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About the StoryEvery year your friend hosts a Halloween party where guests are expected to complete three dares. This is the third. Game Details |
Awards
3rd Place, Le Grand Guignol - EctoComp 2016
Editorial Reviews
Emily Short
"An unnerving experiential game."
On a dare, you are forced to spend some time alone in a dark room with mirrors. Which should not be inherently horrible, right? Besides, you have matches, and a safeword.
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Member Reviews
| Average Rating:  Number of Reviews: 3 Write a review |
Short "haunted house" game with reality-warping possibilities, July 16, 2017
Every year, your friends hold a Halloween party, and each guest must complete three dares. The Psychomanteum is new: a mirrored chamber, in which you must stay, in darkness, for an hour. That shouldn't be too bad, right? You're a connoisseur of haunted houses and all things Halloween, after all, so nothing should really surprise you.
This game has all the usual trappings of Halloween - pumpkin spice, haunted houses, darkness. This contrasts with the genuine sense of increasing derangement as the PC spends more and more time in the titular box.
Psychomanteum has a strong concept, aided by the background music and sound effects. There were some disambiguation issues, if memory serves, and I didn't know what to make of (Spoiler - click to show)the slate. Psychomanteum leaves its truth deliberately ambiguous, but presented some deliciously creepy possibilities.
A short haunting from ectocomp, June 11, 2017IN this game, you're trapped in a mirrored box as part of a Halloween stunt, carrying only a candle and some matches.
I couldn't get the game to do much, but it really had atmosphere. Just the act of lighting the matches, and the candle, and having the descriptions of your reflection described, were subtly creepy.
A short, but original&effective minimalist tale, January 2, 2017This author really knows how to use minimalism to create an atmosphere of the eerie & the liminal...
A short piece with a novel concept, it features a limited environment but a very well implemented one, used to heighten the tension. Effectively written, and with several endings depending on what is done.
If you enjoyed Psychomanteum...
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Recommended Lists
Psychomanteum appears in the following Recommended Lists:Ectocomp Games (All English Winners/Entries) by thecanvasrose
A list I created for myself so I can play all of these games. Sorted by rank and year. English entries. I'll add descriptions and my own ratings (out of 5 stars) to the entries in this list as I go through them.
Polls
The following polls include votes for Psychomanteum:Best in-game music by MathBrush
I'm looking for games with great in-game soundtracks.
For your consideration: XYZZY-eligible Multimedia of 2016 by MathBrush
This is for suggesting games released in 2016 which you think might be worth considering for Best Use of Multimedia in the XYZZY awards. This is not a zeroth-round nomination. The category will still be text-entry, and games not...
This is version 10 of this page, edited by Zape on 4 May 2021 at 10:42pm. - View Update History - Edit This Page - Add a News Item