Game Review: The Stone of Madness

By Al

Players: 1
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, XBox Series XS, PlayStation 5, PC (Steam)

I'm a sucker for games featuring a historic setting, especially ones steeped in dark religious undertones. That's a very specific niche I know, but that's also why I get excited whenever a game that fits the bill shows up on my radar. The Stone of Madness is stealth-based strategy game developed by The Game Kitchen, and published by Tripwire Games. This is the team that brought us the Blasphemous series, so I was really excited to jump into this one. The game is out now on most current platforms, and we're going to be taking a look at it on the Nintendo Switch here. I have a lot to say about this game, so we're just going to jump straight to the review. Time to dive in!

The Stone of Madness is set in an 18th-century Spanish monastery that also doubles as an asylum. A priest named Alfredo arrived at the monastery in the hopes of tending to the sick, and was deemed mad when he spoke out regarding the horrors he witnessed there. Said horrors continued even after he became an inmate, and he's resolved himself to get to the bottom of what secrets lie behind the monastery's walls. He's not alone though, as four other prisoners join his cause. Eduardo is a mute prisoner who has been there the longest of all, Agnes is an old lady who seems completely unassuming, Leonora is a tough-as-nails prisoner who is out for revenge, and Amelia is a little girl who must make her way in a very dangerous world. Together they must take on the guards, evil spirits, and those who run the monastery itself. The story is full of dark twists and turns, and there's plenty of plot surprises that I'll refrain from discussing for the sake of not going into spoiler territory. Suffice it to say that this is a game that has a very unique setting, and a story that is as grim as they come. I personally wished that the plot was more front and center than it is, since there's a heavy emphasis placed on the gameplay segments, but that's probably just me being a bit too critical. I know this is only the start of the review, but I also should point out that the story was what drew me to the game in the first place, and it's the only part of The Stone of Madness that kept me coming back in spite of everything else that did its best to drive me away. I know that's a very cryptic statement to make, but we'll get to why that why that was the case in just a bit. It's quite the discussion, but we'll have to move on to gameplay now if we're going to get to it.

Gameplay in The Stone of Madness is quite the complicated topic, since it's basically an open world game, but one set in a tiny world. When I cleared the tutorial, I assumed that the game would give me missions to complete in something resembling levels. I thought that the monastery would open up to me section by section, and the game would continue in a linear fashion until I hit its ending. Unfortunately for me, that wasn't the case at all. While the game does provide a set of tasks that must be completed in order for progress to be made, you're pretty much given free reign as to how you'll complete them. The game is separated into days, and each day sees you assemble a team of three to attempt to clear that day's tasks. There is a real-time clock at work, with each day lasting about ten minutes or so. You can work through the night, but evil spirits will begin to stalk you in a way that made me think of the zombies in Minecraft. Getting caught by these spirits ends the day for you early, and costs you sanity. You don't know it early on, but losing sanity in-game will eventually cause you to lose it in real life. What happens if you lose all your sanity in-game? Well, that character now has a permanent negative trait that is very hard to get rid of. Maintaining sanity became the bane of my existence, and you lose a chunk of it each day that passes too. It's like a continual ticking time bomb that forces you to get through the game as quickly as you can, but that inevitably leads to more mistakes made. Messing up a day isn't a matter of just doing better next time, as the game gets progressively harder if you're not performing well. Getting caught by guards raises suspicion, and they'll increase patrols in areas where you mess up frequently. This means that failing missions literally makes the game harder, and these changes are permanent thanks to the way the game autosaves. There's more I want to say about this, but we'll circle back around later. For now, let's discuss some of the game's finer details.

I'm not sure why I thought I'd enjoy The Stone of Madness' gameplay loop, since I'm not really a fan of prolonged stealth sections in video games. I guess I figured that there would be more tactical gameplay here rather than simply lurking in the shadows, but I was wrong. This is a game that pretty much solely relies on stealth, with some limited resource management thrown in for good measure. It is tactical though, so at least there's that. Whatever the goal is that you're currently working towards, you'll want to put together a team that can complement each other's skills and weaknesses. Alfredo can banish spirits, distract people with sermons, and discover clues with his lantern. His skills often uncover hidden switches that allow other characters to continue on with their own tasks. Eduardo is the muscle of the team, and can do much of the heavy lifting and destruction. He most often opens up paths that the other team members can use. Amelia can sneak around through holes, and can also lure guards away from their positions. She works best as a distraction, and exists mostly as a support character. Leonora is the best character for taking out guards, as she can knock them out, or even kill them. She's also skilled at picking locks. Agnes can curse guards with her magic, but I found that her skills were best used during the night sequences. Each character has additional skills beyond the ones I just mentioned, but we'd be here all day if I covered them all.

It is a balancing act though, and each character also has weaknesses that lower their sanity if they're exposed to them. Eduardo is scared of the dark, Amelia isn't a fan of the gargoyle statues scattered about the monastery, and Leonora is afraid of large fires. You can power through each of these fears, but your sanity will take a plunge in doing so. I already mentioned what happens when sanity drops to 0, so that's never the wisest course of action. You'll instead want to use other characters to clear the path of fears. Alfredo can use his lantern to light other candles, bonfires can be put out, and so on. While I appreciate the level of complexity that this introduces, it also means one more thing that players have to keep track of. The amount of times a plan went completely south because I forgot that Leonora couldn't get near a fire were too numerous to mention. This does potentially keep players from simply trying the same things over and over again, but it's hard to be experimental when the price of failure is a more difficult game.

Even though it seems like I haven't covered much of the gameplay yet, I've pretty much laid out all the important parts already. Get into areas you're not supposed to be in during the day, solve the mysteries of the monastery, and plan the next day's activities at night. That's pretty much it. Each night sequence allows the characters use skills to recover their stats, pool together resources, and maybe even plan out the next day's activities. Goals are set, and a team is put together. Time thankfully doesn't pass during the night sequences, but the clock starts running again as soon as the next day starts. Your team can then scope out an area, gather resources, and put their plans into action. Sometimes the game will give you an idea of how to pull off a particular task, but you can totally go your own way too. Completing goals will often progress the plot, and more will be revealed to you. Though many areas will be closed to you early on simply by way of you having not seen them yet, the entire monastery is sort of open from the very beginning. Some paths are easier to use than others, and repeated failures will cause certain areas to become nearly impossible to go through in later runs. There also seems to be a finite number of resources available to you, as I noticed that items needed to keep the party on their toes, such as bandages to recover from wounds, don't replenish once picked up. This means that players can lock themselves into an unwinnable situation if they're not careful, and that's exactly what I did on my first playthrough.

Here's the part of the review where I admit that I had to give up early before actually completing the game. The Stone of Madness gives has multiple difficulty options, and I chose the Normal one hoping that it would provide a balanced gameplay experience. I then spent almost ten hours playing the game, and made very little progress despite trying my hardest to do so. This wouldn't be a bad thing in and of itself, as I was willing to stick it out till the end, but each failure made that end goal harder to reach. I've never played a game more punishing than this one, and it didn't take long for me to realize that I'd backed myself into a corner gameplay-wise. Loss of sanity had added negative traits to my main characters, repeated failures had the guards in a constant state of high alert, and I couldn't even find items I needed easily within the monastery anymore. The game also doesn't have any manual save system, so I couldn't even revert back to an earlier save. Every time I failed and was sent back to the cell, the game would autosave my progress, and this was ultimately my undoing.

You'd think that an autosave system wouldn't signal the end of the road, but that's exactly what happened here. That is literally the only way to save the game, and it means that players are essentially on a constant hardcore mode. It got to the point where I hurriedly closed the game whenever I failed, hoping to quit before the save took place. This could've easily corrupted my save or worse, but I was getting desperate. Remember when I said that it was also my sanity that went down as I played the game? Well, that was starting to creep in. I'm not sure who this game is made for, but it's simply not for me. Making matters worse, not all of my failures were through some fault of my own. Very often glitches would cause me to be discovered, and other times guards would find me even though I should've been well hidden. I did notice that later updates to the game referenced fixing some of these bugs I encountered before launch, but that did little to help me by that point. I eventually had to take a break, and I put the game down for several weeks, wondering how I was ever going to review it. I ultimately decided that I was going to restart the game, but on the lowest difficulty setting possible. Bringing the difficulty down did allow me to actually be able to play the game, but it didn't take long for me to decide to throw in the towel permanently. I'm willing to admit that I made a mistake in picking up this game for review, but I really did try my best to give it a fair shot. Twice even.

One aspect of The Stone of Madness that I think deserves special praise are its visuals. The graphic style most closely resembles a comic book come to life, with every character being animated smoothly too. This is even more present in the full-screen dialogue sections, the animated cutscenes, and even in the night planning sections in your cell. While it's neat that this concept was made into a game, I have to wonder if it might've been better suited to a graphic novel. Having said all that, I am glad the game went with this type of visual style, as it helps ease players into some of the darker aspects of the game. Calling the game ugly might be a bit much, but it doesn't exactly provide players with a pleasant viewing experience. From the demonic horrors that have to put down by Alfredo, to the more realistic horrors that are put down by Leonora, things never really get better as far as the stakes go. I did ultimately find this grim approach a bit much before the end, but there's no denying that it is effective. There's a level of detail here that I found impressive despite the unpleasantness of the game's world, and it's easy to forget you're in an 18th-century asylum. I did long for something colorful and bright, but this isn't that sort of game. I'm sure that someone out there might appreciate this art style, and I personally do too on a technical level, but I have to once again remind everyone that this is quite the dark and foreboding game to get into.

The soundtrack of The Stone of Madness features tracks that are atmospheric, spooky, and epic all at the same time. It's not a collection of music that will have you humming the melodies after you're done playing the game, but it will drive the action forward in a way that's almost perfect. Each piece of music is masterfully built, and I truly do think that it's movie score levels of good. This extends to the sound effects too, though the sound design does falter a bit when discussing voices. Sadly, the game only features voice acting during some cutscenes, with just about everything else being left to silence. I understand that full voice acting might never have been in the cards for an indie title like this, but it's disappointing nonetheless. Not only would voice acting have helped out when the game dragged, but what they chose to put in is rather bewildering. Just about every second of the game features some sort of crying or muttering from the other inhabitants of the monastery, and that alone was one of the biggest things that drove me from the game. It's bad enough that the game is dark and dreary, and involves skulking about in the shadows, but did it also need to have most of the supporting cast constantly making creepy noises? I know they can technically be turned off in the options menu, but it really makes me wonder who exactly this game is for. It didn't take long for those voice bits to nearly drive me mad, and it made playing the game for long stretches near impossible.

Considering that The Stone of Madness features two campaigns, both with a very open-ended gameplay structure, it makes sense that there would be a lot of content for players to sink their teeth into. I already mentioned that I had to throw in the towel early, but this is quite the long game no matter how you slice it. I spent about eight hours on my first run, and was still nowhere near the game's end. Sadly, while the game has a lot of replayability, it isn't exactly the friendliest title when it comes to optimized playthroughs. The lack of a manual save system not only means that you have to throw caution to the wind if you want to take a break, but it also means that bad outcomes add permanent negative points to an already difficult game. I'm sure players more skilled than myself could've found a way out of the hole I dug for myself in-game, but it's far too easy to find oneself in such a situation. This ultimately proved to be a very frustrating experience that I can't wait to put behind me. Who would've thought that the one losing sanity over this game would by myself...

I'm still a bit torn as to whether or not I want to give The Stone of Madness a full recommendation or not. This was clearly not the game for me, but I will admit that my distaste had nothing at all to do with the quality of the game itself. Recent updates have fixed some of the issues I experienced early on, and it's a solid gameplay experience for those who are able to look past the things that bothered me. I was not a fan of the setting, nor its complete reliance on stealth gameplay, but that doesn't make it bad by any stretch. If you're a gamer who craves dark stories, and extremely long stealth sections, then this is the game for you. If that's not the case, then you might want to consider passing this one up. And with that, I'm done with both the review, and the game. I'll see you in the next one.

Check Out The Stone of Madness on Nintendo Switch:
https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/the-stone-of-madness-switch/

---

Story: B
Gameplay: C
Graphics: B+
Music/Sound: B+
Value: B

Overall: B-

Pros:
+ The concept of a real-time strategy game that's reliant on stealth is a good concept on paper.
+ The plot and setting make this a very unique experience.
+ Though not really advertised as such, this is essentially an open world game that gives you free reign to complete your objectives as you see fit.
+ Each character has their own backgrounds and motivations, and it's cool seeing how they fit into the greater series of events. This is a well-crafted tale from top to bottom.
+ While the sound and visuals aren't without their own negative elements, they're both great for what they are. Graphics are smooth and impressive, and the music sounds like it's feature film worthy.
+ Two scenarios, and plenty of ways to complete them, make this a very replayable game.

Cons:
- This has to be one of the most grueling gaming experiences of my life. Failure literally makes the game harder, and the autosave system means that every mistake made is permanently recorded.
- It is very possible to back yourself into an unwinnable situation if you're not careful, and this can be frustrating when it comes after hours of gameplay.
- The general ugliness of the world, as well as the screams and cries of the inmates, really drain on you after a while. This game is far from pleasant, and is hard to play for long stretches at a time.
- While I appreciate the open-ended nature of the game, I would've much rather the game provide structured challenges that can be completed in order.
- Though there are multiple difficulties to choose from, the differences between them are wide. There isn't a lot of balance to be found between them.

A copy of this game was provided to us free-of-charge by the publisher for the purpose of this review. This did not affect our review in any way.

---

If you're going to play the game, just pick the easiest setting.

#TheStoneOfMadness