Merge Games has revealed a new hardcore real-time tactics and stealth game called The Stone of Madness. The game was announced at the Gamescom 2020 event and will launch in Spring 2021 on PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X.
Merge Games also reveals that the art of the game features a striking art style that is based on the works of the famous painter, Francisco de Goya.
Check out the trailer below:
The Stone of Madness will have you play as multiple characters, five to be exact, who are locked behind the walls of a makeshift monastery called Madhouse in the late 18th century. From an isometric perspective, you have to devise a treacherous escape plan from a place that is already shrouded in mystery.
Each of the characters has a progression system that can improve and debilitate the individual characters. Each one starts with various traumas and phobias – depending on how you play, their sanity will deteriorate, gaining them a “Stone of Madness” and triggering new disabilities and negative effects such as paranoia, dementia or bouts of violence. This, in turn, increases the game’s difficulty. Characters can also unlock positive skills or reverse the negative effects on their sanity by finding “Stones of Clarity” which are scattered throughout the monastery. Some actions may exacerbate phobias and other mental conditions or even trigger new conditions to develop.
Right from the starting of the game, you will be given a chance to select an escape plan as you discover areas, tools, and new abilities to unlock for a character. Each escape plan differs in requirements and difficulty, and thanks to different escape plans and the randomly assembled monastery, each play-through of The Stone of Madness is truly unique for the player.
With several different escape plans to execute, each with unique stories, objectives, special characters, and other surprises, The Stone of Madness offers a rich, dynamic real-time tactics experience for players. Add in managing psyche through “negative character progression,” the traumas and phobias of your escapees in The Stone of Madness add flexible degrees of difficulty to this dynamic stealth and strategy game.
What do you think of The Stone of Madness? Post your comments below.
