Crimson Mansion

Crimson Mansion is an indie mysterious adventure game that takes place inside a mansion and its surrounding grounds. The simple story involves your character inheriting this mansion, and venturing out to explore the grounds to find all its secrets within. This not a scary horror story, this is casual atmospheric adventure, with many notes to read. The game takes approximately 2.5 hours to complete. + The story seems simple at first, but as you dive deep it actually is quite original with many collectible documents to find and read to understand more of what happened with the previous inhabitants. + There is one musical track that is played throughout exploring the mansion that is extremely soothing to listen to. Absolutely perfect for this game. I could feel my blood pressure just drop while exploring. + The game is well balanced and has a nice relaxing flow to it. The puzzles are not too difficult, and there is a nice sense of adventure during the last half of the game unveiling unique interesting parts of the house. +/- The graphics are suitable and the game has a great atmosphere, however the whole interface seems a bit "Indie" and "dated". There are a few technical hiccups here and there, mild stuttering, even on low graphic settings. - Small nitpicks: The crosshair is too large in the middle of the screen and the constant icon in the top right of the screen breaks the immersion of the game. I like a clean screen when I explore. This game is designed for people that want to calmly explore a mysterious unique mansion late at night for 2+ hours. It is extremely relaxing, atmospheric, and I had a great time with it. Supposedly there is another chapter coming, I look forward to playing it. Hidden Indie Gem. Overall: 8.5/10

Crimson Mansion begins with a common scenario. You inherit property from a distant relative, and your first task is to scope it out. From the moment you arrive, you get the feeling that all is not as it seems and that the property has a dark past. The house is littered with notes left by former residents and, as you collect them, a picture of violence and madness begins to take shape. You start with a set of keys and gain access to a few rooms. The rest of the house and grounds become accessible to you, over time, as you explore and discover additional clues, keys, and artifacts. There are hidden rooms and secret pathways for you to find along the way. The game is an exercise in ‘find and use’ with few puzzles. Inventory is automatically used which eliminates guesswork. You have a journal that is updated as you proceed. Although the journal is helpful, it tends to give incomplete information which can be confusing. Often, it will indicate that clues have not been found when, in fact, you have cleared an area and collected/examined everything of interest. You must explicitly save your progress to a single slot. There does not appear to be a full autosave on exit. Only three achievements are story-related, and the rest are easily missed. Once you have gained access to all areas inside and outside the mansion, you can wander freely to pick up missing achievements and collectibles. There is a choice at the end. Once you make a choice and finish the game, you are free to return and make a different choice. Thus, there is no need to play through more than once. Crimson Mansion is designed for the keyboard and mouse only. The ‘E’ key is used for interactions, and you may have to wiggle about to activate a hot spot. All hot spots are marked with sparkles which eliminates pixel hunting. This is a decent mystery for those who enjoy exploring at their own pace and watching a story unfold. In addition to a running dialog by the main character, plan to do quite a bit of reading as the narrative is laid out in the many letters you find. You will also do a bit of traveling, but the landscape is not that complicated, and you are free to run (rather than walk). Solving this game should not take more than 5 hours. All in all, I recommend Crimson Mansion. [quote][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32732116-IndieGems/]Follow [b]IndieGems[/b] if you enjoyed this review and want to see more like it.[/url][/quote]

A simple adventure game where you search the mansion for clues and keys while uncovering the mystery of your uncle’s fate. The story centers on a man who unexpectedly inherits his late uncle’s mansion. The house has remained untouched since the uncle’s death. Lights are still glowing in the rooms, meals remain on the tables as if someone had just stepped away, and the environment feels frozen in time. The only living presence in the mansion is a mysterious black cat, which appears at unpredictable moments and in unlikely places. The most noticeable drawback of the game is one that is common in many overly ambitious indie projects: the lack of proper optimization. While the developers clearly had grand ideas, they failed to make the experience accessible to a wider audience with different hardware capabilities. The settings menu is extremely limited, offering only the typical presets that range from “low” to “epic.” Unfortunately, the lowest setting makes the game nearly unplayable from a visual standpoint. Textures look blurry, pixelated, and washed out, stripping away much of the intended atmosphere. On the other hand, if your computer is strong enough to run the higher presets, the gameplay itself is pretty decent. At its core, the game is about exploration. You wander through the mansion and a handful of outside areas, searching for objects that must be used in the right places. Scattered journals and notes provide important insight into the narrative, slowly unraveling the uncle’s past and the secrets of the estate. The house opens up fairly early on, allowing you to roam through several rooms, but the sense of discovery is dulled by the repetition of assets. Each room looks much like the last, which makes sense from a design standpoint but does little to keep exploration exciting. The items you truly need to pay attention to are highlighted with faint sparkles, ensuring you don’t overlook them. Most of these are journal pages or written notes, though occasionally you’ll come across usable objects, primarily keys. Sometimes these are immediately available, while at other times you must first discover a clue before they can be collected. Fortunately, there is no need for complex inventory management. Once you pick up an item, it is automatically used when you reach the correct spot. Aside from a single lever puzzle, the game does not present logical challenges. Other objects are scattered throughout the house. Most of them are not crucial, but examining them can provide additional lore entries or small clues. The interaction system is forgiving, as you don’t need to stand directly in front of an object. Simply pointing the camera in its direction from a short distance is enough to trigger a prompt. One design choice worth noting are the voices, which are computer-generated. While it avoids sounding overtly robotic, the artificial quality becomes distracting over time and may pull you out of the experience. It can be annoying listening to the main character’s comments when examining things around the mansion. The journal serves as both a log and a guide. Every note you collect is neatly stored, with the most important entries highlighted in red to emphasize key information and objectives. New entries usually appear as you enter new rooms or investigate important areas. Completionists will want to gather every journal page, as doing so is required for an achievement. Thankfully, they are listed in order, making it easy to backtrack if one is missing. The game saves automatically whenever you complete a key action or leave an area, but manual saving is also recommended. Occasionally, loading a save may erase previously collected clues. While this doesn’t block progress, it can be mildly frustrating. On the bright side, there are no threats in the game world. In addition to a few hidden achievements, the game features two possible endings. The design is forgiving here as well, since the save system places you just before the final choice. This means you can view both outcomes without replaying the entire game. Unfortunately, the ending is not great because it’s short and open for a sequel.

The game (at least what I've seen of it in the first hour) has neither good puzzles nor a good story. You basically just walk around reading notes and books. If you're looking for puzzles, try [i]The Inheritance of Crimson Manor[/i]. If you're looking for a decent story, try [i]Gone Home[/i]. This game just feels like a waste of time and money. Refunded. Rating: ★★☆☆☆

Short and fun walking simulator, light on puzzles. Game took about 2.5 hours with reading everything. Interesting story. Great first release by the dev!

Game is so good i would sacrifice my newborn son for this! I miss you little timothy.. Like if you miss timoty

I liked the game. I like walking around. It was fun and not to difficult.

I didn't see the AI disclaimer, which is on me, but the quality of the AI assets is so deleterious to the entire game that I immediately realised what it was even without knowing it was in there, and found it to be of such poor quality and so distracting that I deleted the game from my account (no longer qualifying for a refund) because I didn't want it anywhere near me. Boo.