While looking through my backlog of spooky games this month, I spotted The Inheritance of Crimson Manor, which I’d forgotten I had.
(This is partly because I confused it with Crimson Spires, a completely different game.)
The Inheritance of Crimson Manor puts you in the shoes of the estate executor for the mansion’s mysterious owner, who recently died along with his entire family. You’d think this would be a simple task, except entering the manor presents you with a series of puzzles necessary to even find his will, let alone carry out its instructions.
Its a first-person adventure game in which you explore the manor, solve puzzles, and gradually unlock more areas, so it has that sort of survival horror structure I enjoy despite not being survival horror itself.
The puzzles are interesting and can get pretty tricky, too, although there’s a built-in hint system that helps.
Now, there are only two things I dislike about this approach to gameplay. First, I wish the map marked locked doors once you’ve interacted with them (and I wish it was more consistent with what got marked on the map, because most puzzle spots were indicated yet a couple I just had to remember the location of). Second, I wish there weren’t so many drawers full of documents you can’t interact with that look exactly like the ones you can.
Really, I don’t mind the number of empty drawers, since there’s something fun about going around a new room and opening every drawer and cabinet, but there were so many things I tried to click on because I couldn’t tell if they were actual documents or not.
Documents are the major way the story unfolds. You’re all alone in the manor, so finding old notes, journal entries, etc. are how you piece together what happened in the past. It does so effectively to unveil a dark story, but it could have used more. As it is now, the story feels a little basic.
I also wish there was more to do.
That’s my biggest criticism of The Inheritance of Crimson Manor. I love the “find items -> solve puzzle -> get new item -> unlock doors -> repeat” gameplay loop, but that’s all it has. Since nothing breaks up this formula, it started to feel tiring, even though it only took around 4 hours to play. More interactions or maybe some creepy incidents (Scratches comes to mind as an adventure game that built up a tense atmosphere even when you were exploring the house alone) would have improved the pacing.
Actually, I lied. That isn’t my biggest criticism. My biggest criticism is that when you finish the game, it wipes your save. You can’t go back without starting over. There are two endings, decided solely by picking up an item at the very end, and I would have gone back to see the second ending (and to find the one collectible I missed) except that replaying the whole game doesn’t feel worth it just for that.
Despite these complaints, I did enjoy The Inheritance of Crimson Manor enough to recommend it if you enjoy puzzles and the recursive unlocking gameplay structure… but getting it on sale might be best.
