Ring ring. Ring Ring. Ring ring. The stern and bespectacled manager of Blake Manor’s hotel appears for the eighth time. You’re looking a bit narked there mate, I, the investigatorman, observe. Yes, he says yet again, I’m a bit stressed and busy on account of our telegram machine having gone kaput. Makes sense, I reply, can’t think of any other reasons why you might be pissed off. He shuffles back into his office for exactly five seconds. Ring ring.
You’re being haunted in the demo for spooky detective puzzler The Séance of Blake Manor, which released in full earlier this week, having had a demo up on Steam for a good while. However, I can confirm having taken in the first night of that demo that you’re also give the power to do the haunting yourself.
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The first thing that struck me as the intro sequence played were the Dracula vibes. You’re not off to Transylvania, but the year is 1897 and private investigator Declan Ward is on his way to a remote manor in Ireland to investigate the disappearance of a young woman. He sits in a carriage examining the letter sent to him by an anonymous client, his brow furrowing in the way that only the brows of gothic horror protagonists can furrow.
He arrives at the manor and is greeted by pale stone walls amid a thunderstorm, because spooky tales like this are contractually obligated to lean into moody weather whenever possible. I jest, as for all its conventionality, the bit of Séance of Blake Manor I’ve played is a beautifully rendered and assembled love letter to classic spookage. Your first task is to work out whether the girl you’re seeking, Evelyn Deane, has actually left the building.
To get there, you’ll need to examine objects, quiz people, and gradually string together enough evidence to put together a hypothesis. Think something like Return of the Obra Dinn, but a bit less unorthodox in terms of styling. Signs up hint that a séance is being hosted at the hotel and I’m sure neither that nor the ghostly figures I keep seeing hint at anything remotely concerning going on round these parts.
Thus far, I’ve distracted myself by relentlessly pressing the hotel desk bell to summon the manager. I need to get a move on, because each little bit of investigating takes time off the clock, and you only get an hour of in-game time to solve this first mystery. Fine, I guess I’ll do something useful and ask him about the creepy statue outside this time. Ring Ring.
