20 Recent Incredible Video Games That Came Out Of NOWHERE

The Seance of Blake Manor crept into 2025 in a fittingly furtive manner for such a spooky game. It’s a detective game set in 1897 Ireland that’s absolutely steeped in Irish folklore, with frequent otherworldly occurrences taking place at the estate. You play as private investigator Declan Ward, who’s been hired to investigate a disappearance, and you’ll have two in-game days to get to the bottom of things before a seance takes place and potentially claims even more victims. 

The game’s first-person perspective has drawn many comparisons between Blake Manor and Blue Prince, but this game arguably has much more story beneath the surface, both when it comes to Irish folklore and the background of all the manor’s inhabitants. 

That being said, it’s perhaps the game’s robust investigation mechanics that really hooked players the most. You can gather clues in a myriad of ways and eventually build a hypothesis, constantly aware throughout it all that there’s a ticking clock, making time management another key strategy that adds to the suspense. 

The Seance of Blake Manor absolutely crushed it with critics and players, currently sitting at an 89 on MetaCritic and overwhelmingly positive on Steam, and it’s easy to see why.