The Séance of Blake Manor: A journey through secrets.
The Irish company Spooky Doorway is best known for their funny and cute point-and-click adventure The Darkside Detective. Their new project, The Séance of Blake Manor, is much bigger and more atmospheric. This new game, released by the Swedish independent label Raw Fury, known for putting out strange and beautiful games, marks a big change in tone for the developer.
The supernatural stories in The Darkside Detective were infused with humor. The Séance of Blake Manor, on the other hand, delves deep into the misty darkness of Irish myth, colonial trauma, and spiritualism. That’s an independent detective adventure that combines the studio’s skill for smart writing with a gothic feel. The whole thing feels like it’s about more than just the ghosts that haunt history.
The Séance of Blake Manor takes place in October 1897 on Ireland’s remote west coast. You play as Declan Ward, a private investigator who is sent to a grand seaside house to find Evelyn Deane, who has gone missing.
What starts as a usual case quickly turns into a mysterious maze. The house, which was recently turned into a fancy hotel, is where a group of mystics, researchers, and seekers has gathered for a big séance on All Hallows’ Eve, the night when the wall between worlds is thinnest.
Right away, the story shows that it’s more than just a simple missing-person case.
There is something that every guest at Blake Manor is hiding, like a tragedy, a shameful past, or a secret goal. There is a spirit photographer, a Vodou practitioner called an oungan, and an intellectual whose family tree goes back to colonial times.
Through Declan’s eyes, you slowly learn about Evelyn’s fate and the manor’s complicated past, built on holy land ruined by colonial greed. The whole thing is based on themes of taking something without permission, moving away, and spiritual loss. The scary parts of the game aren’t based on jump scares; instead, they come from feeling uneasy and finding out that the spirit at Blake Manor may be both human and ghostly.
The Séance of Blake Manor is a first-person detective adventure game with hints of time management and reasoning. You carefully investigate the manor’s fancy halls, gardens, and private rooms, questioning guests as you go. This helps you piece together the truth.
The game’s clock system keeps things tense because time only moves forward when you do something, like talking to suspects, examining evidence, or moving between places. You have to choose where and when to spend your time because each hour brings you closer to the séance. In the event that you miss the right time, you might miss the chance to see or hear something important.
An advanced interface with journals, letters, and an expanding mind map that connects people, motives, and items keeps track of what you find. It can be overwhelming at first, especially when there are a lot of hints, but once you get into the rhythm of it, the rush of connecting all the loose ends is addictive.
The Séance of Blake Manor isn’t like other detective games where you get information right away.
You come up with theories by dragging and connecting words to make sentences that make sense about relationships and motives. It’s a beautiful nod to the puzzle structure of Return of the Obra Dinn, but it gives you more freedom and story context.
The Séance of Blake Manor doesn’t have traditional fights. Instead, the battles are mental and emotional. Every word you say is a clue, and every locked door is a chance to think like a detective. The star of the show is the word-association deduction mechanic. Once you have enough proof, you are asked to fill in the blanks with information that you think fits. Your thinking will have to be looked at again if you get it wrong. If you get it right, new dialogue or events will happen.
The puzzles are just the right amount of logical and intuitive.
There is no random pixel-hunting here, because the hidden items are cleverly blended into the environment. To move forward, you need to understand why the people are acting the way they are and pay attention to how the manor’s daily life flows. The only problem is that early on, there are so many leads that it can be hard to keep track of them all.
If you don’t take good notes, you might lose track of lines. But once you get used to it, the game rewards your interest and patience in a way that not many mystery games do. There isn’t any XP or leveling to make the game last longer. Your growth is only measured by what you find and how smart you are. Every new idea or conclusion helps you understand not only the mystery at hand but also the deeper meanings behind it.
There are no words to describe how beautiful The Séance of Blake Manor looks. Its graphic novel style comes from the work of artists like Mike Mignola (Hellboy), Eduardo Risso (100 Bullets), and Tim Sale (Batman: The Long Halloween).
Because of this, the world is both bright and dark, and each frame looks like it was drawn by hand, full of life and character. Every hallway is lit by candles, and every room is thick with history and dust. Using the comic-panel interface to look at items and read letters looks good and works well, adding to the game’s “living graphic novel” feel.
Animation and transitions feel smooth, even though the presentation style is static.
It’s like walking through a haunted picture. The use of light and shade adds to the spooky mood. Shapes float in the corner of your eye, reflections move too slowly, and sometimes a figure shows up where you least expect it. Not only is it beautiful, but it’s also creepy in the best way.
The sound design in The Séance of Blake Manor is a great example of how to set the mood. Strings, low piano chords, and soft choral flourishes are used in the music, along with ambient cues that change based on what you do.
As you move through the manor’s rooms, the music changes in a dynamic way. For example, a peaceful tune in the library can turn into a creepy hum if you stay too long near a cold spot. Even though there isn’t a lot of voice acting, what there is is well thought out and full of tone, giving each strange guest a lot of confidence. Every sound—scratching floors, rustling curtains, and whispers in the distance—makes you feel more immersed and like the house is alive.
The Séance of Blake Manor is not just a mystery; it’s also a look at guilt, faith, and the ghosts that history leaves behind. The structure of solving a mystery is satisfying, but the real power of the work lies in the emotional and cultural depth beneath it. The story goes far beyond being a ghost story because of its themes of colonial exploitation and lost identity. The supernatural parts give it an otherworldly feel that stays with you long after the credits roll.
It’s not perfect—its level of difficulty can be scary, and its pace requires patience—but the benefits are huge. Every discovery feels like it was won, and every deduction that was found was a small victory of empathy and observation. It’s not just a game; Spooky Doorway has crafted an experience that blends history, fear, and heart so well.
One very few detective games really makes you think, feel, and fear all at the same time. That game is The Séance of Blake Manor. Folk horror and interactive storytelling at their finest. It’s a scary story that you’ll want to repeat, even though it will chill you to the bone.
