The Séance of Blake Manor review

It's never a good thing when a creepy shadow-woman bursts into a murder of crows during a thunderstorm, is it?

This is just The Seance of Blake Manor's way of saying hello before leaving me trapped inside a remote Irish hotel with a bunch of weirdos and would-be murderers a few days before Halloween. I'm here to solve the disappearance of Evelyn Deane, a woman the hotel manager insists isn't missing at all and most of the guests have a strong, and often not particularly positive, opinion of. To do this I've got to cautiously listen at doors before sneaking inside using stolen keys, eavesdrop on conversations held in quiet corners, and piece this puzzle together using clues found amongst crumpled up letters, half-burnt notes, and polite conversations at dinner.

This is classic murder mystery stuff—and also where adventure games can quickly lose grip of their own plot. But The Seance of Blake Manor never does.

There are dozens of suspects to work through and even more rooms to explore, all spread across a three day timetable that sees everyone moving to new and equally suspicious locations at the start of every hour. The game is stuffed with useful features to help stop the many threads I'm pulling at from unravelling into confusion, ranging from plain old maps to a personal research desk in the library and an at-a-glance hourly schedule, although it's often on me to learn someone's plans for the day, either via secretly rifling through notes and journals or asking them what they're up to.

Blake Manor's clear and meticulously detailed interface is the key to keeping me engaged with it all. This is my work up on the screen. I'm never able to glean anything from this help that I haven't already heard or seen for myself—it's just been laid out in a way that saves me from rummaging around my inventory or screenshot folder to find a specific scrap of paper I think I remember seeing an hour ago.

Despite how thoroughly Blake Manor lays out all the evidence for me to reference, what I do learn isn't always accurate. People can lie or be evasive about their intentions for the day, and there always seems to be someone lurking somewhere they have no reason to be, wearing a pin or brooch or ring they refuse to elaborate on.

I quickly end up suspicious of everyone for everything, especially as the guests have so much friction amongst themselves. Blackmail, revenge, and drug addiction are common themes, and there's something about this place that's just… off. That sets people on edge and brings out old wounds. The cast of more than 20 guests pulls from an eclectic mix of backgrounds, from local Irish druidry—wise woman Fiadh Callaghan is at the seance to make sure the spirits don't get out of hand—to international cultural revolution: Ines Barbosa is the daughter of an escaped Brazilian slave, living through the tumult of its abolition at the end of the century.

They're fascinating characters just to chat with even if their numerous and often intertwining personal mysteries weren't so satisfying to solve on top. I wanted to help—or hinder—them all just for the sake of having another excuse to rummage through secret lockboxes and chat in the hotel's gardens.

Although time to do all of this snooping feels like it's in short supply, the clock only moves on when I'm interacting with something I've never looked at before, and even then in small increments. I'm otherwise free to get a little lost or wonder if there's anything interesting lurking in the stables without penalty.

I have a surprising amount of flexibility in how I go about solving this mansion's worth of mysteries too. Although certain events happen at specific times, I'm generally free to organically discover incriminating evidence and productively pursue any leads I personally feel are most relevant (or simply too juicy to pass up).

This flexible approach brings the cast to life. It never felt like I was at Plot Point #5 and needed to find the one right way to Plot Point #6, or that whatever the guy with a fondness for the bar is up to can be safely ignored because the story says it's not his turn to be up to something yet. Everyone is in play all the time.

The downside to all of this poking around is that the more I learn, the more dangerous the manor and the encroaching séance feel.

The stunning art direction doesn't help: It makes frequent use of flat colours and crisp black outlines, transforming even seemingly innocent faces into something more sinister. Ordinary glasses become opaque barriers that make it difficult to read someone's expression. Key scenes are portrayed as a series of cinematic stills, hues and angles chosen for emotional impact rather than accuracy.

There's no real way of knowing if a shadowy figure I saw in one of them was even human. This manor is thoroughly haunted, ghosts fading out of sight as I round corners, stare into mirrors, or simply walk around. A statue might turn in my direction when I'm not looking, or a bench will move itself into the middle of an empty corridor. Mystical sigils are found on walls, books, and floors.

The game shows a remarkable amount of restraint here, and is only better for it. In 18 hours of play I never found myself rolling my eyes when something supernatural showed up, because every appearance felt relevant; a visual indicator of old injustices, a warning that the barrier between life and death was thinning, or both. More the kind of pervasive sense of dread that haunts my dreams rather than a few cheap jump scares.

Blake Manor doesn't need to rely on cheap jump scares, as it's an enthralling mystery even when the ghosts aren't around. Besides, many of the living are, if anything, even worse than the dead. A disturbing note detailing how to correctly eat a person's heart to gain their powers was an early highlight, and far from the only gruesome bit of information or heartbreaking tragedy I learned about during my adventure.

Or the only twist thrown my way either. I was kept guessing right to the end, and even when I finally worked out the final piece of the puzzle there was another dramatic, unexpected reveal to wrestle with. With multiple endings to see, a mountain of optional observations to uncover, and a largely free-form approach to conversations and puzzle order, my stay at Blake Manor ended with me hoping I'd find the time to check in again soon.