I’ve never played either of theBlasphemousgames, and I don’t particularly care for Metroidvanias, but their aesthetic influences have always intrigued me. The critically-lauded side-scrolling action-adventures are gorgeous, creepy, and filled to the brim with religious iconography.

The Stone of Madness, though, definitely falls into the wheelhouse of games I’m into. It’s a real-time tactical stealth game from an isometric perspective, set in an 18th century Spanish Monastery where the sick and the mentally ill have been locked up.

The cinematics look almost like an anime, with gorgeous hand-drawn animation and beautiful lighting. I’m less sold on the art style of the actual game though, as I’m not quite sure how I feel about these hand-drawn characters in more realistically rendered environments.

The Stone of Madness is also heavily inspired by the works of Francisco de Goya, which is a huge pull for me – I’ve got Witches’ Flight tattooed on my arm.

Interestingly, The Stone of Madness plays on what its developers The Game Kitchen are best known for – putting a terrifying twist on religious themes. It opens with a former priest writing a letter, saying that he and his friends are going to escape from the monastery together. But when the actual game starts, we haven’t gotten to that point just yet.

The priest is alone when he sees guards violently pulling a screaming female inmate away from everyone else, noting that this is pretty unusual, and that it might be linked to the recent disappearances of several other inmates.

The Steam Next Fest demo then slowly introduces you to the mechanics. You have to interact with the environment to solve puzzles and move into new areas, which might mean pulling a lever and running through the gate it opens or pushing a heavy crate away from a door. There are guards everywhere, and while you can walk around some areas freely, they’ll stop you if they see you in restricted areas or if you break the rules in some way, like by rummaging through someone else’s belongings.

you’re able to crouch to move stealthily, avoiding detection by guards by hiding behind objects or sneaking around in the shadows at the edge of their vision. Alternatively, you can hideinobjects, like a coffin, or a cupboard. Later you’ll pick up an oil lamp that allows you to follow tracks and illuminate the area around you, but also makes you easier to find.

The title comes from the idea of a stone in a patient’s head that was thought to cause madness, idiocy, or dementia, and was removed by drilling into the skull. This comes into play, not just because of the game’s setting, but because each controllable character has their own phobias and triggers, as well as their own skills.

For example, the priest is terrified of dead bodies (understandable), while the first companion he picks up, Eduardo, panics in the dark. Subjecting characters to their fears will drain their sanity meters, which can trigger traumatic events for them and change how their character functions.

You’ll eventually pick up a party of five, each with their own unique and upgradeable skills. They can assassinate targets, create distractions, stun spirits with religious artifacts (yeah, those are wandering around), and even cast spells (I guess there’s magic?).

In theory, this sounds incredibly appealing. In practice, the game is still a little finicky. Moving from action to action isn’t as smooth as I’d like, and I kept getting caught by guards because the controls weren’t intuitive and I couldn’t exit an action quick enough to move out of a hostile’s field of vision. There are only so many times I can repeat a stealth sequence before I start wanting to tear my hair out, which I suppose makes me closer to the game’s characters, but doesn’t make for a great player experience.

We’re still months from a full release, though, so I expect the UI and controls to be finetuned by then. The Stone of Madness is slated for launch on Jul 26, 2025, but you may try the demo for yourself onSteamtill October 21.