The Stone of Madness

The Stone of Madness is truly a one-of-a-kind experience: a real-time strategy and stealth game set in a Spanish monastery in the 18th Century. Very few games dare to use religious iconography of any kind, but The Stone of Madness stands proud on the shoulders of The Abbey of the Crime, a 1987 8-bit game developed by the long extinct Opera Soft, cornerstone of the so-called "golden age of Spanish software" and in itself inspired by Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose.

The game was developed by indie studio Teku, later acquired by Blasphemous creators The Game Kitchen, and published by Tripwire Interactive, who hasn't given it much attention since it came out two weeks ago. However, the game itself, while possessing many virtues and benefitting from The Game Kitchen's resources (it was initially developed by just four people six years ago) is a more modest project than Blasphemous and isn't as polished, with some bugs and performance problems (at least on Switch).

Another point to consider is that, while 2D action Metroidvanias are now extremely popular, almost to the point of exhaustion, The Stone of Madness is part of a much more niche genre: stealth mixed with real-time strategy and resource management, like Commandos. That means not everyone will be on board with the gameplay (and challenge) it presents, but it actually works to the benefit of the game, making it stand out even more. This is a tough game, with very complex systems that sometimes feel overwhelming and will likely frustrate you. You may be driven mad with this game... which is actually rather fitting.

The Stone of Madness has five playable characters. All of them are trapped in the monastery, and while they are not exactly prisoners, they can't roam freely through every room, especially if they go around looting or breaking things, and there are a lot of guards who will catch them if they are not careful enough. Their goal is to escape the monastery and bring to light the dark secrets it holds, but to do so they will have to explore the many different areas, be it the library, the gardens, or the cellars, meeting peculiar characters and searching for key items along the way.

Each of the five characters has their own unique set of abilities, but also handicaps that make them useless in certain situations. The monk Alfredo can light up rooms with his oil lamp, but can't be near corpses; whereas Eduardo is strong enough to build bridges with wood or break doors with chains, but cannot read nor speak, so don't send him if your goal is to speak with someone or read a letter. The child Amelia can move through narrow holes and is able to pick pockets and distract guards, but is scared of the gargoyles within the monastery and will freeze near those. Then there's Leonora, who is the only one able to knock down guards, but she is afraid of fire.

Every character has a particular "Achilles' heel" that will make them lose sanity. If it drops to zero, they will develop a new phobia or a handicap, which is nothing game breaking, but certainly can be annoying, like Eduardo having claustrophobia (unable to hide in small spaces) or Leonora freezing near nuns... because she fears them so much, I guess. The list of abilities and handicaps is huge, and finding them all and learning how to counter them is the most fun part of the game. These disadvantages will make your tasks much harder, even to the point of ruining your strategy, often forcing you to go back to the drawing board or exploring the monastery in different ways. When you do so, maybe you will find something unexpected, a key item or a secret passage that will make your life easier. The game often gives as much as it takes, and frequently (although not always) there are multiple solutions for the same problem... but not all of them so subtle and stealthy.

The more linear first chapter does a good job of introducing you to these types of dynamics, taking its time before you finally get to control all of them within the game's day cycle. Each day lasts about ten minutes, and you can only pick three characters at a time. Fortunately, there's a limitless number of days and no time constraint to finish the game (like Pikmin), meaning planning, exploring, and experimenting is encouraged. You will frequently start a day without really knowing which character you need, which means the day will be wasted, but that's not a big problem... except that, with each passing night, the characters lose more sanity (although you can regain sanity during the night, as well as heal the characters, craft items, and do some other activities).

Having all your characters getting caught constantly also means there will be more security, more guards, and even traps, raising the challenge even further. Sometimes, a sacrifice is needed for achieving an end goal, however, developing more phobias will make you slower, but there's not a point of no return to reach, a limit that when crossed means utter and irreparable failure. The game is more permissive in that way, but in turn, you are not allowed to save, nor have multiple save files as "back up" if you mess up too much. The game saves automatically after every game day, so you can always easily switch off and return at another time...

But you will mess up a lot. We have only scratched the surface of the game and if our experience with The Stone of Madness sounds hard, that's because it is. According to the developers, the game is purposely designed for you to fail, making you share the despair of your characters. The safety net of not having to worry about a "game over" screen means that the game gives itself permission to be brutally unforgiving, throwing you obstacles at every turn and frequently forcing you to wait for the next day if you don't have the necessary characters at hand. In return, the satisfaction of accomplishing your goals is big, even if the plot is nothing to write home about. But the risk and reward balance and the constant discovery of new things to do or explore (taking mental notes like "I have to explore this with this other character tomorrow") are two of the game's greatest strengths.

It should be noted that the game's two campaigns can be played on easy mode, if you want to just focus on the story and appreciate the (beautiful) art of the game. However, hiding behind the "we want players to feel despair" doesn't justify everything. The Stone of Madness frequently feels unfair, unthankful, excessively hard, and obtuse with the objectives it serves up (even with optional hints). Too many mistakes, with sometimes catastrophic consequences, were caused by things nearly impossible to predict and some clumsiness with the controls didn't help, like characters not following your inputs correctly when changing areas or being unable to multi-task and give orders to the characters. Graphically it's also a bit confusing (there were multiple instances where I'd have sworn there was an open path when there actually was a wall or a dead end). In addition, the Switch version I played was hampered with poor performance and bugs, and it appears the game is also not super polished on Steam. It's not unplayable, but not very pleasant either...

At the end of the day, the enjoyment you'll get from The Stone of Madness will depend, first, on how much you like real-time strategy games, something like Commandos, Desperados, or Shadow Complex, and second, on how courageous you can be when faced with a challenge that is as rewarding as it is brutally hard. Also, it's worth noting if you are willing to go the extra mile to put up with some unfairness and gameplay flaws. If you can do that, you will be able to enjoy (or suffer through) a truly genuine game, with some very bold design choices, beautiful music, and Goya-inspired art, all within a setting unlike anything you have ever played. The Stone of Madness is not made for everyone, or maybe not everyone is made for The Stone of Madness. But out there, among the masses, there are some people who are made for this game, and they will go crazy for it.