Room Escape Artist

Riddlewood Manor is a puzzle video game developed and published by Peanut Button.

Format

Style of Play:

• Point-and-click

Who is it For?

• Puzzle lovers
• Horror fans
• Any experience level

Required Equipment: Visit the Steam page for computer system requirements

Recommended Team Size: 1

Play Time: About 4 hours for the main story, and an additional 1-2 hours to complete all extra content

Price: $14.99

Booking: Purchase and play at your leisure

Description

Riddlewood Manor is a video game in the style of point-and-click adventure titles. Riddlewood Manor is inhabited by a haunted family and demonic creatures trying to kill you. Throughout the game, you figure out what happened to the family. Can you pray the evil away? Or will they get you first?

Cindi S’ Reaction

“The house I live in is a death trap.” This was the start of Riddlewood Manor, a point-and-click game that at first glance, looked cute and cartoon-y. But as I explored the old manor, a dark story unfolded about the little girl who used to live there. Creepy characters, religious symbols and the occult featured prominently in the game, so it may not be for everyone. There were even a few well-timed jump scares that surprised me and yes, made me jump! Puzzles were simple, yet fun to figure out. My only issue was that the game autosaved at certain points, and if I stopped playing before that point, it didn’t always save cleanly. But with twelve areas to explore and multiple endings, there was a lot to discover in Riddlewood Manor.

Joel Smileypeacefun’s Reaction

In this point-and-click adventure, you discover Riddlewood Manor and its haunting family. Through understanding their absurd history, you try to get rid of the evil spirits before they get you.

At its best, I very much appreciated the option to be warned of jumpscares ahead of time. The game has a creepy aesthetic with an intriguing art style, but it never crosses the line into straight-up horror. The challenges you face are always fair, which means challenging but doable. After you finish the main game you can additionally solve some trickier logic quests. Also, a map helps you to keep track of your progress.

At its worst, you can die in this game. It evolves into a relevant game mechanic and is never overused to the point where it feels annoying (and one ending in particular is actually hilarious). However, starting over this way often meant losing your items and having to redo a couple of steps. For me, it remains an odd choice to gate certain puzzle tracks.

I had an absolute blast puzzling my way through this haunted house, where the riddles presented truly made sense, mixed with the perfect balance of light storytelling and a sense of playful discovery.

Theresa W’s Reaction

Riddlewood Manor shocked me in the best of ways: at its core, the gameplay and aesthetic are that of an early 2000s point-and-click puzzle game. As you dive deeper, the game contains a lot more than meets the eye. With a mystical, weird, endearing, and horrifying story, tied together with complex and satisfying puzzles, Riddlewood Manor was a whimsical adventure fit for the genre. I especially loved how certain objects were used more than once throughout the gameplay, justified by great cluing and hints in the story. Some of the puzzles could have been a bit more clued later in the game, especially when things need to be used more than once in unconventional ways, but overall, I absolutely loved my journey through Riddlewood Manor. If you like achievements, this is a fun one to get 100% on! I absolutely cannot recommend enough finishing the game. Like actually finishing the game. No, the game does not end when you think it does!