really have your bearings on how to investigate and parse your mindmap properly. i still really enjoyed it but i wish the process of getting to the things i missed after completing the game was not so tedious. would be an easy 9/10 with some tweaks.

I personally have never played any game like this and will definitely be seeking others like it in the future, currently trying zero parades for dead spies and the golden idle game. If you enjoy deep engaging mysteries that keep you guessing till the very end this is for sure something you don't want to skip out on. It has a deeply developed and unique cast of about 25 characters if you include the player character as well. As you flesh out each of their mysteries and reasons for attending the seance you begin to slowly piece together the story like a dark and much more extensive game of clue. The ending was great, if you think it looks interesting go for it you wont regret it.

A magnificent game! Possibly the best thing I've played this year. Engaging gameplay and a captivating story that's hard to put down. You want to investigate every mystery, find every secret. I especially want to mention the unique and well-written script. If you think all AAA games are the same, try an indie game. They definitely won't let you down. I played the game on both: PC and Steam Deck.