The Mysteries of Baroque
Choice of Games · 2018 · Indie, Adventure, RPG, Text-Based, Choose Your Own Adventure
PC
Positive81% · 21
Compare prices in Official Stores
Screenshots
About The Mysteries of Baroque
Mad science raised you from the dead! Pursue justice or vengeance, love or secrets, as you save or destroy the world with forbidden eldritch power.
The Mysteries of Baroque is a 200,000-word interactive Gothic horror novel by William Brown, where your choices control the story. It's entirely text-based—without graphics or sound effects—and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.
One dark and stormy night in a remote castle in the mountains, you awake anew, resurrected by the brilliant Dr. Holofernes. But even a mad scientist can't keep you alive forever. As the procedure reverses itself over time, you will begin to die again. You must fight to stay alive long enough hunt down your killers, avenge yourself, and protect the ones you love.
Operating out of the mysterious Grand Guignol Theater, your quest will take you through the darkest shadows of the city of Baroque, the City of Dreadful Night, from its vast subterranean slums to the opulent mansions of its jaded, debauched aristocracy. Will you lose yourself in the distractions of romance, assure your own survival through the Holofernes Procedure, or sacrifice everything to take your revenge?
You died betrayed. You died in pain. And your troubles are just beginning.
The Mysteries of Baroque is a 200,000-word interactive Gothic horror novel by William Brown, where your choices control the story. It's entirely text-based—without graphics or sound effects—and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.
One dark and stormy night in a remote castle in the mountains, you awake anew, resurrected by the brilliant Dr. Holofernes. But even a mad scientist can't keep you alive forever. As the procedure reverses itself over time, you will begin to die again. You must fight to stay alive long enough hunt down your killers, avenge yourself, and protect the ones you love.
Operating out of the mysterious Grand Guignol Theater, your quest will take you through the darkest shadows of the city of Baroque, the City of Dreadful Night, from its vast subterranean slums to the opulent mansions of its jaded, debauched aristocracy. Will you lose yourself in the distractions of romance, assure your own survival through the Holofernes Procedure, or sacrifice everything to take your revenge?
- Play as male, female, or non-binary; gay, straight, or ace.
- Fight to reclaim your old life and identity – or make a new home for yourself in the Grand Guignol Theater
- Trade your soul to a dark god in return for vengeance – or reject its help and fight alone.
- Stalk your killers through the glittering demimonde, mansions, and the slums.
- Learn the sanity-blasting secrets of the occult and risk your mind by unleashing them on your enemies.
- Use the power of science to devise and build bizarre inventions: death rays, gliders, and hallucinogenic grenades.
- Augment your regenerating body with clockwork technology like wings, a camera eye, or steel claws.
- Uphold the forces of law and order, the revolutionary Worker’s Council, or the enigmatic Vendetta faction in the battle for Baroque’s soul.
- Embark on dream quests and night visions to learn new skills and uncover ancestral memories.
- Bring comfort and hope to the suffering citizens of Baroque, or drive them further into darkness in pursuit of vengeance.
You died betrayed. You died in pain. And your troubles are just beginning.
What Steam players say
Recent verbatim reviews from Steam — separate from playze.io community reviews below.
You're resurrected as a hideous monstrosity, and you can't kill or attack anyone. Not sure about anyone else, but I read the description and was excited to play a deadly, terrifying monster carving a swath of bloody vengeance in my wake. Nope. Not even an option. What good is being an undead, superpowered Frankenstein without the ability to do anything beyond punching someone. So utterly disappointing and an absolute waste of an idea, and boring to boot. Maybe this is meant for children? Either way, Frankenstein for Kindergartners is not for me. I urge a pass on this one unfortunately.12 found this helpful
Really good game for fans of text rpgs. The setting and worldbuilding are super fun, all the gothic horror elements come together in really neat ways, and its great the way you really feel like your character is a part of the world. Im really impressed how all these different elements are strung together pretty coherently throughout the whole game, nothing feels shoved in or too awkward and its pretty well paced. My biggest criticism is that it does feel like you are a bit pigeon holed into a single path, you have to play to your strengths and pursue one goal each playthrough to get a satisfying ending, its not terrible and it gives a lot of replayability but it feels like you arent getting the whole experience.3 found this helpful
i really enjoyed playing this work thoughts about the story so seeing the how life is for a newly made monster and coming to terms with ones mortality after all it only takes a second to depart do you hang on to your previous human desires and goals or change and adapt to your new sate of being? i mean without who you used to be what can you be? do you fear the new possibilities or welcome them? will you spend your second chance on harboring anger and hatred or chose to do something even more impactful like for example saving the world from what you can be do you give in to some alien desire or hang on to the new revelations that you conquered what does it really mean to be alive how should you feel regarding the inevitable effect that you will incur through simply existing i genuinely loved with the description of this fictional city the levels and differences and complexity of it makes it real in a novel way like the more details and lack of control the more real it feels like it has a real possibility of existing also what about life's sustainability because if the hidden gods really cared about their food source then they must have thought about sustainability of …
"The Mysteries of Baroque" was merely passable overall, but that’s not to say it didn’t have great or even excellent parts. The story was sometimes thrilling and the writing creative, but at the same time, I never felt like I had enough time to get to know any of the characters, and certainly not enough to feel any sort of connection with them. By the end of the game, the narrative derailed a bit, and I wasn’t pleased with how the story ended, not in either of my two playthroughs. The game could’ve been a great read if more time had been spent developing the characters, personalities, and relationships, but as it stands, it deserves a neutral review. (5/10)
A well-conceived interactive novel that, after having replayed twice, remains engaging enough to be diverting, and intriguing enough to be thoroughly enjoyable. My quibbles are entirely ones of personal taste, revolving as to the ultimate direction and resolution of the story. Absolutely a lot of fun, and well worth the time. I have marked that the game was received for free, which isn't ENTIRELY correct; it was given to me as a birthday gift, and I am quite delighted to have received it :)
It was... okay. It's the best story I have read of its kind in this format, but sadly that is not much to boast about. The one thing I have to praise it for is the rather masterful world-building of the author. For such a short story - because it isn't overly long - the world-building was phenomenal. The options are there and they change surprisingly plenty depending on which path one decides to take, which is a fresh of breath air when paired together with the permission to be rather amoral if you had your mind to be. There are some points where what the MC was thinking didn't quite align with the choices I had made, but nothing major. All in all, I liked the story for what it was, and what became a rather obvious rip-off of Frankenstein's monster's story quickly took a life of its own and had a much bigger story to tell.
Community reviews
—
0 reviews
Sign in to write a review.
No reviews yet. Be the first to review this game.
