It’s Spooky Season again, and Toronto’s Hilltop Studios arrives right on cue with something deep and dark. If you played their 2024 debut, Lil’ Guardsman, you’ll remember a bright, cartoony and hilarious title about a 12-year-old running a border checkpoint. Curse of Resthaven is about as far away from that concept as you can get. I’m talking about mysterious happenings, a cursed island, eldritch horror, and a time loop that ends in destruction every six days.

It’s a pretty big undertaking for a smaller studio, and a genre meld that doesn’t seem like it should work. Curse of Resthaven mixes narrative investigations, trading and bartering, town and relationship management, expeditions and roguelite progression. Wrap this all up with one larger and overarching mystery, and you’ve got a formula that mostly works. Not only that, it does it in an oddly weird yet beautiful kind of way.

As of this review’s writing, I’ve completed my first full timeline and I’m nearing the end of my second, though I haven’t yet seen the ultimate ending. There’s a lot to unpack and hard to do without some spoilers. As such, I’ll try to keep it spoiler-lite: naming no villains nor discussing most late-game events.

Welcome to Resthaven, Governor

You play as Ambrose, who has just been appointed governor of the island of Resthaven. The colony is struggling and on the verge of financial collapse, and the Aurelian Empire officially sends you to revive it. Ambrose is not without his own personal goals, though. He’s also there to find his niece Amalia, who has gone missing on Resthaven a year earlier.

Resthaven doesn’t make it easy on you. The colony is destroyed by some kind of supernatural cataclysm on the sixth day. Ambrose then wakes up, somehow transported back in time to the day he arrived. While none of the inhabitants have any memory of this, Ambrose does. With each six day loop, you must carry what you’ve learned forward. Dig deeper into Amalia’s disappearance, uncover some of the islands and residents’ dark secrets, and identify what dark forces hold the island hostage.

The mystery is one of the main hooks, and I’d say it’s a strong one. Early on, a seemingly harmless choice involving deciphering an image from a dream will set you on one of three paths. Each is basically a different timeline, a different angle, a different villain and maybe more.

Something else worth noting is the colonial setting and how it’s presented.  Resthaven doesn’t shy away from themes of religion, loyalty to family, assuming duty and the occasional complications that can arise from the clash of these themes. 

Everyone Has Their Own Voice

Lil’ Guardsman proved that Hilltop can make a good game. Curse of Resthaven proves that it wasn’t a fluke. The writing is deep and layered. From the gripping main story, to the distinct personalities of each local and visiting merchant, everything is handled with care. I also enjoyed the self-contained encounters through the expeditions.

The cast is consistently strong throughout the game. Depending on the day, loop or path, some characters matter more than others. None ultimately fall flat, but I will say that it is apparent that some are unlikeable by design. I was most invested in Ambrose himself, as he is a man forced to relive the same doomed week. Everyone around him forgets, and it’s almost a curse in itself to have this knowledge carried over.

The voice acting also deserves a special highlight. Drawn from Canadian theatre and screen, the cast ensure the performances fit the character. As a fan of Canadian theatre, I even recognized a few familiar voices. The narrating text and some of the lighter dialogue are text-only. The important scenes are fully performed, though, and the gaps never pulled me out of any scene.

Like A Gothic Groundhog Day

The six-day loop is the backbone of the game. It’s fairly well-paced. Six days, ending around the middle of the sixth, is long enough to push several threads forward each loop. It’s also short enough that every hour in the day counts.

Crucially for me, it creates tension without causing too much anxiety. Anything left undone gets pushed to tomorrow or the next loop. Early loops for me were pure discovery and learning game mechanics. Later ones become more focused missions, chasing a specific investigation or completing expeditions to unlock the next narrative beat. That shift from adventure and exploration to having a plan feels like it works.

Not everything resets, thankfully. Gold and items generally vanish when the loop ends, but building upgrades and much of the information you’ve learned stick around. Between loops, you can spend skill points on permanent perks, like carrying over some gold or raising building upgrade levels. You also pick from one of three shuffled “boons” that come with a catch. For example, one might speed up interrogations and trading but make hiring companions pricier or failing bartering with merchants easier to do. They feel like genuine trade-offs. I gravitated toward anything that reduced time, since it felt like an extra activity or two each day sped up real progress.

Governor’s Tip: Pour gold into building upgrades early. They survive the loop reset, and better items means better profits!

A Little Bit of a Lot

Curse of Resthaven is an adventure game at the end of the day. It’s a few welcome notches above a traditional point-and-click. With roguelite progression baked in and fun nods to deckbuilders layered on top, it does a little bit of a lot. Rather than leaning into any one particular genre, this ambitious mix works surprisingly well.

A typical day in the loop may start with collecting tributes from the town’s merchants, then trading with various merchant ships in port. You may question townsfolk to push one or more leads forward, then finally head out on an expedition (generally limited to one per day) if time permits. Every activity costs a varying amount of hours. When the day runs out, Ambrose must rest. In later loops, you may skip ahead by hours or whole days to reach the day or hour you need. It’s a nice feature that keeps loops from feeling like they drag on too long.

Interrogations drive investigation in Resthaven. As you learn more, you unlock more topics to discuss. Some open up a new investigation or reveal a new clue or lead. Some add to the island’s lore or flesh out a bit more of someone’s backstory. Some characters may just refuse to answer. Knowing which is which is part of the discovery.

Expeditions take you outside the town into the island’s uncharted wilderness. Each one is an encounter displayed as a card that may hint at what you need to take on the expedition in order to complete it. Some require a specific item or companion skill, while others may accept any item of a certain type. This makes it feel like you’re preparing and stocking up in town before you set out. Completing these expeditions lets Ambrose unlock outposts and push deeper into the wilds. This unlocks more expeditions and new story beats in his search for Amalia.

Would You Look At The Time

The learning curve of the mechanics is the real hurdle of this game, unfortunately. From conversations, tributes, trading, expeditions, building upgrades, and alchemy, it’s a LOT. The tutorials are mostly clear, but I may have skipped one or two with a stray button press and had to learn something the hard way. The alchemy mechanic and trading/item supply and demand systems took the longest to click. Items have categories like food, weapons, arcane, and contraband. Each with their own characteristics, like beautiful or durable or spiritual. Toss in some plus symbols to denote quality, and it’s a lot to digest.

Governor’s Tip: Read the various hints at which items may be more or less in demand. You’ll profit more in trading.

After a few in-game days, or maybe a loop or two, it all settled into a satisfying rhythm for me. I will say, though, that it’s easy to forget to do something. Some shops keep limited hours, and some events only happen on specific days. Arriving at a closed shop or having to wait a day or a whole loop may be the closest the game gets to frustrating the player.

Governor’s Tip: Keep notes of shop hours. For example, If buying or claiming items at the food market is on your list, don’t wait until late evening to visit.

Otherwise, Curse of Resthaven isn’t difficult. By the latter half of my first run, I usually had the gold or the item/companion combination I needed. The real challenges come from smart time planning and the more complicated expeditions.

Resthaven also seems to reward curiosity and exploration. There are hidden things tucked around town, so it’s worth it sometimes to walk around versus fast-traveling between different locales.

Governor’s Tip: If you stumble on a puppet show, stop and watch. Don’t assume every corner of Resthaven is just beautiful scenery.

Songs in Hand-Drawn Candlelight

Resthaven, like Hilltop’s first title, looks amazing. The hand-drawn graphic novel style is a stark contrast to Lil’ Guardsman’s bright cartoony feel. It suits the gothic horror theme perfectly. The combination of lighting, layered scenes, and smart use of parallax gives each area its own feel. This is done while keeping Resthaven as a whole feeling cohesive. It’s impressively done.

The smartest “trick”, and something I can really appreciate, is the contrast between colour and monochrome. Expedition cutscenes, visiting merchants, and character art later in the loop turn a stark combination of black and white. A familiar face drained of colour and disfigured in some way is unsettling in a remarkable way.

The score, composed by Scott Christian matches the mood and setting well. Moving between tense horror and calmer, more colonial-flavoured pieces cause the dread to hit harder. Then there’s the Bard, a singing character at the Black Pony Tavern. You can listen to original songs by talking to him in-game, and they’re great. 

Governor’s Tip: Catch the Bard and listen to his music on three different days in the same loop, and he’ll join you as an expedition companion. There are five songs to be heard, try to listen to them all!

Performance and Controls

I played Resthaven on a few different machines: an RTX 5080 system at 4K, an RTX 5060 setup at 1440p, my MacBook Pro, and my mobile device (streaming from one of my PCs). The game ran fairly smoothly on all setups, with a few minor hiccups mostly due to me trying to multitask with too many other applications running. The review build I played offered mostly resolution settings and toggling Vsync and full screen. There’s no frame-limiting, DLSS, or frame generation in the build I played. However, a stylized 2D game like this doesn’t really need the most diverse option set.

In terms of peripherals, I mostly played with mouse and keyboard, moving Ambrose around and clicking through prompts and menus. I switched to a controller when the mood struck. Both control schemes feel intuitive and I didn’t prefer one over the other. In fact, it even plays comfortably on just a laptop keyboard and trackpad.

During streaming to my iPhone, the text was initially a little small but still readable, fixed by setting the in-game resolution to lower settings. Based on these experiences, I’m fairly certain it would play well on a handheld device like the Switch 2 or Steam Deck.

Final Thoughts

Curse of Resthaven is a bold, ambitious, and confident second title from Hilltop Studios. It takes a quirky blend of genres and makes it feel like they are a great fit. The writing, art, and voice performances are outstanding. The score is a treat, and the time loop turns knowledge into real progress. My second playthrough is already progressing faster and, even better, is a genuinely distinct run. This makes chasing the final ending across all three available paths feel worth the time, no pun intended.

The game isn’t flawless, as the opening is a steep climb through overlapping systems. Timed shop hours and day-specific events can make it easy to miss things. However, none of that stopped me from finishing my first timeline and immediately diving back in for a different result.

If you love narratives, gothic mysteries, eldritch horror, and the satisfaction of finally cracking a case, Curse of Resthaven is well worth the time. If you’re mainly after a fast, challenging, and tighter roguelite, this probably isn’t the title for you.

Curse of Resthaven was reviewed on PC via Steam. Gamer Social Club was provided a code by Hilltop Studios and Digital Bandidos.