The Stone of Madness Review

There has always been a shortage of real-time tactical stealth games. Games like Commandos, Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive, and Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun achieved new heights in this genre, while others attempted to improvise the genre but remained underwhelming. The Stone of Madness is one of those games where you are swept up in the strangling surroundings of a Spanish monastery from the 18th century. A world of suspense, intrigue, and mental anguish engulfs you the instant you put yourself in the shoes of one of the five prisoners.

The setting of The Stone of Madness is very notable. As you make your way through the dimly lighted halls of the monastery, you'll hear the creaking floorboards and the eerie quiet, broken only by the murmuring of faraway voices. Particularly noteworthy is the atmosphere, which evocatively combines ambient and symphonic sounds to heighten the feeling of foreboding and urgency throughout the game. As you make your way through the maze-like hallways of the monastery, the suspense builds with each measured note.

The Stone of Madness is a stealth game at its core, and I was initially drawn to it because of its engaging gameplay. Like Shadow Tactics, it has a tactical top-down concept, but its bizarre and interesting environment is what really makes it stand out. Adding to the game's eerie mood, the graphic design feels new, combining unusual and strange elements.

The narratives told by the monks become progressively more sinister as you go through the chapters. One of the game's many strengths is that, despite the variety of strategies available, the missions' answers aren't always easy to deduce. Despite not depending on extensive multiple-action setups, it is nonetheless rather difficult. You get to choose three out of five playable characters each day; they'll have to work together to overcome guards, unlock doors, press buttons, and uncover secrets.

Each of the five playable characters in The Stone of Madness is a recalcitrant inmate who, without a valid reason, has been allowed to spend time at the monastery's facility for the mentally ill. Being a priest, Alfredo was ensnared in prison for disclosing the horrific crimes committed by his fellow clerics. Together, he and a few of the other wrongly incarcerated inmates work to discover a way out of the jail.

You receive an infinite number of days to complete campaigns, and each character has their own unique set of attributes. The day comes to a close with a night spent inside the cell, engaging in various activities. With the dawn of a new day, the game's present state is saved. You can progress the game by gaining knowledge points, which can be used to unlock additional attributes and more choices. You can unlock new skills, like dangling a rope from hooks, to reach previously locked areas, or you can earn additional perks, like the ability to walk out and gather materials during cell activity to spend your night points on.

Due to the nature of The Stone of Madness' strategic stealth gameplay, you will need to carefully consider how to tackle each scenario since each of the five inmates brings their own set of talents and abilities to the game. Whether you're evading guards, figuring out riddles, or just trying to save your sanity, the game requires quick thinking and meticulous strategy. Every choice seems significant due to the real-time feature, which adds an added degree of suspense.

Out of a possible five characters in The Stone of Madness, you get to control three at once. You start the day in your base and spend the rest of the day completing missions and looting. The hidden cell houses the camping system reminiscent of Darkest Dungeon, where you can carry out a variety of things throughout the night, including crafting, healing, and restoring sanity. Also, you need to study items or acquire books to read them in order to earn knowledge. This is necessary for upgrading heroes, but it isn't easy to come by. There are consumables that you can use to picklock, stun, distract, and do a lot more.

Therefore, you need to strike a balance between collecting resources and using them. You won't learn even half of what you need to know from the tutorial, and the game's three difficulties are, unfortunately, imbalanced. The monastery is explored in chapters, but you get to pick and choose which areas to investigate and steal, so there's apparently no actual pressure.

This stealth mechanism is unique among its genre in that, instead of using a shortcut for a skill, you have to cycle to it manually. This is clearly designed for controller gameplay, as pressing the shoulder buttons cycles the active skill. I had difficulties keeping track of who had what abilities in the beginning, and it definitely made things more difficult than they needed to be while attempting to figure out what my approach might or should be. Since all skills save the one you've chosen are concealed until you actively start cycling through them, I tend to forget about things that are out of sight.

Being unable to control the character's movement with the mouse makes it more difficult than necessary to be exact with your mouse clicks. Because there is no difference between a move command and an interaction command, clicking to go somewhere will also make you interact with whatever is nearby when you get there. This means that you will accidentally open the trade window between characters quite a bit, even when you just want to gather them all. Furthermore, progression is sometimes not a walk in the park. Before you may safely exit a zone, you may need to spend a significant amount of time there.

What really sets The Stone of Madness apart is the art style, which is hand-drawn. Every element, from the settings to the character designs, is carefully considered to provide an authentic 18th-century experience. Every progress seems like a deeper plunge into lunacy, accentuated by the game's suffocating tone and the game's limited color palette and dark graphics.

There are a few minor issues with the user interface and movement animations, but they are not major enough to disrupt the gameplay. Problems like this are very insignificant when compared to the overall experience, which is a reflection of the amount of love and imagination that went into making this game. The music and sound design are also noteworthy; they greatly enhance immersion and heighten the intensity of each scene.

Not everything is completely voiced, which is one of the complaints I initially had. The Stone of Madness is a pleasant game despite its difficulty. Newcomers to the genre may find the learning curve hard. A hard-won win seems like every secret you find or escape from feels like a great achievement. The game takes an unusual approach by not using fast save/load like other games in its category. But it gets worse every time I reload, and every time I hit the Exit button, I have to wait one to five minutes, and the loading time is really annoying.

In addition to having very difficult gameplay, it includes a terrible tutorial and sluggish pace at times due to you being stuck on certain interactions. Certain situations benefit from its sluggishness, even if it sometimes seems unbalanced and too intricate. Since Leonora's abilities are being redistributed, it is clear that she is being exploited excessively. Those who like Commandos may find that being under a time crunch makes resource management seem too real.

If you like psychological horror games and tactical stealth, you have to play The Stone of Madness. It stands out from the crowd and keeps you engrossed from beginning to end because of its captivating ambiance, beautiful graphics, and strategic complexity. No matter your level of strategy expertise or whether you're just starting and want a fresh challenge, this game will not disappoint.

While The Stone of Madness isn’t perfect among stealth games, it stands out for its fresh concept, beautiful hand-drawn visual style, and strategic gameplay. Those who go into it with the mindset that it is a space prison or prison escape game, not a Commandos one, will find that the game is well worth a buck.