I used to avoid horror games. This may seem like a strange thing to admit at the start of a review for a spooky mystery game, but it’s true; I wasn’t a fan of the genre. And honestly, I couldn’t tell you when or why exactly that changed. Maybe my tastes matured as I got older, or maybe I just found that one game that scratched the right itch. Whatever the reason, I now thoroughly enjoy horror games, and, like many people, I like playing spooky games during spooky season. This year, I played Supermassive’s The Quarry, but I also found out about a little indie detective game called The Séance of Blake Manor that came seemingly out of nowhere, just in time for Halloween. So I decided to double up on my spooky quota for the season, and I’m glad I did.
At its heart, The Séance of Blake Manor is a deductive mystery game. You play as Declan Ward, a detective anonymously hired to travel to an old manor-turned-hotel to find a guest who’s gone missing. What makes the game interesting (and spooky) is that it’s set during Halloween in late 19th-century Ireland. And the titular Blake Manor that Declan visits is coincidentally hosting a séance, attended by mystics, folk healers, and skeptics alike. Add in the manor’s own long history with the supernatural, and you’ve got the perfect recipe for a creepy, possibly even deadly, weekend.
This unique setup—both the time period and the location—immediately drew me in, and I found myself further intrigued by the heavy presence of Irish mythology and folk history. You meet several characters whose livelihoods revolve around local folk traditions, and there’s even a library in the game where you can research topics like the ominous bean-nighe spirit or the Tuatha Dé Danann. If you’re like me and have an interest in pantheistic folklore, I think The Séance of Blake Manor will definitely grab and keep your attention.
The other aspect of The Séance of Blake Manor that will pique your interest is the game’s distinctive art style. The simply shaded 3D environments, 2D character portraits, and cutscene art create a comic book feel that sets the game apart from other adventure-puzzle games, and indeed, other spooky games in general. It’s impressive that even with such a reserved and stylistic design, the game still manages to be delightfully atmospheric and foreboding as you explore the creaking hallways of the manor, accompanied by an understated, yet unsettling soundtrack.
From the moment you arrive on the manor grounds, your investigation into the disappearance of the guest—one Evelyn Deane—is in full swing, and the clock is literally ticking. As you explore environments, examine items, and talk to guests, each action you take spends a minute (or more) of in-game time. Keeping track of time spent investigating is important because guests move around the manor every hour and there are various optional events you may want to attend. You also quickly surmise that the seance everyone is here for serves as a deadline of sorts, and bad things may happen if you don’t solve the case by then.
On the one hand, The Séance of Blake Manor‘s ticking clock is a neat gameplay mechanic that makes you think about how much checking out a stack of papers or talking to a guest is worth. On the other hand, while it initially feels like you need to be super efficient to do everything, you will likely end up having more time than you need. The plus side of this, of course, is that if the time mechanic makes you nervous, you can rest assured that you probably won’t run out of it, and even if you do, the game generously lets you rewind time from the load menu.
In fact, The Séance of Blake Manor does a lot to help you with your investigation. Every mystery and person you encounter has a “Mindmap,” a visual representation of everything learned about that topic, including potential leads you might want to follow to learn more. When you’ve gathered enough clues about a mystery, the game prompts you to form a hypothesis, essentially in the form of a mad lib: a sentence has several words or phrases missing, and you need to select the right options from a list to sensibly complete the statement. It’s a fun concept, but the solution is rarely difficult to figure out, and the game sometimes even gives it away via Declan’s dialogue.
Even if the game is maybe a little too helpful at times, I really did enjoy piecing together what everyone at the manor is up to and working out the mystery of what happened to Evelyn Deane. After forming a correct hypothesis, you need to confront characters with what you know, and that usually leads to resolving whatever issue brought them to the manor in the first place. Some of them have come to Ireland for dark reasons, while others’ baggage feels more mundane in comparison. But the way The Séance of Blake Manor ties things together in the end is delightfully twisted, and the game did a good job of keeping me guessing until the final reveal.
Outside of exploring the manor and solving mysteries, you’ll also encounter the occasional puzzle. The vast majority of these require you to either unlock a safe or use a sigil to reveal something by tracing a symbol. The latter can get a little tricky if you’re not good at these kinds of puzzles, but you’re not punished for failure, so all they really require is patience. I do wish there was a greater variety of puzzles, but then again, The Séance of Blake Manor is like one giant puzzle, so it evens out.
From a technical perspective, the game ran pretty smoothly. I played entirely on Steam Deck and never experienced a crash or game-breaking bug. I did notice a fair amount of typos, and there were numerous occasions where the spoken dialogue didn’t match the text, or characters’ mouths didn’t move while they were speaking. The voice acting is solid overall, which makes it disappointing that it’s used sparsely.
The only significant issues I encountered were that the D-pad didn’t really want to work in menus, meaning I had to rely on the left analog stick, and the numerous load screens got to be rather annoying by the end of the game. Considering how you’re running all over the manor, and every room makes you wait for a load screen, some sort of fast travel system would’ve been nice. But these are all relatively minor gripes in what is an otherwise satisfying mystery game.
All in all, The Séance of Blake Manor is a great little detective game that is perfect for players who want to use their deductive skills in a creepy, but not necessarily frightening, environment. Of course, spooky season has passed by this point, but I would argue that it’s never too late for a spooky game, especially one that you can comfortably get through in just a few days. So whether it’s now or next Samhain, fans of horror games and mysteries alike will find something to enjoy at Blake Manor.
