Do you have what it takes?
Westmark Manor is a journey into the occult, a mind-bending survival horror game, with a heavy focus on solving puzzles and exploration, inspired by the formidable H.P. Lovecraft.
Story
Theodore Westmark is a curator at the department of ancient history. A man who has seen many odd things in his life but has delved into research into the occult as of late. He has devoted years of his life in the search for an ancient alchemical formula that is said to control space and time. He found what he was looking for in Vörnum, an island off the coast of Norway.
He brought all the material back to his home in order to study it without distractions.
Theodore believes this would free his wife Elizabeth from her nightmarish illness but something darker and more sinister is hidden within those passages, or even himself.
Gameplay
You will make your way through the volumes of corridors and rooms inside the mansion, and the darkness of the grounds outside, uncovering secrets and solving clues to reveal answers that will let you continue your journey. Some of the puzzles may require multiple answers or items to unlock the next stage, and various objects will aid you, either guiding you, or will assist you in survival. Don't ignore anything, everything could be (and probably is) important! Manage your inventory wisely, and guard your map with your life!
228 Produkte im Account
14 Reviews
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138 Std. insgesamt
Verfasst: 28.06.20 18:43
Leider durch Sachen wie.., wenn man durch Türen geht landet man auf der falschen Seite des Ganges oder Raumes, geplagt.
Das Rätse lösen kommt eher zu kurz vor und Crafting System drängt meiner Meinung zu sehr in den Vordergrund.
Schlussendlich habe ich es aufgeben, als ich durch die Map gefallen bin und nicht mehr weitergekommen bin, ausser den Save State neu laden musste.
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279 Produkte im Account
179 Reviews
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157 Std. insgesamt
Verfasst: 17.04.21 14:31
I bought it something like 1 year ago and gave it a first shot.
The atmosphere is nice so, seeing that mechanics were not working, the controller was not working properly (PS4), the menus were bugged,,, I told myself, let it age a bit in your cave and come back to it later...
Close to 1 year later and after seeing some patches coming... I wonder if it is worst than before or if nothing have changed...
It is still unplayable...
I cannot run (it is an option), I cannot assemble a skeleton key... Pad or even keyboard is working randomly. Transfer to the storage room is a hell. Even the settings menu fails to appear properly... There are lot more bugs than that.
It costs a high price for that... A swindle... I should have asked for a refund back in the days.
My advice is, never buy for this garbage and pay attention if the same devs tries to sell something in the future.
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74 Produkte im Account
4 Reviews
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1270 Std. insgesamt
Verfasst: 21.11.20 16:22
While still rough around the edges, and greatly needing more optimization, Westmark Manor still manages to be a lot of fun once you get a handle of its core gameplay. While the mansion's layout is largely fixed, many items are randomized, prompting exploration of the dark abode as you look for clues to solve the puzzles, which manage to be strange and as bizarre as their Lovecraftian inspirations, yet still manage to remain in the realm of sensible compared to other adventure titles and their extreme sense of logic.
With that said, certain puzzles can be a tad annoying due to unclear mechanics, and the touchy control-scheme making more precise actions more of a chore than engaging. If you do play this, use a controller, as the keyboard setup is presently messy and awkward. However, even with a gamepad in hand, performing more delicate actions like walking across narrow ledges can lead to many frustrations as the player slips off into the abyss, or the bugged collision sees you teetering awkwardly into oblivion. Furthermore, map navigation is S-L-O-W if you're using high settings, though briefly swapping off effects can help if you need to look over the map. Still, the overall optimization of the game leaves a lot to be desired, and hopefully the developers continue to improve on the game's performance.
Going back to the overall design, the atmosphere and music are quite good, with moody pieces that make the titular manor feel eerily empty and off, and sometimes tenser pieces that drive home the otherworldly nature of the game world. Though not edge-of-your-seat scary like Silent Hill or the classic Alone in the Dark, Westmark Manor manages to avoid the pitfalls of many modern horror titles by not abusing jumpscares. What few frights the game tries to pull, from falling paintings, to ghastly apparitions appearing during the game's more cinematic camera shots, nothing ever comes off as trying too hard like the Stream-bait titles that litter the market. However, with the previously mentioned bugs, you may find the frights a bit lacking when scenes fail to play out properly, or other issues cause unintentional delays in what should be more unnerving segments.
Some personal hopes for later patches: Aside from more bug-fixes, I would greatly love to see the puzzles either randomize, or even have rooms and the overall layout change on subsequent playthroughs. I feel like this would greatly help in expanding the replay value for the game. Furthermore, a sub-inventory for the player-character could be interesting, limiting the number of relics the player can equip at a given time.
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260 Produkte im Account
5 Reviews
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63 Std. insgesamt
Verfasst: 31.10.20 20:10
I was only able to put an hour into the game before giving up, due to bugs that force me to kill the game and restart. After about 30 minutes of playing, I started getting completely black screens with no way of bringing the UI back (I could still hear everything and tell that i was still playing the game, just without visuals), forcing me to restart. There were also times where I would interact with an item and it would lock the game entirely, preventing any new input from being detected and forcing yet another restart.
This wouldn't be as problematic if it weren't for the save system that requires you to spend a resource (sanity) in order to save your progress - a resource the game itself tells you is a precious commodity and you should only spend sparingly.
Regrettably, I tried several times to restart the game and almost always get one of the above bugs after traveling through a few rooms, making it impossible to progress the game.
This game has potential, it very much reminds me of a classic top down puzzle game like Resident Evil (which I love), and it has the Lovecraft theme to go with it. Unfortunately, it's hidden behind game breaking bugs. I would wait until these are resolved before purchasing; thankfully the devs seem very responsive and it looks like they are actively addressing player feedback. Hopefully before too long these issues are addressed and we can all play an amazing game!
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538 Produkte im Account
20 Reviews
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540 Std. insgesamt
Verfasst: 13.10.20 16:38
The mechanics of the character are a little clunky and best done using controller. There are definitely certain puzzles that are not easy to figure out and some I just didn't find the right pieces to even try.
At the end, I really enjoyed this and will play again to try and get a better rank.
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700 Produkte im Account
14 Reviews
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261 Std. insgesamt
Verfasst: 23.09.20 15:01
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8369 Produkte im Account
24 Reviews
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29 Std. insgesamt
Verfasst: 19.09.20 21:15
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326 Produkte im Account
32 Reviews
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6015 Std. insgesamt
Verfasst: 15.09.20 18:45
Your character must make his way through a haunted mansion discovering over 100 rooms. Lots of puzzles to figure out, items to find and potions to craft along the way.
It is slightly buggy but not game breaking and the developers are very responsive and active on the forum.
If you like mystery, puzzling, adventure and crafting you will love this game. It is very entertaining in every respect. I highly recommend this game.
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353 Produkte im Account
41 Reviews
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65 Std. insgesamt
Verfasst: 02.09.20 15:39
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234 Produkte im Account
25 Reviews
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3848 Std. insgesamt
Verfasst: 26.08.20 11:04
I found Westmark Manor to be a good investment as I have now over 25 hours in play time and I may be only half way through in solving all the mysteries. Good fun, no jump scares, just a spooky old house with lots of secrets to unravel.
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1336 Produkte im Account
138 Reviews
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342 Std. insgesamt
Verfasst: 22.08.20 10:20
Game is not that bad but it's a bit annoying after some time to run around the manor and getting lost with puzzles all the time. Fast travel don't show the important puzzles on the map and also would be nice to see the marks on the map all the time visible, not only when I'm close to them in the area, because I can't remember 20+ (even more I think) rooms and few floors where I done something or passed it because I didn't had a proper item. Also I'm all the time full so I'm running around to the storage to leave my stuff and I go back and after few rooms I'm again full so I again go back to the storage and it's like this all the time for me.
I really liked the mood and the story but I always forgot where I was or which way I took to find the puzzle I wanted to solve, because I fpund the item for it. So I need to pass this game :(
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303 Produkte im Account
45 Reviews
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55 Std. insgesamt
Verfasst: 17.08.20 14:15
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6_Vat2AN1M
Check out my video if you want to see gameplay in action. Westmark Manor has a production value not usually found in indie titles, being both graphically impressive and having good voice acting and sound design. Your goal is to explore Westmark Manor and maintain your sanity. There's no combat to mar the atmosphere and puzzle solving (a common flaw in other Lovecraftian games). And, perhaps most importantly of all, it evokes a similar feeling to Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem. I didn't expect to see another Eternal Darkness, but Westmark Manor might just be it. Oh the sanity effects!
The game could use more polish. Playing with a controller is necessary to know which buttons do what. Difficulty and settings, instead of being chosen outright, are determined by questions as you start the game. This is especially confusing the first time playing. Doors on the south ends of rooms can't be seen unless you're viewing the map. Most of these problems could easily be dealt with in a future patch, and I hope they are.
If you like Lovecraft or you miss Eternal Darkness, or if you prefer your horror games to be more about puzzles, pick up Westmark Manor.
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5923 Produkte im Account
19 Reviews
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1258 Std. insgesamt
Verfasst: 15.08.20 22:46
A breathe of fresh air in this genre with the only downside some bugs and glitches that i hope they will be fixed soon.Highly recommended!
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62 Produkte im Account
4 Reviews
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6049 Std. insgesamt
Verfasst: 26.07.20 23:01
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825 Produkte im Account
11 Reviews
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903 Std. insgesamt
Verfasst: 09.07.20 06:37
During my playthrough I had utilized a pen and paper to crack some of the puzzles, keep track of alchemical recipes and thoughts about interesting locations(It’s been awhile since I had to do that!). If the game lacks anything I would say the feature to take notes on the map and being able to mark locations yourself.
Is it worth your money? Heck yes!
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451 Produkte im Account
7 Reviews
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1035 Std. insgesamt
Verfasst: 29.06.20 23:43
First off, I want more than anything to be able to change my review in the future, provided the bugs and glitches get sorted out. The game does not classify as a horror in my book, but it definitely has a creepy atmosphere with a strong love for lovecraftian themes and story telling. The puzzles have been enjoyable and even quite difficult in some cases, though I was unable to complete the game fully to really tell if the puzzles were truly difficult, or if I was just missing a key to the solution.
What breaks this game, unfortunately, are the bugs and glitches. They range from mildly annoying (a searchable object is suddenly no longer searchable until you leave the room and come back) to game breaking (character stops responding to all input controls, forcing a complete shutdown and reload of the game). This probably wouldn't be so bad, except that the game relies on a sanity mechanic for saving. It costs a sanity point to save your game, so when you are trying to hold onto your points as much as possible and save between long bouts of play, a single bug can cause quite a bit of loss in progress. Add to that the fact that most searchable objects have randomly generated contents, and in some cases, some runs will feel more productive than others. I don't really find the randomness to be a problem, but when you run into a glitch after things have been going well, having to restart the game feels very disappointing.
Another issue I encountered involves a specific inventory item, or in my case, a lack thereof. A specific item needs to be found to clear out obstacles, such as crates that can be found strewn across the map. These crates are most often blocking access to something. On a whim, I tried running the character at the crates, and I quickly found out that the run button plus certain angles make the need for that object (for the crates at least) to be unnecessary as I was easily pushing the boxes out of the way.
As mentioned before, I want to revisit this game when it's more complete. I've posted a number of the issues I encountered in the forums, and the devs seem responsive, but at this point, I feel as if I'm beta testing a product that's listed as being fully released.
UPDATE: The devs were quite responsive and even posted a patch that worked to fix the issues I encountered, which is greatly appreciated and speaks to the level of care and detail they have for the game. I'll give it some more time, but I really look forward to tackling Westmark Manor in the near future when I can feel a bit more comfortable that the more problematic issues have been addressed.
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302 Produkte im Account
118 Reviews
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318 Std. insgesamt
Verfasst: 21.06.20 18:41
+Great voice acting
+Captivating atmosphere
+Interesting story
+Crafting system can be useful
-Confusing puzzles
-Over reliance on keys
-Limiting inventory system
-Movement is clunky and not fluid
-Point save system becomes an obstacle
-Difficulty choice not optimal
-Some bugs present
Despite the shortcomings of the game, the value in contrast to the amount of work and creativity that has gone behind the game is simply astonishing. I think the game has weaknesses, which game does not? But the strengths heavily outweigh those weaknesses. This is a very pleasantly put together project and the asking price is more than fair!
Westmark manor has you in the shoes of the protagonist attempting to uncover the dark secrets in the mansion through elements of survival, exploration, puzzle, and a considerable amount of backtracking combined with a unique element of saving your progress, which more often than not simply gets in the way instead of challenge you.
This is primarily a top down point of view game. The camera will occasionally shift perspectives to enhance scary moments. It does so very effectively and just often enough.
What you do in this game is try to avoid the dark and progress through a series of elaborate puzzles which primarily consist of finding keys for locked doors that will ultimately be a chore.
First things first. You have sanity points that are used to either revive yourself upon death or save your progress in one of the very limited and scattered around podiums. If you choose not to revive yourself upon death then you are re-spawned at the last save point of your game. Sadly, if you want to close the game down and stop playing, you will need to find a podium to save your progress. A checkpoint system or a manual save would have been a much better addition. The concept is intriguing, but the execution upon further inspection fails to accomplish what I am certain were good intentions by the developer.
You will navigate in the mansion through corridors and rooms that are intertwined together via doors. Sometimes those doors are locked by specific keys that need to be found in the manor. What I found very pleasing was the fact that you can choose to progress through the story in multiple paths. There are a limited number of keys per part of the progression, and multiple branches as well. I found myself taking the garden route rather than the library route because I expanded all of my sun keys. Sadly, that is where I found my progression hindered by a cipher that is impossible to understand how to solve as there is no explanation how to solve it either.
There is an inventory system which gets in the way for the most part. You will find yourself managing your inventory entirely too often, forced to discard sometimes valuable equipment that you were not aware of how important they would be later down the line. I discarded a book that was necessary in the library and there is no way of getting it back now. I really thing that important items that are related to progression should not be able to be discarded, and if so then at least we should have the ability to pick them back up from where we dropped them.
There is a crafting system but it is a very much late game thing that you will most likely not be using. For the most part you craft items that grant you sanity points or potions that build up your resistance to the dark and grant you various perks such as being able to see in the dark better.
Your lantern will run out of oil that fuels it fairly quickly so be very stingy with it. You pick up matches throughout the mansion that are used to light up candle fixtures that help illuminate the room, letting you skip having to use your lantern and drain it of its fuel.
the story of the game is quite interesting. I will not spoil anything about it other than it is fairly complex in a good way. It is also creepy and haunted like.
The puzzles are my main issue. Some of them you can get a slight idea of what you are required to do, but for the most part most of them are incoherent in nature. It is never made clear what is required for a lot of them and that is a big issue. The cipher I encountered is very complicated and a hint system or an explanation system would be very useful when it came to the puzzles. For the most part however you spend way too much time looking for keys, with an inventory system that does not want to cooperate. The ultimate goal is to uncover all of the sigils and the mysteries that lurk in the mansion to escape.
There is no mouse support in the game whatsoever. There is excellent ultrawide support. The post processing effects are bundled under one setting and are never explained as to what they are.
Another huge complaint the game left me with is the movement and how sluggish it feels. There is no fluidity in the mechanics as taking a step or redirecting your walking takes about a second. If you sprint with the limited stamina you have, then you can navigate a little easier but for the most part moving around can get quite a lot of getting used to.
Lastly, the game's difficulty is determined by a series of questions before your game starts. Some answers provide a short explanation underneath them that may or may not make sense, since you do not know exactly what you are making a decision on. A more traditional difficulty system would be more appreciated, although I appreciate the efforts by the developer.
Top notch voice acting!
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275 Produkte im Account
3 Reviews
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115 Std. insgesamt
Verfasst: 19.06.20 05:40
I did very much appreciate the feel and visual look of the game and some of the characters within it. Perhaps if you have more patience and a desire for exploration the game could captivate you for quite some hours.
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386 Produkte im Account
25 Reviews
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177 Std. insgesamt
Verfasst: 18.06.20 23:58
I'll add more to my review once the game is updated.
- The level have to show the location of the doors without the need to be checking the map all the time. (Examples in the video below)
- There are some bugs present in the game that made me have to exit the full game and run it again in order to continue.
- There should be more oil to fill up the lantern around the house.
- There's no way to scroll the text in some documents or recipes that I found.
- The inventory should reposition its content if you have enough slots for a new item.
You will be able to see all this things here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNfRJPiWwu4
Do I recommend this game? Absolutely yes due that it have a lot of potential, but how I mentioned at the beginning it needs some fixes and polishing.
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376 Produkte im Account
2 Reviews
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523 Std. insgesamt
Verfasst: 18.06.20 21:06
The game's difficulty is adjustable, where it adjust the amount of sanity, inventory space, movement speed, stamina and/or if I've understood it correctly how much the dark drains sanity. I find this a welcome way to adjust the difficulty.
On the note of sanity and gameplay, this will be the most important thing to manage throughout play. Akin to Amnesia: The Dark Descent, the player needs to manage an oil reserve and their sanity. Unlike Amnesia there is nothing really hunting you, but there are many items that cannot be interacted with while in the dark, so the players needs to manage their supply of oil, their sanity and judge whether or not using the oil is worth it if they risk running out and thus be unable to pick up more resources. There is some initial trial and error to get to grips with managing the sanity, but I find it rather forgiving. There is also another aspect where sanity is used as currency with the game's trader and some of the other aspects, where you have to give up sanity to obtain items or perform actions, once again bringing he focus on resource management to the front, a most enjoyable aspect of gameplay.
The atmosphere is fantastic, with just the right amount of unsettling events that keep that nervousess going. Exploring the manor is a joy, and the music cues hit it wonderfully in anticipation of things to come, or not to come; like a game master rolling their dice at random to keep the players on their toes: a welcome sound design to keep it interesting.
The game features a good map to keep track of where you've been, where you've yet to explore, where you cannot pass due to a blocker and where various puzzles are located, making it easy to navigate. The fast travel system is a welcome addition, due to the sheer size of the manor.
The story thus far is intriguing, following entries in journals, mousings of the protagonist and piecing together the clues given in the items collected throughout playing. A most enjoyable experience thus far. That being said I have experienced a few bugs, but nothing game breaking, and I have faith the developers will sort these out in short order.
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3723 Produkte im Account
138 Reviews
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68 Std. insgesamt
Verfasst: 18.06.20 15:15
There is a sanity bar. If your personage got scared to much, the sanity bar will become empty. When this happens you can choose to start over from the last time you saved the game, or you can spent a sanity point and just continue the game from where you died.
For example, you start with 8 sanity points. If the bar gets empty and you choose to play further with using a sanity point, your sanity bar will get full again but you will have 7 sanity points over.
When you discover things, like remember something from the past, you can gain new sanity points. The points can also be used to upgrade your character.
This is a good horror game with a great explore/craft/puzzle level.
The price for this game is very correct.
Click to see my first gameplay: https://youtu.be/2ceQF89UI4A
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Release:18.06.2020
Genre:
Adventure
Entwickler:
Nodbrim Interactive
Vertrieb:
Toadman Interactive
Engine:keine Infos
Kopierschutz:keine Infos
Franchise:keine Infos
Einzelspieler
Mehrspieler
Koop
Kein Prisoner hat oder wartet auf das Spiel
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