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Basking in the balmy glow of Blue Prince’s success, purveyor of incandescent indie delicacies Raw Fury is back to plug a new supernatural detective mystery dubbed The Seance of Blake Manor. While the idea of walking a manor house’s halls solving puzzles and uncovering secrets stirred my curiosity, playing through the freshly-minted pre-alpha demo earned developer Spooky Doorway a swift wishlist. Think Blue Prince but without all the RNG and much, much spookier.
Set in 1897 Connemara in the west of Ireland days before Halloween, The Seance of Blake Manor drops you in the shoes of Detective Ward. A sketchy gaggle of esoteric mystics have gathered to commune with the dead at Blake Manor hotel. Before the seance can get going, a young guest named Evelyn Deane vanishes. It’s your job to find her and unearth the culprit by interviewing and interrogating the manor’s residents, studying environmental clues, and venturing into the manor’s dusty, most infrequently-visited chambers.
The manor is home to many secrets and mysteries. Captured by VideoGamer
Blake Manor’s comic-book art is gorgeous. Captured by VideoGamer
The manor is full of interactive objects and items. Captured by VideoGamer
You’ll spend time extracting clues for the residents of the manor. Captured by VideoGamer
The demo lets you experience the opening of the game, which is lavishly styled as a comic-book as Ward takes his first steps into the manor. A shadowy figure disperses into a murder of crows and into the hotel you go to check in. Accompanied by subtle atmospheric music, every step feels like an intrusion into a knotty mystery that involves the living as much as the dead. Strange apparitions peak in and out of your peripheral vision. A typewriter clacks away without a writer to press its keys. It’s evocatively eerie stuff, aided by inspirations such as the Victorian spiritualist movement and Irish mythology. Things only get stranger when you retire for the night.
One of the most striking aspects of The Seance of Blake Manor’s murder mystery is the interactivity of the world. Books, newspapers, drawers, odd contraptions, paintings, clothes, vents, and much more. The manor is a dynamic puzzle that shifts and morphs depending on the time of day with characters moving around, areas unlocking, and events unfolding as time passes.
All interactions are recorded in the Mystery Map, a digital notebook of sorts detailing evidence, connections, and leads for you to pursue and then make assumptions and hypotheses. Alongside, there’s a timetable showing events and activities happening throughout the day that works as a guiding compass as you explore the manor along with a map to navigate the manor. These brilliantly convey your job as a sleuth without ever feeling too over-gamified.
As a statement of intent, The Seance of Blake Manor is a thing of joy. It’s very easy to get swept up in its compelling detective mystery grained with an unsettling supernatural edge. Much like Detective Ward is pressed for time as the day counts down when interacting with objects and characters, there’s limited time for you to sample the demo, which is only available until May 5, 2025. Playing through it should take no more than 30 minutes. As for the release of the full game, it’s yet to be announced though let’s hope it’s not too far away.
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