Info about The Séance of Blake Manor:

Official game description:
_Ireland, October 29, 1897._
_I’ll waste no time, since there’s none for wasting. I write from Blake Manor in Connemara._
_Yesterday, a guest went missing – a young woman named Evelyn Deane. The owner and staff carry on as if nothing has happened._
_She has not left, of that I am sure._
It is October 29th, 1897, and Private Investigator Declan Ward arrives at Blake Manor to find a missing woman.
What he finds is the Grand Séance and a group of mystics who have gathered from all corners of the world – waiting for All Hallow’s Eve, the night when the veil between worlds is thinnest. The night to tear down the barrier and speak to the dead.
Interview and interrogate your suspects, keep a record of all evidence, motivations, and clues in your journal, and confront them about their motivations when you’re certain of your deductions. Uncover the truth about Blake Manor and the mysterious séance that has brought everyone together.
Navigate Blake Manor's haunted corridors and uncover its secrets as you race against time to save Miss Deane.
Investigate the manor, solve environmental clues and reach the forbidden areas of the hotel…and beyond.
But be careful - each action counts the day down. Be in the right place at the right time to catch critical events pertinent to your investigation. Everyone has their own agendas and schedules – it could truly be a loss to miss out on a quick chat by mistiming your actions. And who knows what hidden secrets lie in wait once you’ve turned in for the night...
Brought to you by the creators of The Darkside Detective and Raw Fury, The Séance of Blake Manor is depicted by a beautiful comic-book art style. Inspired by Irish Mythology and the spiritualist movements of the Victorian era, players are cast into a first-person narrative adventure, blending the supernatural with a classic detective mystery. With its striking cutscenes, compelling narrative and dynamic soundtrack that reacts to the environment around you, Blake Manor and its secrets will leave you on the edge of your seat morning through night.
_...I know the West of Ireland might as well be the far side of the world, for its distance from you but there is no one else to turn to._
_I hear you are an honourable man, a steadfast investigator. And – perhaps most importantly – godly._
_I pray for the girl that this is true..._
This game is currently only available in English language.

Release date: 27 Oct, 2025

Categories: First-Person Perspective, Narrative Adventure, Investigative Gameplay, Deductive Reasoning Puzzle, Time-based Mechanics, Puzzle Solving, Atmospheric Horror, Exploration


- Hardware Profile: No data
Feature extractions:
- Community Price: No data
- Playtime Metrics: No data
- Time-to-fun: No data
- Player Archetypes: No data


Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category.
Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews.
What players like:
- Highly innovative and compelling gameplay (weight 0.93): Players consistently praise the game as unique, refreshing, and innovative, offering compelling gameplay and a strong sense of originality. The game's novelty, depth, and intelligence keep players hooked from start to finish.
- Spooky, atmospheric setting (weight 0.79): The game's spooky, gothic, and creepy atmosphere, often compared to Halloween vibes, is a major draw. It relies on evocative imagery for horror rather than cheap scares, enhancing immersion and appeal.
- Well-implemented time mechanic (weight 0.54): The time management system is well-received, creating a sense of urgency and immersion without feeling overly restrictive or punishing. It is seen as a resource rather than a deterrent, ensuring players stay focused.
- Rich story and compelling characters (weight 0.52): The game features a fantastic, engaging story with well-developed, believable characters and excellent dialogue. Players appreciate the depth and intrigue of the cast, making the narrative a significant highlight.
- Authentic Irish folklore and history (weight 0.37): Players highly appreciate the game's deep integration of Irish folklore and history, noting its accuracy and accessibility. This thematic depth resonates strongly, especially with Irish players.
- Comparable to acclaimed titles (weight 0.26): The game is frequently compared to and stands proudly alongside highly regarded puzzle and detective games like 'Obra Dinn' and 'Golden Idol'. This places it as a strong contender in the genre.
- Impressive art style and visuals (weight 0.25): The game's art style, described as dark, graphic novel-esque, and superb, contributes significantly to the overall aesthetic and atmosphere. The visuals and presentation are consistently praised as top-notch.
- Intelligent and approachable design (weight 0.24): The game is commended for respecting player intelligence with approachable, understandable, yet challenging puzzles. Its intricate deduction systems are well-implemented and not intimidating, offering a superior design compared to similar games.
- Strong replayability value (weight 0.15): The game offers significant replayability due to branching dialogue based on player choices and encourages multiple playthroughs to uncover all mysteries and achieve better outcomes.
- Useful mind map system (weight 0.09): The inclusion of mind maps for tracking discoveries, timetables, and locations is a highly appreciated feature. It aids players in organizing information and managing the complex mysteries.
- Large and immersive experience (weight 0.08): The game provides a substantial and immersive experience, leading to long play sessions. Its considerable size and depth contribute to a feeling of having much to discover.
- High potential for excellence (weight 0.08): Based on current impressions, players believe the game has significant potential to become an excellent and memorable title, possibly even one of the greats in its genre.

Common complaints:
- Address critical bugs and crashes (weight 0.2): Players reported hard crashes that lead to loss of progress and confusion, indicating a need for urgent bug fixes. Minor issues like map bugs and spelling errors also detract from polish.
- Improve loading times (weight 0.17): Players are experiencing frustratingly long loading screens between rooms, corridors, and cutscenes. This significantly disrupts the flow of the game and impacts the overall player experience.
- Enhance localization support (weight 0.16): There is a strong demand for more language options, particularly Polish and Chinese, as the game's extensive text content makes language a significant barrier for non-English speakers.
- Refine mouse controls and puzzles (weight 0.16): Specific puzzles requiring precise mouse movements, such as sigil drawing and lock combinations, are reported as frustrating and imprecise. The game could also benefit from clearer interaction constraints to prevent confusion.
- Improve save system and time mechanics (weight 0.09): The autosave feature is not frequent enough, and the combination of the time mechanic with the save system is described as fiddly. This can lead to lost progress and player frustration.
- Re-evaluate lore interaction costs (weight 0.09): Players feel that engaging with lore interactions, such as clicking on mirrors or book stacks, unfairly consumes valuable time limit points. This design choice can hinder exploration and understanding of mysteries.
- Optimize game animations (weight 0.05): Animations are described as 'laggy slideshows', indicating a performance issue that negatively impacts the visual experience and immersion.
- Allow search of gathered information (weight 0.05): Players desire an in-game feature to search through collected information, which would likely streamline the process of solving mysteries and managing clues.
- Clarify 'Mad Libs' sections (weight 0.05): Some 'Mad Libs' sections are prone to misinterpretation, suggesting a need for clearer phrasing or contextualization to ensure player understanding.
- Ensure NPC behavior consistency (weight 0.05): Solved characters continuing to act suspicious breaks player immersion, indicating a need for improved NPC behavior scripting post-resolution.
- Improve controller support (weight 0.04): A player noted that the controller experience 'could be better,' suggesting room for optimization in mapping or responsiveness for gamepad users.
- Balance player choice vs. overwhelming tasks (weight 0.04): Based on limited feedback, the sheer amount of things to do can occasionally be overwhelming for players, suggesting a potential need to refine task presentation or pacing.

Gameplay feedback:
- Engaging First-Person Mystery Gameplay (weight 0.55): The game offers a first-person horror-themed mystery experience centered on investigation, evidence collection, and suspect interviews. It provides a puzzle-solving structure with subtle guidance, encouraging players to think deeply to progress.
- Strategic Time Management Mechanic (weight 0.47): A core mechanic involves time passing with each action, forcing players to prioritize tasks and make deliberate decisions. This system encourages strategic thinking about when and where to perform actions, rather than micro-managing resources.
- Challenging but Rewarding (weight 0.19): Players find the game challenging, as indicated by low achievement rates and the initial complexity of mechanics and characters. However, it rewards player knowledge as a form of meta-progression and allows for focused progression without excessive time pressure.
- Frequent Saving Recommended (weight 0.08): Despite the time mechanic, players are advised to save often, primarily to mitigate potential bugs. This also allows players to experiment or revert decisions if they feel time was wasted, though developers suggest it's not strictly necessary for story completion.

Performance notes:
- Minor Bugs Present (weight 0.13): Players reported encountering a few minor bugs during gameplay. These issues were generally not game-breaking and could often be resolved by reloading the game, suggesting they are not critical but do impact user experience.
- Excessive Loading Screens (weight 0.1): Players frequently noted that the loading times between new rooms and areas were excessively long. This significantly disrupts the game's flow and immersion, creating friction in the overall player experience.
- Excellent Steam Deck Performance (weight 0.06): The game performs exceptionally well on the Steam Deck, offering a smooth and enjoyable portable gaming experience. This is a significant positive for players who prefer handheld gaming.
- Native Ultrawide Support (weight 0.06): The game automatically supports ultrawide 32:9 displays, which is a highly appreciated feature for players with such monitors. This indicates good optimization for various display setups.

Recommendations:
- Highly Recommended Experience (weight 0.51): Many players enthusiastically recommend the game, emphasizing its value and 'must-play' status for fans of mystery, quests, and point-and-click genres. It's considered a worthwhile experience.
- Appeals to Deduction Game Fans (weight 0.28): The game is consistently recommended for players who enjoy deductive reasoning and mystery games, often compared to titles like Return of the Obra Dinn, Curse of the Golden Idol, or Blue Prince. The demo is specifically suggested for these players.
- Authentic Detective & Irish Themes (weight 0.16): Players looking for a detective fantasy, especially with supernatural, mystical, or occult themes, will find the game appealing. It's also highlighted for those who appreciate authentic Irish accents, culture, and stories.
- Avoid Walkthroughs for Best Experience (weight 0.04): Players are advised to experience the game without consulting solutions or walkthroughs to fully enjoy the mystery and challenge, suggesting that part of the game's appeal is the independent problem-solving.

Other player notes:
- Positive First Impressions (weight 0.54): Players are very impressed with the game, noting its potential to revitalize the quest genre and expressing a strong desire for more content from the developers, including potential DLC or similar titles. Many were drawn in by the art style and spooky vibe.
- Game Contains Hidden Content (weight 0.31): One player suspects the game has significant hidden content that is revealed through multiple playthroughs, drawing a parallel to the game Blue Prince. This suggests a perceived depth and replayability.
- Limited Feedback Quality (weight 0.07): Some feedback mentions tangential details like a country reference or a press code, which offers very little constructive insight into gameplay or user experience. This feedback is low quality.

Emotions:
- Satisfaction (weight 0.38): Players are highly satisfied with the game's core detective gameplay, including logical and engaging puzzles, a brilliant clue-tracking system, and well-designed mindmaps. The game's unique aesthetic, rich Irish history, high-quality writing, voice acting, and immersive atmosphere also contribute significantly to player satisfaction. Many found the overall quality, depth, and refreshing take on the mystery genre to be outstanding.
- Excitement (weight 0.19): Excitement stems from the game's overall high quality, captivating story, and engaging puzzles, leading many to consider it a 'game of the year' contender. The compelling nature of the gameplay makes players eager to discover more and compels them to play for extended periods. There's also significant excitement and hope for the game to gain more recognition within the indie community and for potential future content.
- Frustration (weight 0.07): Frustration is primarily caused by technical issues such as hard crashes, lost progress due to inadequate autosave, and minor bugs that break immersion. Other sources include puzzles requiring overly precise mouse movements, time wasted on lore-only interactions, and particularly long loading times that disrupt the game's flow and player experience. The fiddly nature of the time mechanic combined with the save system also contributes to this emotion.
- Enjoyment (weight 0.06): Players enjoy the game's exploration and mystery-solving aspects, particularly within its spooky, dark, and Irish-themed atmosphere. The fantastic and creepy vibes, combined with engaging characters, a clever story, and comforting elements like cozy fireplaces and rain sounds, enhance the overall enjoyment.
- Relief (weight 0.04): Relief is experienced when players discover that the time limit mechanic, initially perceived as potentially stressful or overwhelming, is not constraining, rushing, or a significant issue. Overcoming the initial anxiety associated with the ticking clock leads to a more relaxed and enjoyable gameplay experience.
- Annoyance (weight 0.03): Annoyance is mainly attributed to slow loading screens and laggy animations, which disrupt the game's pace. Imprecise controls also contribute to a less smooth gameplay experience, further highlighting minor technical rough edges.
- Joy (weight 0.03): Joy arises from engaging with the game's interesting setting, unique characters, and cultural elements. Players also find joy in discovering a refreshing game experience, solving fun puzzles, enjoying wonderful dialogue, and sharing the experience with friends.
- Engagement (weight 0.02): Engagement is driven by the desire to uncover the true culprit in the game's mysteries and the strong urge to replay the game multiple times. This indicates a deep connection with the narrative and gameplay loop.
- Disappointment (weight 0.02): Disappointment stems from the lack of localization for specific languages, particularly Polish and Chinese, which prevents a significant portion of the audience from fully experiencing or even playing the game.
- Immersion (weight 0.02): Immersion is significantly enhanced by the timer mechanic, which helps draw players into the game world and its challenges. Players report being completely 'sucked into' the game, indicating a powerful and captivating experience.
- Love (weight 0.02): Love for the game is specifically directed towards its stunning art style, atmospheric mood, captivating music, and overall design. Players are particularly fond of the visual presentation and cutscenes.
- Delight (weight 0.02): Delight is experienced by players who are pleasantly surprised by the game after picking it up without prior knowledge. The perfect atmosphere, wonderful setting, and intriguing characters contribute to this positive surprise and strong enjoyment.
- Intrigue (weight 0.02): Intrigue is generated by the interesting gothic Ireland setting and the mysterious and ominous tone of the game. These elements effectively capture players' curiosity and draw them deeper into the narrative.
- Appreciation (weight 0.01): Players appreciate that the game respects their intelligence by presenting complex puzzles and mysteries that require thoughtful deduction, rather than holding their hand or oversimplifying challenges.
- Hope (weight 0.01): Hope is centered around the desire for the game to receive wider praise and increased visibility within the gaming community. Players wish for its quality to be recognized by a larger audience.
- Optimism (weight 0.01): Optimism stems from the game showing early signs of being an excellent title, even in initial stages or impressions. This suggests a positive outlook on its potential and future enjoyment.
- Anticipation (weight 0.01): Anticipation is felt by players who look forward to replaying the game to improve their performance or uncover more secrets. This indicates a strong desire for continued engagement and mastery.
- Stress (weight 0.01): Stress is caused by the time limit mechanic, though notably described 'in a good way'. This suggests that while it adds tension, it enhances the gameplay experience rather than detracting from it, making challenges more exciting.
- Overwhelm (weight 0.01): Overwhelm occurs due to the sheer amount of things to do or track within the game. The complexity and breadth of tasks can initially feel daunting to players.
- Confusion (weight 0.01): Confusion arises from learning new facts or information after already having solved certain mysteries. This can sometimes lead to a feeling of retroactive uncertainty or a slightly muddled understanding of the narrative progression.}