I love the idea of board games, but the reality of the time, space, and effort required to set them up and get enough people together, let alone learning the arcane rulesets means that anything outside of a card game or a nostalgic game of Scrabble or Cluedo (never Monopoly, though) is rarely an option for me. That being the case, I’m always happy to see digital versions that alleviate most of those concerns, where even the rules are more easily learned through in-game tutorials. y latest foray in this genre feels like a mix of Cultist Simulator and Cluedo, with a static mansion game board and cards being used to carry out your actions. The end result is a fantastic tactical experience that enthrals throughout.
You start out by meeting your group of investigators as they arrive at Highrook Mansion in order to solve the mystery of what happened to the family that lived there. All you know at first is that they have disappeared under suspicious circumstances and that there may be eldritch forces at work. To begin with only a few areas of the mansion are available with others being unlocked as you progress through the chapters. This works really well at preventing the overwhelming effect of multiple systems and lets you learn the different actions as they are unlocked. Rather than a linear completion, all the rooms continue to be useful until the end of the game so the systems build on one another.
Everything is clear and easy to understand with zooming in and out and panning around the board feeling intuitive. I mostly played on my desktop PC, but spent a little time on Steam Deck and the accessibility was good here too, albeit with more zooming needed when reading the cards and descriptions. The developer explains that they could not afford voice acting – which is a much better option than using the terrible AI voices that haunt low budget games – so there is a lot of reading required here. That may be a deal breaker for some, but it is definitely worth the effort as the writing is excellent.
Each of your team has different skills and abilities which make them more effective in different parts of the map. Atticus the Hunter has brawn on his side but can also be useful in scouting areas and serves as your main source of items. Astor the Mechanist is most often used in the machine room to investigate items and packages, whilst Vitali is as scholar and can be found in the library and archives. After a few turns you also meet Dr Caligar who comes into her own in the lab. Aside from their primary functions, all characters have secondary skills that mean that they can be used in combination when multiple leads need to be investigated.
The general gameplay mechanic involves using a character and an action card in a specific room to carry out a range of investigations. Upgrades and bonus cards can help in performing more complex tasks and so you need to find the raw materials to develop these as you progress. In practice, this means that there is usually the need to have most of your characters working simultaneously and as you get more experienced you’ll be multitasking like a pro.
As the mansion opens up you’ll begin to face the threat of horrific spectres and creatures, but all the way through you’ll need to manage hunger, fatigue, wounds, and madness stats. I’ll freely admit that I turned these options down to the lowest difficulty setting as that kind of survival mechanic isn’t my cup of tea and I definitely appreciate the fact that you can adjust these to suit your play style. Even on easy you’ll need to make sure that you’re making food and healing items whilst sleeping is vital to continue the plot as many hints are revealed to you through dreams and visions.
My only real gripe is that it can be easy to feel like you’ve reached a dead end if you stop playing for a couple of days as remembering how to develop the various booster cards is essential for end game investigations. I’d recommend taking notes as you go for that.
