The Mansion
Genres: Puzzle, Horror, Mystery, Point & Click, Story Rich, Atmospheric, Adventure
Play modes: singleplayer
Release Date: 31-3-2021
Rating: 4.5/5
Developer: Forever Entertainment S. A.
Our verdict
6/10
- Difficulty: Medium
- Players: 1
- Playtime: 4–6 h
The Mansion is a first-person horror puzzle adventure from Forever Entertainment. As a small-town doctor, you tend to a collapsed, exhausted boy and fall into his nightmare: a grim house built from his memories, where you must face his fears and the monsters that roam it. It is a single-player game for fans of surreal, old-school point-and-click horror who do not mind rough edges.
Player reception is split, with about 45 of 75 Steam reviews positive. SteamSpy votes lean towards Casual, Story Rich and Point & Click well ahead of Horror, and tags such as Psychedelic, Retro and Multiple Endings suggest a dreamlike, story-driven game rather than tense survival. The puzzles revolve around uncovering what happened in Alvin's past as you move through the house.
The main warning comes from its tags and the one written review: the game carries an Early Access tag and that reviewer, after nearly six hours, felt it had promise but looks abandoned. Evidence on puzzle quality is thin. At its very low price it is a reasonable gamble for curious horror-puzzle fans who accept it may never be finished; everyone else should look for a complete game.
Pros
- Nightmare mansion built from a troubled boy's memories
- Dreamlike story with multiple endings
- Very low price
Cons
- Tagged Early Access and appears to be abandoned
- Split player reception with little detail on puzzle quality
- Single-player only
About
The Mansion, a grim yet fascinating building you’re facing, doesn’t exist. Maybe it once existed, but when? And was it just like this? Maybe it simply resembles the existing one or maybe it was only assembled from scraps of memories, both real and those created in books, films, or on old postcards?
The construction in front of us, although looking robust, seems to have been built from the nightmarish memories of a tormented boy. And it stands in the very center of his nightmare.
One rainy day, cold as old bones that no duvet can warm up anymore, there was a faint knocking on the door to your small-town doctor’s office. It was a stranger, a thin young boy with a face prematurely aged by suffering, who was knocking with his last strength. He fell motionless in front of you, mumbling something unintelligible. You carried him to the couch, covered him with a blanket, and bent down to examine him. Then you looked into his eyes that were like bottomless wells and felt that you were falling down straight into his dream.
Now you’re standing in front of The Mansion and you know you’re not leaving until you face the fears and painful memories of this boy. And the monsters from his dreams seem weirdly real to you – perfectly capable of doing you real harm.
Welcome to our nightmare!
