Curse of Resthaven Review: Great Mystery, Thin Governor Sim

Curse of Resthaven comes from Toronto's Hilltop Studios, and it is a sharp turn away from their debut, the deduction puzzle-adventure Lil' Guardsman. It launched on October 29 on Steam (PC and Mac), PS5 and Xbox Series, with a Switch version planned but undated.

One note on method before the opinion: this verdict is built on launch reviews, store data and demo impressions, not on a full playthrough of my own. Weigh the score accordingly.

The premise is the best thing here

You are Ambrose, newly appointed governor of a struggling island colony, and your niece Amalia has vanished. Every six days the gods rise and wipe the island out, then the loop starts again. You keep what you learned and some of your advantages, so each run is a sharper version of the last.

That is a strong hook because the clock gives every conversation a price. Over 25 voiced characters can be questioned, and many of them dodge, stonewall or simply do not trust you. Some information only turns up by day, some by night, and some sits behind a password. A mystery that makes you work for its answers is exactly what I want from this genre, even if impatient players will find all that evasion tiresome.

Presentation does the heavy lifting

The hand-drawn, graphic-novel look is the reason this game stands out on a store page, and early reviews line up on the voice acting, sound design and music as well. MobileSyrup calls it a must-play, though its reviewer openly says he is friends with the game director, so take that with some salt. Movies Games and Tech gave it 9/10, and when I checked, all 38 Steam user reviews were positive. Encouraging, but a small sample.

The systems around the story are the problem

The "governor" half is where my enthusiasm drops. You collect taxes as playing cards representing goods, trade with visiting ships and send out expeditions, but the same MobileSyrup review singles out governance as the weakest element and says it feels disconnected from the narrative. Expeditions reportedly boil down to playing a card and watching what happens, which gets repetitive. Menus can make you lose your place, the management side starts slowly, and some plot turns are predictable.

This matters more than it would in a linear game. Reaching the true ending means completing three endings, so you will see those weak loops many times. A roguelite lives or dies on how its repetition feels, and here the repetition is the least interesting part.

Price and who it is for

The game is €20.49 on Steam, with an introductory €18.44 until November 12, which is fair for what it offers. It is English-only, and that is a real barrier for anyone who needs another language, since the whole game is reading and listening. The free demo covers the first chapter and your save carries over, so there is no reason to buy blind. The content is mature: depictions of violence and murder, references to suicide, and themes of war and colonial oppression.

Buy it if you come for story and atmosphere and can tolerate busywork. If you want a deep town sim or deckbuilder, this is not it.

Verdict: A gothic mystery worth solving, wrapped in systems that are not worth mastering. Try the demo first, then decide.

Score: 7/10

Image: Unknown / CC BY 4.0, source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gothic_church_with_graveyard_in_the_foreground,_possibly_W._Wellcome_V0018759.jpg