The Stone of Madness REVIEW
The Stone of Madness is a stealth tactic in the spirit of Commandos and Desperados from the Spanish studio The Game Kitchen, the creators of the Blasphemous duology. They added not just notes, but whole winds and canvases of madness to the formula familiar to the genre. Why, when playing The Stone of Madness, can players themselves suffer a nervous breakdown following the characters?
The Stone of Madness is a tactical stealth about five mentally ill people locked in a Spanish monastery. But the hospital is not so simple – more often than not, patients go crazy, and even disappear at night. At the very beginning of this story, the priest Alfredo notices something strange – one of the patients is forcibly taken away in an unknown direction. He is not ready to put up with what is happening and goes to look for her. But it is almost impossible to resist the evil guards alone, so four more prisoners will come to his aid: Eduardo, Leonora, Amelia and Agnes. Each of the characters is unique and has their own characteristics. Such a diverse team is able to accomplish the goal – the heroes manage to find the prisoner and get the magic stone.
But there are even more questions about what is happening, and it will not be possible to understand all the atrocities that are happening right away. The choice of the campaign plot will open. The first path is a little shorter and is aimed at finding evidence against the inquisitor who seized power in the monastery – the heroes will focus on publicizing the affairs inside the abbey. The second direction will lead to solving the secrets of the monastery and will allow the characters to leave it through the main gate.
The plot is pretty good, it tries to reveal the characters and captivate the player with the history of each of them. And there is enough content – the passage of both campaigns will not be fast. Everything depends on the selected difficulty level and the player’s skills. Somewhere you will be able to find the goal of the task very quickly, and somewhere you will have to rack your brains and carefully study the surroundings of the region.
In The Stone of Madness, it is primarily stealth and the gameplay is built around the characteristics of each hero. Alfredo can turn on the light, distract guards and patients with prayers, drive away ghosts, but he absolutely cannot stand violence in any form. Is there a corpse or a stunned nun nearby? It is better to move the hero away and hide the body in a box. Leonora, unlike Alfredo, is brave and cruel – she can stun the monastery’s guests, pick locks, climb up the walls, but she absolutely cannot stand large fires. Either we switch the mechanisms to turn off the fire, or we extinguish it manually, otherwise the girl will receive mental trauma. The girl can also kill the enemy, but she immediately loses her mind and cuts her hands out of guilt.
Eduardo is fresh and strong – he is strong and able to move boxes, carry boards, pave a way through cliffs and even break fragile walls and doors, but he is completely unable to cope with the darkness. The lack of light immediately puts him into a stupor. It is obvious that Alfredo should preferably be next to him to lend his strong shoulder to his comrade and illuminate the dark parts of the path with a lamp.
A little later, Amelia will be added to the squad – a little girl who will deftly rob the guards, get through the bars, climb into small holes and crawl out in another part of the map. The guards are lenient with her, but the nuns are cruel. And her main weakness is that the child is desperately afraid of the stone gargoyles hanging on the walls.
The last member of the “squad” will be old Agnes – a witch who can turn on and off lights, disorient guards, collect plants and protect friends from ghosts. But her venerable age does not allow her to climb ladders, and magical objects, such as altars and mirrors, interfere with casting spells.
The negative traits noted are far from the only ones. If the sanity scale drops to zero, the hero acquires an additional negative consequence. For example, Leonora will begin to fear the nuns or will not be able to interrupt the action until it is completed. That is why it is very important to monitor the scale and replenish not only health but also sanity in the lair in time. In a safe place, you can also create useful items, sell something on the black market, help allies. Each hero received special skills that will be useful to the whole team more than once.
The developers have creatively approached the creation of difficulties on the players’ path – you will have to combine characters, use their useful attributes and constantly think through your next steps in advance. The environment is built based on the unique features of each character. You will have to constantly switch between heroes to move forward. This process is very exciting.
And this approach does not tie the player to one single correct path, but on the contrary, unties their hands and provides an opportunity for experimentation. There is almost always an alternative path or way to get to the goal. Hence the appearance of a logical limitation – you can take up to three team members to explore locations. You will have to make a choice wisely, and the remaining heroes will simply linger in the lair. Fortunately, the day will end quickly – you can always wait for it to end and change the current composition of the “party”.
The time of day is also taken into account. During the day there is more security and there is an opportunity to safely explore locations. In the evening, dangerous ghosts appear, who, upon catching the hero, immediately “send” him to the lair. It’s better not to go out at night at all – the guards are aggressive and will immediately run around waving their sticks.
Stone of Madness is capable of drawing even a player far from the genre to the screen – if only there is no oversaturation with puzzles, of which there is an abundance in the game. After all, simply mindlessly running around the locations will definitely not work here – patience and attentiveness will be required for success.
If you like psychological horror games and tactical stealth, you will definitely like The Stone of Madness. The game stands out from the rest and keeps you in suspense from beginning to end thanks to its exciting atmosphere, beautiful graphics and strategic complexity. Regardless of your level of strategic training or whether you are just starting out and want a new challenge, this game will not disappoint you.
