Charon's Staircase

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Charon's Staircase

by Aethyna Oct 31, 2022 | 1 Votes | 37 Played | 0 Reviews

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Genres:

Adventure , Puzzle

Graphics:

3D

Labels:

Adventure , Investigation , Exploration , Horror

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SOEDESCO Publishing Venture into the infamous Oack Grove estate where various disturbing experiments have been conducted with the blessing of the tyrannical Ministry, and retrieve incriminating documents that would shatter its hopes of joining the European Union in this horror mystery game, Charon’s Staircase! Will you be able to make it out alive? Play Now Similar Games Played Post a Review

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Summary Plotline Gameplay Graphics/ Sound Conclusion

Summary

Charon’s Staircase is a horror mystery game where you play as an agent, codenamed “Desmond”, of an oppressive government simply called “The Ministry”. Your mission? To venture into the infamous Oack Grove estate where Dr Lewelin has been conducting various disturbing experiments “for the glory of the Ministry”, retrieve incriminating documents that would shatter The Ministry’s hopes of joining the European Union, and destroy them.

However, what you’ve found shook you to your core, so much so no amount of Ministry-provided secret agent training could have prepared you for. The world must know about this, but first, you’ve got to make it out of the place alive with the proof!

Plotline

The game is set in a country ruled by a tyrannical government, known only as “the Ministry”. They finally have the chance to join the European Union, which would help the country thrive, but first, they have to eradicate any damning evidence of any wrongdoing that may set them back from their goal.

One of these “wrongdoings” involved an overly-ambitious doctor, Dr Lewelin, and the sinister experiments he did at the Oack Grove estate, all in the name of The Ministry, almost 40 years ago. With the Ministry’s blessing, he set up an experimental hospital, a lab in his own mansion, and conducted unethical experiments on subjects sent to the place by the Ministry in a project known only as Project Alpha.

In this game, you play as a highly-trained agent of the Ministry who has been tasked to venture into the derelict Oack Grove estate to find all highly-sensitive (and incriminating) documents that would shatter The Ministry’s hopes of joining the European Union. You’ll have to first find the logbook of the guard of the grove in the office of his wooden house, then you’ll need to retrieve the official Ministry documents in the laboratory of Lewelin Manor at the center of the lake. Next, you’ll need to scour the experimental hospital nearby to locate the office and collect the files of the gruesome secret experiments that were carried out there.

Most importantly, however, is the only way you can escape from the place. By design (so as to prevent its inhabitants from escaping the place), it’s impossible to get out from Oack Grove simply by walking through the front gates. Instead, you’ll need to figure out how to access the Charon’s Staircase, a secret passageway that only Lewelin himself knew about.

Of course, you’d think that since it has been almost 40 years anyone have entered Oack Grove, be it to deliver news or supplies, during the short period of time when these kinds of deliveries were possible, surely everyone here has died. Well, we’ll see… won’t we?

Gameplay

As with most horror mystery games, the first-person gameplay in Charon’s Staircase consists of moving from one place to another, reading notes left behind by people long gone, picking up and examining stuff, and solving puzzles to unlock new locations. The game requires the player to be observant and curious, making sure that they really scour every inch of a room for items to pick up, mostly keys that unlock other rooms, or important clues for puzzles that you’ll have to solve to progress.

The puzzles here can sometimes be a bit tricky due to their vagueness. Unlike puzzles in say… hidden object games where the instructions are typically stated clearly, you’re expected to figure out how to decipher the clues given or found before you can even assemble the answer needed, such as the 4-digit password needed to be inputted onto a keypad to unlock a door.

That being said, the puzzles here can be a bit repetitive due to their similarities. The “password-locked keypad with clues” puzzle is used fairly frequently across different locations throughout the game. Don’t get me wrong though, the game does still provide some puzzle variety, but personally, I think that there could be a bit more.

As you explore the place, you’ll also come across various photos of the people at Oack Grove, people who have, in most parts, have been long gone. These photos are then collected in your Character Gallery for your perusal later.

As someone who generally avoid horror games like the plague not only because of their typically generic storytelling but also the dreaded jump scares, I really enjoyed playing Charon’s Staircase. Yes, there will be moments in the game when there are sudden movements or sound that brings your attention to some weird happenings, usually in the distance, that may make you jump a little especially if you’re already feeling squeamish, but it doesn’t use jump scares as cheap shots to get a yell or two out of you.

Graphics/ Sound

Besides its brilliant story and writing, Charon’s Staircase really stands out with its incredibly immersive, and creepy as heck, atmosphere and environments, complete with the perfect ambiance and the occasional tinkling of soft piano music in the background. The voice acting for your character, Desmond, is also very well-done, helping you understand what’s going through in his head as he explores various locations around the Oack Grove estate.

Although the game technically doesn’t have any of those cheap jump scares, it does make use of sudden sounds and movements to try to make you jump from time to time. I should alos point out that the game seems to have motion blur on by default, and that there is no easy way to disable it, but from my playthrough, it does seem like this issue has been promptly rectified by the developers.

Conclusion

Charon’s Staircase is a horror mystery title that has an intriguing and bone-chilling, though not entirely unique, story to tell, complete with astounding atmosphere that’s just perfect for Halloween and some late-night gaming with the lights turned off. The gameplay itself seems to be more mystery than horror since there are quite a number of puzzles that you’ll have to solve here in order to progress, interjected with some scary moments, including the only really heart-pounding time where Desmond is in any real danger.

A solid horror mystery through and through, if you’re on the lookout for the perfect scary game to play for Halloween, Charon’s Staircase might just be it!