Turnips! Everywhere! As far as the eye can see! Well, not quite, but The Séance of Blake Manor certainly has a lot of them. This might seem like a strange place to start when talking about developer Spooky Doorway’s brilliant new supernatural detective mystery, but it actually says quite a lot about what makes it so good. Here, a fun historical footnote – that jack-o’-lanterns were originally carved from turnips – is turned into a feature, as glowering turnip faces leer from shadowy corners and sit in ghoulish formation along the sweep of an imposing staircase. In the grand scheme of things, a minor detail – but it’s also one that lends this spooky deductive yarn an air of historical authenticity that sells its supernatural premise so much harder.
It’s 1879 and you, Declan Ward, have been summoned to the titular manor – now a grand hotel – to investigate the suspicious disappearance of a young woman named Evelyn Deane. As your carriage pulls into this remote, rain-lashed corner of Connemara, west Ireland, it doesn’t take long to glean something might be amiss. Suddenly, across the dark courtyard, a figure appears, only to vanish in a flutter of beating wings as lightning strikes one more. But this isn’t a game of cheap jolts and easy thrills; Spooky Doorway quickly makes it clear the soft-spoken Ward might not be the most reliable narrator. He speaks of past dealings with the Deane family, and sees horrors – souls drowning in innocuous oil paintings, fearsome things in flickering flames – where there are no horrors to be seen. It’s a richness of detail that permeates every aspect of The Séance of Blake Manor, creating a tangible world of dark happenings that’s easy to get lost in.
At first, your goal is simple: find evidence Evelyn Deane never left Blake Manor. You’ll snoop around the hotel’s reception and its surroundings in first-person while waiting for the porter to arrive, taking advantage of the moment to seek out discarded notes, newspaper clippings, and anything else of potential value you can find. You’ll introduce yourself to the hotel’s twitching manager, analysing his demeanour and probing him for clues; then, as the mystery begins to take shape, you’ll attempt to engineer a situation so you can slip into his office and learn more. All this is presented with a striking comic book aesthetic of stark shadow and bold lines, where split-screen sequences and pop-out panels are used to lend proceedings further visual flair. And an unsettling ambient soundtrack of quiet, lurching menace underscores it all.
It’s fantastically atmospheric, and incredibly tense too. That’s because The Séance of Blake Manor is a game where time matters. Events are split into hour-long segments, each with its own mandatory goal to complete. But there’ s a catch; every interaction – whether you’re rifling through a cupboard or reading a letter – consumes a unit (sometimes several) of time, meaning you’re always up against the clock. And so it’s vital you think before you act and choose the path of your investigation carefully. Successfully break into a room with only a few minutes left before the clock strikes hour, for instance, and you might have to decide: that locked chest in the corner or those suspicious piles of papers? At first, it’s stressful but, as Blake Manor’s demands grow more familiar, more manageable too.
Evelyn Deane is far from the only mystery to be found within Blake Manor’s walls, you see. You reach the hotel three days before All Hallow’s Eve, and despite the remote surroundings, it’s bustling with guests – spiritualists, mentalists, naysayers, and more – all here to witness the Grand Seance and a never-before-seen attempt to commune with the dead. Each guest follows their own schedule as the days unfold – breakfast at nine, perhaps, an afternoon lecture or two – giving Blake Manor and your evolving investigation the shape of a vast clockwork machine. And soon enough, they begin to reveal their own secrets, unlocking new mysteries and motives to follow as you continue your search for Evelyn Deane.
Before long, your notes (The Séance of Blake Manor meticulously records every interaction in a giddying array of cross-referencable mindmaps, schedules, and evidence lists) are a thrilling tangle of possibilities. Who owns the bible wishing death upon practitioners of the supernatural? Why does a guest have enough poison in their room to kill a person and then some? Mysteries beget mysteries beget mysteries – some with a hard time limit, others not – branching outward in countless compelling new directions, and often leading to startling revelations. You’ll explore, you’ll converse, you’ll unearth yet more avenues for investigation in the library, all in pursuit of the truth. And if the petty grudges and murderous schemes of the mundane world aren’t enough to be getting on with, the supernatural realm seems increasingly keen to assert itself, filling your restless nights with visions of dark histories and ancient runes.
I might only be a handful of hours into The Séance of Blake Manor so far, but I’m already sold, thoroughly captivated by the richness of it all. And even that ticking clock – which I thought might wear me down – seems to work in its favour, focusing my thoughts amid the spiralling possibilities and surprising investigatory freedom, so that every deductive victory feels genuinely well-earned. And as the candles flicker along Blake Manor’s dark hallways and something dreadful begins to stir, I can’t think of a better place to be this Halloween.
