Foolish Mortals A merry and macabre treasure hunt

In 1933, a whole wedding party disappeared from Bellemore Manor on the island of Devil's Rock, and the family treasure went with them. You play Murphy McCallan, an auditor who arrives chasing the treasure and instead wakes a household of spirits, plus one evil phantom racing him to it. The trail runs through more than 75 hand-drawn locations, dozens of paintings and documents to examine, and over 35 characters to question. Solving it, the diary warns, may cost Murphy his life. The game is spooky, never scary: no deaths, no dead ends, no jumps.

This is old-school adventure puzzling done properly. Over 100 items to pick up, and solutions that follow logic rather than moon logic, so you rarely feel cheated. A trick worth knowing: items you have already used tend to come back later, useful in a slightly different way. The world unfolds in stages too. First the island, then the huge manor with its many rooms, then both together with new locations and changed ones. If you do stall, a built-in hint system starts with gentle nudges and only gives the answer if you insist.

Every location is hand-drawn at full HD, and the animation is a cut above: fill a bottle from the tide and you can watch Murphy tilt it and wait for the water to roll in. The voice cast numbers more than 35 characters, led by AJ LoCascio as Murphy, and the score runs past two hours of original music, including an interactive big band number that is a highlight. Everything in the game was made by human artists: characters, backgrounds, music, voice work, all of it.