It’s easy to get lost in the shifting atmosphere of The Horror at Highrook, an eerie RPG that brings the haunted house experience to life with a painterly aesthetic and methodical, investigative gameplay. The game’s changing colors—from the muted grays of daytime to the rich hues of twilight and the spectral glow of moonlight—create an environment that feels as if it’s watching you back.
But don’t get too comfortable. This isn’t just a visual spectacle; every moment spent admiring the details—like rain whispering against the windows, flames licking the edges of the kitchen, or moths jittering in the archives—comes at a cost. Your characters don’t wait for you. They grow weary, hungry, and slowly unravel if you don’t keep them busy.
A Haunted House That Demands Your Attention
In The Horror at Highrook, idleness is dangerous. Characters require food, rest, and sanity preservation. Resources decay—fungus you hoped to use in a later experiment will rot if left untouched. So, the game constantly nudges you to keep moving.
- Send one investigator to the kitchen to turn a sack of grain into a meal.
- Assign another to the archives to search for the locked lab’s door code.
- Have someone else dig in the courtyard with a trowel, hoping for buried secrets.
Managing these tasks is only the beginning. Once your party’s basic needs are met, the real mystery begins—the vanishing of the Ackeron family. Notes left behind hint at hidden tunnels, cryptic symbols on walls, and a sealed chapel concealing something more sinister than just memories.
Darkest Dungeon Meets Cluedo—But Written by Poe and Lovecraft
There’s a familiar, yet unsettling, rhythm to The Horror at Highrook. If Darkest Dungeon was about survival in the depths of madness, this is about uncovering the horrors of the unknown—one room at a time.
The structure is reminiscent of Cluedo, if Cluedo had been penned by gothic horror’s finest minds. You place characters in different rooms, give them tools, and watch them work. Deciphering texts, peering through spyglasses at distant crags, or experimenting with artifacts—each action is tied to a stat, which can be boosted by additional cards.
These cards are fascinating, often surreal:
- “Gift of the Bee” enhances lab work, filling the mind with alchemical wonders.
- A vision with simian properties makes your mechanic unnervingly adept at handling tools.
It’s a system that feels deeply layered, rewarding players who think beyond the surface.
A Game Haunted by Another
The card-driven mechanics and occult themes immediately recall Cultist Simulator. That game’s creator, Alexis Kennedy, was accused of harassment by multiple women (claims he has denied), leaving some players conflicted about revisiting his work.
The Horror at Highrook isn’t trying to be a successor, but the similarities are undeniable. The way visions influence actions, the poetic text, and the feeling that the game world exists beyond the player’s reach—it all feels eerily familiar.
Still, Highrook distinguishes itself with its intricate character interactions and environmental storytelling. The writing is richer, sometimes a little too much when you’re juggling multiple tasks and timers, but a pause button gives breathing room.
Rough Edges, but a World Worth Exploring
There are quirks, of course. One character, Atticus Hawk, is a streetwise investigator with an accent that wobbles between British and American, making it unclear where he’s actually from. It feels like the developer, Tom Betts (formerly of Big Robot), hasn’t fully settled on his voice. But these small inconsistencies don’t overshadow what’s shaping up to be a deeply engaging horror experience.
I’ve only scratched the surface of The Horror at Highrook. There are more doors to unlock, more visions to interpret, and more of the Ackeron family’s fate to uncover. The demo is available on Steam, and if you enjoy slow-burn horror, intricate mechanics, and immersive world-building, it’s worth a look.
For those who want something in the same eerie vein but with a different flavor, the demo for Blue Prince might also be worth checking out.
