Spooky Manor is a super fun version of the find-the-hidden-object type of game. If you are new to this type of game, generally you are given a screen full of tons of miscellaneous objects all jumbled together. You’ll have a list of objects you need to find amongst the clutter, and often there’s a time limit for finding those objects. You’re finding objects in Spooky Manor all right, but there’s definitely a twist on how they do that thing they do.

You play the game as Mortimer Beckett. You have just received a letter and guidebook from your Great Uncle Jerome, whom you have not seen in quite some time. He needs some help at his estate and begs you to come. Being the good great nephew that you are, you pack your bags and get underway. Arriving at the manor, the doors are all locked, and there’s no sign of Uncle Jerome. You are a conscientious young man and are quite concerned, so of course, it’s time to break in and see if Uncle Jerome needs helps. Thus begins the tutorial.

Spooky Manor is not just about finding hidden objects, so you’re going to be very glad to have this tutorial. Each room has four objects you need to find. Next to each object is a small number. This number tells you how many pieces your object is broken into. That’s right. You’re not finding whole objects. You’re finding pieces of objects. Some of the colorful objects are pretty easy to put together, but items with small, dark-colored pieces are a real challenge. Oh, and sometimes pieces are hidden behind other objects. You have to unlock challenges to get all the pieces.

Let’s talk about these challenges, shall we. Generally, each level has a number of rooms/areas. As you mouse over the room, you’ll hit spots that have a little rotating gear-type symbol that pops up. This means you need to do something at this spot. Sometimes you just need to place one of your assembled objects back in the spot it came from. Sometimes you need to do something at the spot with one of your objects in order to open something else. Sometimes the objects are used or place in the same room where you find them, but often they are not. Sometimes the puzzle challenges will require that you assemble a piece, use it in some fashion in one place and then apply it in yet another.

There are three things you ultimately need to discover on each level, and you will be able to progress only after you obtain all three of these things. Hidden on each level is a piece of Uncle Jerome’s ghost machine. There also will be a piece of a text clue that you’ll need at the end of the game. Finally, you have to uncover the opening to the next level.

If you get stuck finding pieces of objects, you have 10 hints per level to help. If you try to get a hint and the piece is hidden behind something else, you’ll be told. Your guidebook will give you hints about the puzzles you need to solve on a given level but not hints to locations of pieces.

You’ll notice that there aren’t any timers in place in Spooky Manor. You can take as long as you need to solve each level (not that it should take all that long). The way Spooky Manor handles those folks that randomly click everything in the screen hoping to get lucky, is that after a few wrong clicks, a ghost is spawned. The ghost flies around the room for a little while, looking scary. The challenge is that you can’t click anything under/behind the ghost. If you get click-happy and spawn a ton of ghosts (which I did just for fun), you will have quite a time finding an empty area of the screen to continue your hunt for parts. The ghosts do go away after a little bit, but they do their best to be annoying while they’re there.

I found Spooky Manor to be really enjoyable. I love how they did their part to shake up the genre a bit. My main complaint, really, is that the game was just too short. I wanted to keep playing, but I’d solved it in just a few hours. Now, you will get a teaser that a sequel is forthcoming when you get all the way through. I’m really looking forward to it.

You also will find that the game is exactly the same if you decide to play again. You will have all of the same pieces, in the same places, with the same puzzles to solve. I can see how it would have been nigh on impossible to randomize the hidden objects given how integral they are to the puzzle challenges. If you do decide to play again, just to challenge yourself (maybe by trying to not use any hints or something like that), you will discover that you can’t skip the tutorial. The tutorial is very helpful the first time through, but I really didn’t need it when I was going back through for screenshots. These are minor quibbles, though. The bottom line is that I had a great time playing Spooky Manor and highly recommend it.