It was looking a bit touch-and-go for real-time stealth-tactics fans after developer Mimimi Games shut up shop following last year’s superb Shadow Gambit. But thankfully it seems there’s more than a little life left in the genre, what with the imminent arrival of the promising Sumerian Six and now this: a new Goya-inspired stealth-tactics adventure from The Game Kitchen, the studio behind the wonderfully moody Blasphemous series.
The Stone of Madness, as it’s known, transports players back in time to an 18th-century Spanish Monastery – serving as both a prison and an asylum – located somewhere in the Pyrenees mountains. Here, five prisoners plan their escape through its gloomy corridors, which, of course, is where all the real-time stealthy stuff starts to come in.
As the adventure unfolds – well adventures, given it promises two fully fledged campaigns, each with unique stories, objectives, and characters – players will alternately control five distinct characters: Agnes, Leonora, Eduardo, Amelia, and Alfredo. Each has their own unique upgradeable skills, enabling them to – among other things – cast spells, distract and kill enemies, stun evil spirits, and access hard-to-reach areas.
However, The Stone of Madness also takes a page from Darkest Dungeon’s playbook, meaning characters also have traumas and phobias players will need to deal with. If these are triggered during their escape, their sanity depletes, eventually causing paranoia, dementia, violent outbursts, and more – “fundamentally changing how the afflicted character is played”.
There are further wrinkles promised, too, with players also needing to take into account the time of day. Perhaps unexpectedly, sneaking, exploration, and gathering materials are said to be safer in the daylight, when guards are more easily distracted. However, as time passes, the monastery’s ghostly inhabitants will begin to reveal themselves, affecting characters’ sanity. And when night falls, the curfew coming into effect, security is much tighter. The Game Kitchen says players might prefer to plan and manage their escape after dark, but teases the rewards found after nightfall might be worth the risk…
It’s intriguing stuff, and The Stone of Madness is currently set to launch for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, Switch, and PC via Steam and Epic early next year. And if you fancy a bit of tactical action before then (albeit not of the real-time or stealthy kind), might I suggest you pop over here?