Castle of Blackwater Preview – Don’t trust anyone or die, of fun!

I've had the opportunity to play a bit of Castle of Blackwater, an upcoming social deduction game, and I have to say I am very excited for the full release. It's Among Us meets spells, meets ghosts, and plenty more. Oh, and there's a werewolf; you can't forget about that. You can read more about my first impressions in the Castle of Blackwater preview below.

For everyone who has played Among Us, you'll understand the basic structure of the game, but Castle of Blackwater builds on that base and adds some new features. One of my favorite parts was how customizable your character is. Of course, I want to carry around a fish at all times; how did you know?

At the start of the game, the players are secretly divided into three factions:

• Protectors - the good guys who do tasks
• Satanists - the not-so-good guys who kill
• Forgotten - just chaos, doing their own thing, completing tasks while killing off a player from each of the factions

Every faction has a bunch of different characters you can be with plenty of different abilities and specific challenges they should focus on. You really need to be familiar with what your character does to come up with the best strategy on the spot. It's never the same game twice.

Some characters have very important tasks and a lot of gravitas, like the Record Keeper or the Sheriff. They should be out looking for clues on who the Satanists are. Others, like the Lumberjack, should focus on completing the altar tasks even if it means sacrificing your life for the greater good.

In my very first game, I got the Record Keeper, but I was slain right at the start. It was honestly extremely hilarious. Everyone was apologetic about it, but we had a good laugh and had fun for the rest of the matches.

Leroy, the Community Director for Castle of Blackwater, made me feel very welcome and even showed me around the map to some cool spots. He did then fool me into killing off a fellow Protector, winning the game for the Satanists, but that's on me; I am easily peer pressured.

With how much time I spent dead, I got to enjoy the most unique part of the Castle of Blackwater game - the Dead Ghost Experience. You aren't done when you get killed; in fact, you can still affect the game.

The dead players go around collecting ghosts, which you can spend at the store to purchase various items. Buy blocks for the opposite faction, buffs for your team, and even send messages and vote. The best way is to work together with the other dead players (whom you can talk to over voice chat) and give all of your souls to one person to shop.

At the end of each night, you'll get to vote on who you think is the Satanist. This is your time to shine, whether by sharing evidence or by completely gaslighting other players. Once you vote on a player, they can then try to defend themselves. I think maybe the time for defense could be a bit longer, but it's still fun, nonetheless.

Castle of Blackwater has a large map with plenty of tasks to complete (or pretend to complete). Getting around the castle can be pretty confusing until you learn the layout and all of its shortcuts.

When you check the Altar, you'll see that the tasks are divided into Easy, Medium, and Hard. I enjoyed the variety of mini-games I got to play, like making food and cleaning. Though, if anyone asks, I totally completed the Beer Fill task in one try (totally didn't try like ten times).

Overall, Castle of Blackwater has given me the same excitement as I had when playing Among Us for the first time. It's challenging and tense, yet the best kind of game to create hilarious moments in. I'll definitely be dragging my friends into it once it's out on March 25.

If you want to see our first impressions of other games, you can check out our Yasha: Legends of the Demon Blade Preview here on Pro Game Guides.