Our Verdict
Maid of Sker is a gorgeously told story interwoven with intriguing Welsh folklore, and a solid entry into the stealth-horror genre. Although it doesn't bring anything particularly new to the table as far as gameplay goes, it's been lovingly ported to mobile by the original developer, Wales Interactive, and the narrative is deliciously creepy, enough for its quiet ambience to have you constantly on the edge of your seat.
If it’s done well, the horror genre can get your blood pumping and your palms sweating without the need for over-the-top gore and frenetic battles with hordes of the undead. This is precisely where Maid of Sker, a freaky little indie title from Wales Interactive that’s just arrived on mobile, tends to flourish. There are no showers of blood and guts, and no armory of weapons to fight off eldritch enemies. Instead, you’re left with your own labored breathing and a beautiful, moody soundtrack to keep you consistently on the edge of your seat.
Inspired by the 19th-century trio of novels of the same name by RD Blackmore, Maid of Sker takes even more inspiration from the very real Sker House in Bridgend, which just so happens to be the town that developer Wales Interactive calls home. It’s a creepy crawly love letter to the area, with a whole bunch of Welsh folklore thrown in for good measure. It might not be full of tentacled monsters or piles of viscera, and it might not move at a breakneck pace, but that’s not what it’s going for.
The game is purposefully slow and claustrophobic, which only adds to the nerve-wracking environment of the Sker Hotel. What is it about hotels that are so creepy? Of course, we largely have Stephen King to thank for their bad rap with the likes of The Shining, and Maid of Sker doubles down on the tight corridors and copy-and-paste rows of decidedly closed doors encroaching on either side. You’re called to the grand opening of Sker Hotel by your love interest, Elisabeth, who is set to replace her mother as Sker’s new ‘singing sensation’; but it’s pretty obvious from the jump that not all is up to scratch.
Luggage litters the entry hall – always an ominous sign – everything’s covered in a not-so-thin layer of dust and grime, and a large number of hotel rooms that are open to you at the beginning of the game are piled high with wooden boxes and storage crates. Despite the attempt to bring cheer with a touch of festive bunting and posters hailing the arrival of a new Maid of Sker, it’s plain to see that something has gone terribly, terribly wrong. Elisabeth phones down to the reception upon your arrival – she’s thankfully not asking for room service, we dread to think what the kitchens look like if the rest of the hotel is anything to go by – and she tells the protagonist you control, Thomas Evans, that she’s barricaded herself in the attic to hide from the rest of the hotel’s occupants.
Shuffling, shambling men that used to be known to Elisabeth, now called the Quiet Ones, are your maddened, blinded adversaries, and your only defense against them is to hide. Similar to horror darlings such as Outlast or Slenderman, this only serves to add to the uneasy, cramped environment of the Sker Hotel. Admittedly, thanks to this core mechanic, the game starts off frustratingly slow. It’s a good frustration, though, because it forces you to engage with the building itself, it makes you want to explore and figure out what on earth happened. All you have is the fear of turning a corner and a soundtrack that gives nothing away other than an ingrained sense of unease.
Although you’re never quite free of the innate need for stealth, you’re made to keep your wits about you when it comes to the Quiet Ones. The way your foes operate never seems to make sense, and whether this is a flaw in the artificial intelligence or a purposeful mechanic, it definitely keeps you on your toes. Or, crouched behind a sofa holding your breath and praying to whatever ancient Welsh gods are listening that you’re not noticed. Considering there’s no auto-save feature, and you have to hunt around the hotel for gramophones that act as checkpoints – think tapes in Resident Evil – these encounters can be wonderfully terrifying, as the game uses your own fear of losing progression against you as much as the threat of the Quiet Ones themselves.
Even when you venture away from the hotel corridors and explore the basement – which is as weird and gross as you’d expect – and the attic, an area that contains some truly awful looking contraptions, the cramped, suffocating ambience continues to press in on all sides. As you progress through the story, which is arguably the best part of Maid of Sker, it becomes more and more obvious that the game doesn’t necessarily bring anything new to the horror genre. There are no world-ending shocks or surprises, and the mechanics are similar to a great deal of horror games that have come before it. But Maid of Sker delivers with a tale of intrigue, filled with ships and sirens and stealth, oh my.
As far as the gameplay mechanics go on mobile, they’re a pretty standard point-and-click affair. This isn’t something to be mad at, but frustrations can arise when you end up standing too close to something to interact with it. First-person controls on mobile are never going to feel quite as intuitive without a controller, but the mechanics are simple enough that it doesn’t take you out of the immersion. It’s fairly easy to put yourself into a crouch, hide when the need arises, or access your map and inventory. With it all being at the tips of your fingers, the claustrophobic atmosphere is inescapable, which is no doubt exactly what Wales Interactive was going for.
Maid of Sker’s performance on mobile is shockingly solid, and where the innards of the hotel are dimly lit and gloomy, the beginning of the game is full of gorgeous sunbeams and acres of forest that all hold up pretty well even on the iPhone 12 that we used to play. So, even if you don’t have one of the best gaming phones on the market, you’ll get some pretty solid graphics with Maid of Sker, even when you’ve got Vsync turned on and anti-aliasing enabled. It wasn’t ever going to be a 4K experience on an iPhone 12, but we didn’t experience any major frame rate issues or screen tearing during our playthrough, and like with any game, it’s worth optimizing the settings depending on the device you’re using. But the imagery is just as stunning on mobile as it is on console and PC, which is a testament to Wales Interactive’s port.
If you’re not after some of the best stealth games and want something a bit gorier, then we’ve picked out some of the best horror games to sink your fangs into. Or, if you’re after something a little more bombastic, you can always dive into our best FPS games once you’re done skulking around the Sker Hotel.