The Horror at Highrook

You know what we all love? (Get your mind out of the gutter!) – We all love a good mystery, right next to a good board game, and of course, the eternal bleakness and deadly grasp of Eldritch horrors which lurk in the deepest, darkest recesses of our mind … and ice cream! Our subject of review today focuses on all these wonderful things (not the ice cream) to deliver what is, quite frankly, a refreshing and vastly enjoyable strategic gaming experience.

The horror …. The Eldritch Horror!

The Horror at Highrook combines an explorative tabletop RPG framework with engaging card crafting gameplay centred on mystery and the occult. Like any good bit of horror media, it all starts with a call to investigate a disappearance at a haunted mansion, and as a team of paranormal investigators, it’s up to you to find the dark heart of the evil that lurks in the shadows by finding a missing family.

As investigators, your team can summon dark entities, craft powerful protections, and see through the veil to uncover cosmic horrors beyond the comprehension of the human mind. Simply put, just imagine Cluedo, but written by Lovecraft and directed by Clive Barker! Much of the story and themes are classic Lovecraftian horror, from a wealthy family vanishing, the incorporation and misuse of the dark arts leading to some bad s***, and the unnerving feeling of being constantly watched.

The Horror at Highrook doesn’t bring about cutscenes, voice-overs, or internal monologues, but rather a simple, down-to-earth way of just giving you the investigation and letting you pick it apart. I do wish there were voice overs here, as the game can be dense in lore, and verbal clues, that I felt would’ve been heightened by some classic, Lovecraftian horror voice overs (I imagined Mark Strong would’ve been a good narrator in certain parts, or having someone like Jeffrey Combs as a certain roaming weirdo in the mansion would’ve elevated the experience to God tier level).

But it does make up for a lack of voice talent and cutscenes, with some stellar artwork and sound design. It’s not the most original, unlike the core gameplay loop, but it’s that classic inky, horror infusion of striking line work, chunky colour palettes of greens, blues, and browns, and a nice blend of hand-drawn and rendered imagery that complement each other so darn well.

But as mentioned, you are given the vices and the world to solve the mystery. You’ve got your team, a vast number of rooms in the mansion to explore, and clues to feed your lateral hunger to proceed further into the dark.

The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear

What I admired most about The Horror at Highrook was how it nailed a virtual recreation of a brilliant tabletop detective game, with such smoothness, elegant pacing, and grand sense of deduction that it kept me invested every moment I was playing.

How it works is that players have their team investigate the sinister Highrook mansion. You will break your team up, explore the mansion, identify rooms, and search for clues, amounting to piecing them together to progress further and further in the hope of finding the missing family. However, the stakes are high as you are working on a schedule as day turns to night, and with each hour passing, you grow hungry, tired, and susceptible to the forces of darkness, with a sanity meter thrown in for good measure. All your actions are determined by the cards you have and your luck, amounting to how you play them. It’s a solid system that’s highly approachable and enjoyable, due to some RNG, but more importantly, the impact choices and management you have to make each day while actively solving a case.

Each member of the team has a speciality in investigation, meaning their talents can benefit you when they’re in the right place at the right time. It’s about combining cards, characters and rooms in the right manner to obtain food, health, and a vital clue for the case. Each character brings something useful to the tabletop, and learning their inner workings as investigators and impactful strength will grant you the blessing of rest, food, and evading the dark.

You are working against the clock, and the goal is to solve the many mysteries around the mansion day by day to unravel the grander mystery at hand. It might sound even more antagonising and not for the faint of heart, but oddly enough, The Horror at Highrook offers a surprisingly chilled experience overall.

There are fail states as cases can be royally messed up, and hunger, sanity and all the fluids from your eye balls can be sucked dry for sure. But The Horror at Highrook does a fantastic job of settling you in, pacing your playtime with equal stress, relief, and above all, the reward for surviving the night! There is an interesting form of combat here, as the horrors grow stronger and stronger as your cases evolve and slowly piece together, and you have it in the cards to defend yourself from these nasty entities roaming the halls where they shouldn’t be.

Enemies will suddenly manifest without much notice, adding a brilliant layer of tension day to day, and often leading to a frantic moment of reassembling team members to fend off foes as effectively as possible. It’s about bringing stability to a room and minimising the impact of the horrors seen while doing so. Kind of reminded me of the haunting mechanic in Silent Hill 4, where you would have to plug a breach in the veil, to stop the apartment from turning into a demonic rave of blood, screams, and those windows that would repeatedly open and shut! That was scary stuff!

All in all, there is a great balance between the investigation stuff, the unnerving mystery, and the full-on horror emerging to ruin your day, in a manner that can be rather chilling at times!

Overall?

The Horror at Highrook is a fantastic horror experience that’s rarely seen, let alone nearly perfected, with excellent gameplay, beautiful presentation, and a great sense of approachability and pacing, that I would easily recommend to anyone, even non-horror fans. If you’re looking for a horror experience that’s different from the retro-inspired demakes, First Person Furry horror fests, and that level in Piglets Big Game, then look no further, as The Horror at Highrook is a magnificent tabletop mystery game that deserves your attention.

+++ Awesome concept, and a combination of investigative and horror gameplay
++ Highly immersive and approachable gameplay
+ Cool story, and rewarding progression
+ Very nice presentation

- Some voice-overs would've been nice
- Maybe a little too cosy for hardcore tabletop gamers

The publisher kindly provided a review code for The Horror at Highrook