The Séance of Blake Manor review: casts a wildly compelling spell

I lost an entire Sunday to The Séance of Blake Manor. It was difficult to describe. One moment, I was settling in for a short gaming session, then I blinked, and it was midnight. I’m convinced the game cast a spell on me. Some sort of wily charm that locked me in, and made the entire world fade away. But of course, it’s not really magic – The Séance of Blake Manor is just that good.

This new game from Spooky Doorway, following in the footsteps of The Darkside Detective, is an impressively layered experience. What begins as a slow-moving, dialogue-heavy puzzler transforms rapidly as you meet its many characters and unravel the heart of this mystery.

The Séance of Blake Manor begins with a mysterious disappearance

You arrive in the titular Blake Manor with a simple quest: to discover what happened to Evelyn Deane, a woman who traveled to attend a whispered-about séance. As you’re greeted by a grim-faced manor attendant – the secret-keeping Mr Varley – you get the first clues that something isn’t quite right.

And so begins a great unravelling, as you discover mysteries upon mysteries, all of them winding around the guests of the manor. Speaking to the groundskeeper, he might mention a thread of enquiry that connects seemingly unrelated guests. You find a screwdriver in a barn, and through a series of events, it becomes key to solving the arrival of Evelyn Deane and where her footsteps took her.

Choice and consequence play a key part in how focussed you become in The Séance of Blake Manor. Everything has consequences here, even the smallest of choices, thanks to a time-based system that means most interactions waste time, as a resource. Clicking into a closet and investigating a bunch of clothes (which you should pretty much never do) will cost you one minute.

You might think, ‘hey, what’s a minute to do between friends?’ but those minutes quickly stack up, until the hours are passing you by and you realise you really do need to make every moment count. Don’t waste time sorting through old clothes. Don’t waste time chatting to characters about every single thought or detail.

You need to stay focussed. You need to lock in, and make swift judgements about how to proceed.

Time-based choices force you to lock in for your journey

While the time-based system does create some pressure, as you need to spend your moments wisely – determining when best to spend chunks of time – it also creates such rich and rewarding gameplay. You’ll stay glued to your screen, losing hours as you fret over the right choices and try to squeeze the most into every hour.

With a set schedule for each character and their activities that changes by the hour, you’ll need to be fast and clever. If you hit a brick wall with a particular line of enquiry, you’ll need to consult your mystery mind map, to follow along pathways and interrogate your assumptions. Sometimes, the game will give you pointed clues to investigate rooms. Other times, you’ll need to make logical leaps to figure out where characters might be, and what role they might play.

When puzzles are solved, it’s only by your ingenuity. The Séance of Blake Manor trusts you to make assumptions and puzzle through, and provides just enough clues to set you on the right path. These puzzles never feel too obtuse, or too simple. Even when you tick off another name in your suspect book, or discover the heart of another secret, you’ll know you’ve earned it.

It’s worth noting there’s a real flexibility in the game’s narrative too, with open-ended exploration allowing you to discover (and miss!) key events as you roam. If you choose not to attend a certain event, you might miss out on a particular, essential item. But the game also provides new avenues, and many essential items can be found the long way around, too.

You should pay attention to the in-game schedule for the best outcomes, but thankfully, you still maintain choice as you roam.

Blake Manor’s twisted conclusion lands with aplomb

You’ll feel the impact of all of your choices, and each eventual resolution, thanks to a deft, sharp script that knows when to reveal its hand. That knows how to meaningfully develop its characters, and their core narratives.

Mr Varley may seem clipped and rude in his first appearance, but as you’re sneaking into his office or his quarters to gather clues, you’ll feel a softening of his character. The magician Miss Mantovani might seem over-the-top and extravagant at first, but peeling back the layers reveals a sorrow at her core, and you’ll likely feel some measure of regret at your earlier judgement.

This is a game that invites you to judge, and then expertly reveals the fallacies of your judgement, in ways that open your mind to the possibilities.

When the core plot barrels to its conclusion, as all the threads wind together into a haunting tapestry, each and every character begins to make sense. You understand the complete picture when you lean out, and see just how beautiful the game really is.

The Séance of Blake Manor is a wonder-filled puzzle adventure that wields its horror aesthetic well, telling a dark and consistently enthralling tale while leaving room for player choice and exploration in every outcome. This home may be haunted, but the ghosts make for incredibly good company.

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