Reviews

• gamedeal user

  May 6, 2022

  A great puzzle game. beautiful graphics and rooms. nice story. easy controls. fun time spent. a bit short, though. most of the time I spent looking for a tiny object that I missed. I hope there will be more soon.
• gamedeal user

  May 6, 2022

  It's a decent enough investigation/room escape game and after playing the demo I was pleasantly reminded of the likes of The Room and The Return of the Obra Dinn but the game needs a LOT of quality-of-life fixes and bug fixes before I'd recommend it. The most frustrating issue for me is that the inventory is incredibly limited which means that if you don't solve the puzzles in the order the developers intended you can end up with a lot of items cluttering up your inventory that actually prevent you from picking up keys and other important items you need to progress. There's a lot to like here but at the moment it's too rough for me to really recommend. Edit: Thanks to the developers for responding. I appreciate that I reviewed this on the day of release and updates have since been implemented based on feedback.
• gamedeal user

  May 7, 2022

  I’m usually not that into puzzle focused games or “escape room” type titles. Adventure games for me has always been about interesting stories and characters first and puzzles… not even second, really. But there are some rare exceptions where something grabs me about the game even if it isn’t really “my thing”, and in the case of The Inheritance of Crimson Manor it was a promise of exploration. I love the idea of a “creepy mansion” done in the typical gothic horror fashion – with secret rooms, hidden switches and a horrible family secret behind it all. And this game does this pretty well. I want to get it out of the way first The Inheritance of Crimson Manor is clearly a small team and low budget production, which is why I am impressed at how well the developers handled the task. It’s far from great, very far, with numerous little glitches and weird choices and lack of quality of life elements in many things. And a repetition of a trial and error approach to puzzles that almost gets annoying, before it finally stops popping up. Yet, I cannot help but be impressed with how good most of the game looks, how all of this data is managed seamlessly with no loading screens, how so many little things are interactive and how much variety there is in puzzles and problems you will be solving. This mansion you will be exploring is interesting to walk around. You do have to always keep in mind that this is a puzzle-focused game, so “this doesn’t make sense” in some cases has to be ignored for the sake of puzzles, even if the game could’ve eased the players into this unrealistic reality better. But it’s really cool. And a lot of things in the game can be done in the order you choose, with only specific and rather well defined bottlenecks from time to time, just to help you manage all of the hints and puzzles. Even though, the game does get overwhelming by the end, as you’re trying to remember what random piece of a room was lacking something that you might be carrying now. Also, please note that the “horror” aspect of the game is in story theme only, as it’s not a title that tries to scare you in any way. Overall, while I do hope that the game will get updates to polish lots of its rougher edges and improve some elements of controls, it is a fun little title if you’re in the mood for exploring a creepy mansion and solving puzzles. It was just the right amount of puzzling and exploration for me to enjoy it.
• gamedeal user

  May 7, 2022

  Needs Quality of Life fixes galore. These alone have hurt the experience enough for me that I'm turning it away for now. May return in the future (review on 5/7/22). - Needs remappable controls. - Needs to not go to the main menu after clicking the controls menu. This forces the game to reload. - Needs a way to disable hints entirely. - Needs a way to disable hand holding entirely. - Opening puzzles give way too much information in regards to how to solve the next puzzle. This is fine, but please include an option that makes it more difficult. - Method of journaling (or what I suppose was journaling) needs a rework, or probably should just be scrapped. - Get rid of objectives altogether. Not yet. Hopefully in the Future, it'll be a solid Yes. Devs, you have a gem here. Make some QoL changes and this goose will lay golden eggs.
• gamedeal user

  May 7, 2022

  Crimson Manor is the kind of game that I enjoy: A complicated environment to explore at my leisure with puzzles everywhere and a story told through notes, documents, and photos. No NPCs, no dialog, and no wild guessing on how to use inventory. It reminded me of Gordian Rooms and Escape: The Brothers Saloon (although I think Crimson Manor is a bit easier). You explore the 3D mansion from a first person perspective. Your employer has died and you are the executor of his estate. Your job is to enter the manor and locate his will. In the course of your search, you find that he has some questionable 'extra-curricular' activities. You move freely through the mansion using a controller or the WASD keys. Puzzles include mechanical exercises (which require no clues), inventory 'find-and-use,' and conundrums which are solved by paying attention to the environment. There are dozens of keys/combinations to find, boxes to open, and doors to unlock. While the mansion initially feels like a labyrinth, you soon discover a very helpful set of floor plans. By the end of the game, I was moving from room to room as if I had lived there for years. If you do a thorough search of all rooms, opening drawers and cabinets, and interacting with everything possible, you should earn 100% of the achievements.. There is a hint system in case you need a directional nudge. There is also a journal that records some of the more critical clues. I took a lot of notes and would recommend using screenshots and having a pencil in hand. Quite a bit of important information can not be carried with you and is not recorded in the journal. The game auto-saves on exit. You are not always returned to your exit location, but puzzle progress and inventory always reflected my most current activities. There is no option to manually save but this was not an issue for me since there were no 'points of no return' that would warrant rolling back to a prior save. I ended up playing without my headphones because I found the sound track to be a bit distracting. As you are moving about rooms, there are clunks and creaks in the background. Perhaps this was meant to create an air of creepiness in the abandoned house. I kept thinking my actions might have caused the noise (which was not true). So, silence was golden for me. This game hooked me into losing track of time and playing (almost) straight through. I highly recommend Crimson Manor if you enjoy exploring and puzzling your way through an interesting story with a twist at the end. If you are an experienced 'escape the room' player, you'll need to think on your virtual feet but should be able to sail through this game without frustration.
• gamedeal user

  May 8, 2022

  Loved the concept and what I've seen from others. But made me motion sick while playing. Tried to tweak the settings: mouse sensitivity, FOV, etc, but couldn't get it to be smooth. Too bad.
• gamedeal user

  May 16, 2022

  Not overly hard, but a decent story with some interesting puzzles. Really good game for anyone who needs an easier gaming experience, like something to just unwind on after a rough day. It's engaging without being overbearing. Casual games give my mind a chance to wander, so this was a godsend during a really bad week. Having to focus on navigating the manor and solving the puzzles kept my mind from getting stuck on stresses of the day, but the puzzles didn't add extra stress or make me frustrated. Thank you, devs. I needed this.
• gamedeal user

  May 17, 2022

  One of my favorite puzzle games. The puzzles are fun and quick. I enjoyed searching around the exquisite manor.
• gamedeal user

  May 20, 2022

  Seriously, this game is way more polished than it's short credits list would suggest. Do not look at my time played and think that there is not a lot of content: I'm partly gifted at escape rooms, I used hints when needed and I did play the demo which gave away one of the solutions of one of the late game puzzles, which I remembered because I thought it was clever.
• gamedeal user

  Jun 19, 2022

  I found this game to be interesting and the more I delved into the mansion I soon realized that I was loving this game!! In a large sprawling mansion with so many rooms, stairs, hallways, and places to get lost, thank goodness for the map provided by the Dev. I found the mansion to be exquisitely beautiful! All the rich deep colored walls, floors and coffered ceilings made wandering through the mansion a joy. And all the tiny details the Dev had to create - richly decorated porcelain designs in the Victorian bathrooms and door knob plates that had designs to match the keys needed to open them along with paintings on the walls and decorative pieces galore was very impressive! The well to do certainly lived very well in the Victorian era. I can't imagine the work it took to design and create this mansion! The puzzles varied from easy to difficult. There's lots of running around from one side of the mansion to the other to use what you just found. And when wondering what to do or where to go next, the game provides a gentle hint to nudge you in the right direction. The story progresses perfectly as you progress in the game. There are two endings to choose from. I enjoyed this so much and was not ready for the game to end. Kudos to the development team for a wonderful game!