Skautfold: Shrouded in Sanity (v2022.01.07)

Berelai Manor turns a familiar Victorian estate into a hostile, fog-choked labyrinth where every locked door and bloodstained corridor hints at something far worse than a murder case. Skautfold: Shrouded in Sanity is a 2D survival-horror action game set in an alternate 1897 Britannia, casting you as an investigator sent to find the origin of an unnatural mist and put an end to it. Its mood lands somewhere between gothic detective fiction and Lovecraftian nightmare: servants have become violent, reality feels unstable, and the deeper you push into the manor, the less comforting any answer becomes. The presentation is deliberately old-school, with pixel art, oppressive interiors, and a focus on atmosphere over spectacle.

Most of the adventure revolves around searching interconnected rooms, finding keys and crucial items, solving environmental progression puzzles, and deciding when combat is worth the risk. Your cane-mounted Iaito blade handles close encounters, while the Waltham A9 handgun offers safer but limited ranged pressure; healing relies on scarce Vitae supplies, so careless fighting quickly becomes expensive. Combat takes cues from Dark Souls through its defensive Guard system, which absorbs incoming damage until it breaks, demanding timing, positioning, and awareness rather than simple button mashing. Enemies can be dangerous even in cramped hallways, and the estate’s maze-like design makes careful map knowledge and resource management as important as reflexes.

What separates Shrouded in Sanity from a standard retro horror homage is how confidently it blends Resident Evil-style manor exploration with deliberate action-RPG combat and cosmic-horror storytelling. The world is compact rather than sprawling, but its locked routes, unnerving enemy placement, and steadily escalating revelations give repeat visits a tense, purposeful rhythm. Fans of Signalis, classic Resident Evil, Dark Souls’ measured encounters, or grim 2D indies will find plenty to appreciate. Newcomers should expect some friction from its intentionally demanding combat, while survival-horror veterans will likely enjoy uncovering the first chapter of the wider Skautfold series.