Reader, Curse of Resthaven made me Feel Things. Curious. Frustrated. Triumphant. At one point, Like Rage-Quitting. And, Reader… I loved it. It’s weird. It’s spooky af. And it’s a decent challenge. Rage quit I almost did, and I’m not afraid to admit it.
But my mother did not raise a wimp, and rage quit I did not. Ten minutes into my second run and I don’t want to put it down again. I ‘finished’ Hilltop Studio’s excellent puzzle mystery adventure roguelite this evening, and as soon as I’m done telling you excitedly about it, I’m off to finish it again. Clearly, there is more to do here…
TLDR: if your idea of a good time is The Curse of Monkey Island and Blue Prince mashed together with a Dredge-like atmosphere and fun trading mechanics, go get this game.
What is The Curse of Resthaven
Swaggering into town like Blue Prince’s goth cousin, The Curse of Resthaven is a horror roguelike mystery puzzle game. The mood is absolutely bang on for spooky season; it boasts a hand-drawn, pseudo-Victorian vibe and a moody, foggy atmosphere that is just what you want at this time of year.
You play the role of young, up-and-coming Aurelian Empire man, Ambrose. After a long voyage, you arrive at the far-flung colony island of Resthaven, having taken the job of governor. But you have an ulterior motive, too: to find your niece, Amalia. Her letters are what have really brought you to this small, strange island in the middle of literal nowhere.
The aesthetic here is spooky, sketchy, and the whole thing has a Dredge-like vibe in that there are a load of quirky and oddly twitchy villagers in the middle of a remote ocean island, and you must trade and charm and inveigle the locals into revealing their secrets so you can solve a mystery. You figure you can govern the town and look for your niece, no problem. How far can she have gone on this tiny rock, after all?
But it soon becomes apparent all is absolutely not well in Resthaven. Your niece must have been spending too much time in the tavern because her letters did not describe a decrepit, unkempt, ramshackle little place filled with jumpy, shifty weirdos. But you’re here now, and home is a million miles away. Better roll up the sleeves of your fancy coat and get stuck in.
That is until Day Six. With the absolute mildest of spoilers: Day Six does not go well. You awake, after some extremely strange goings-on, to find yourself on day one again, with another six-day loop ahead of you. And another. And another. You’re going to have to live and die in this small town again and again until you, and you alone, can figure out how to stop it…
Time Loops
Each six-day loop sees everyone start afresh, meeting you anew, and otherwise stuck doing the same things at the same time each day, plodding towards their terrifying demise on Day Six. In the meantime, Resthaven offers loads for you, the only one who knows what’s coming, to do.
You start on the docks on day one again, and no one knows you. It’s as if the previous week and its cataclysmic ending never happened. But YOU know THEM and remember everything. You have six days. Use them wisely. After each loop, you visit the goddess and receive her boons and debuffs, and spend skill points. She also gives you suitably vague quest clues.
Interrogations
Each day is split into three sections: Morning, Afternoon and Night. Each section has two timeslots for a total of six each day. Questioning villagers (and doing certain activities) uses either one or two time slots, progressing you forwards through the loop.
Moving around the town and questioning and helping the colony residents unlocks a variety of characters, from merchants to clergymen to lovestruck teenagers. Help them out and they slowly, across a few loops, see their lives improve, and begin to open up.
Solve their problems, figure out the shady going-on of the residents, make decisions, and get closer to saving the town and finding Amalia.
Expeditions
You can also spend timeslots once each day on Expeditions. A map of the wilds needs to be completed and it’s down to you, Governor. Leaders lead, after all. On the map, Expedition cards tell you the requirements for an expedition, and as you acquire what you need, you can venture out beyond the town.
What you find out there is a strange assortment of ghosts, monsters and cryptids. Defeating or helping them progresses your search for Amalia further, and completing expeditions successfully gives you cool resources and rewards.
Expeditions cost resources and gold to embark on, and you also need to hire companions who have the skills to solve expeditions. This is getting expensive…
Trading
Time, then, to go trading. Boats arrive at the docks and are the third way you can spend time slots trading goods with neighbouring lands.
Every day, each merchant in Resthaven will donate goods for you to trade. Your job is to use a clever little trading-o-meter mechanic to judge the mood (and purse) of envoys from various lands who come to buy your stuff. Make the right deals and make a fortune.
You can spend the gold you make across the town: on resources, on expeditions, and on improvements and upgrades for the shops in the town.
The End…?
Across the weekly loops, you search for clues to Amalia’s whereabouts and her dealings with a mentor on the island. Uncovering Amalia’s story brings the time loops to an end… or so I thought.
If you think you solved it, no, you didn’t… there’s more than one ending. In fact, it seems there are at least three possible ways this can go down. You might have saved the island… but you haven’t escaped the curse. Back you go to day one, to do it all again…
Did I mention I Liked It?
There wasn’t a single thing about this I didn’t like. I thought the atmosphere was superb. Every character was well-rounded and well-drawn out. The dialogue is great, the voice acting varied and of quality, and each character felt distinct, well-rounded, and real. I had strong feelings about the General’s snooty wife, I tell you.
The writing is good, the story emotional and gory in well-balanced amounts. Wistful and sweet moments punctuate the cleverly-drawn gruesome or violent scenes. I’m not a huge horror fan, and this was just about scary enough for me: mild to medium on the scary scale. Think creepy and gothic rather than blood-spattered gore-fest. It’s a body horror for sure, but the goriest and scariest parts are rendered in a clever, sketch-like black-and-white style, so most of the gnarliest stuff is left to your own imagination. It worked for me – scary and icky, but didn’t turn my delicate stomach.
The story is intricate and the puzzles challenging. It’s full of little moral grey areas, where you have to really think about the themes of acceptable sacrifice for the greater good. It’s a thoughtful, occasionally self-referential story wrapped in a curly little puzzle. The trading mechanic is engaging, and I found the whole thing genuinely un-put-downable. It’s been a week of late bedtimes, shall we say.
If you are looking for creepy vibes while working your grey matter like a stick of Cool Mint, this is it. You can pick it up on PC (Win), PS5, and Xbox Series from October 29th, so if you need an excuse to turn all the lights down and hide while the neighbour kids TP your house this Halloween, this could well be what you’re looking for.
Curse of Resthaven is out today, October 29th, on PC (Win), PS5, and Xbox Series. We played via access kindly provided by the developers and their publisher, Digital Bandidos.
