Grave Seasons turns Stardew Valley into a gruesome murder mystery horror game

I expected to find and play plenty of great games while walking around the showfloor at Summer Game Fest. What I didn't expect to find was my wife's dream game: Grave Seasons. That's not to diminish my own enjoyment of this horror-infused life sim - my short and sweet 20 minutes with it was great. However, with a charming gameplay loop that closely resembles Stardew Valley and a gruesome murder mystery twist, I can't think of a game she'd love more.

Despite her sweet and caring nature (I promise she didn't pay me to say that), my wife has a real affinity for murder documentaries, cop shows, and detective dramas. She revels in the hunt for a killer, the unexpected twists, and the gory details. We've also racked up a lot of hours together in some of the best life games, with most of that time being spent in Stardew Valley. Mixing these two worlds is Grave Seasons, one of several games being backed by Jason Blum's horror-focused publisher, Blumhouse Games.

My experience with Grave Seasons begins with me moving into a vacant, slightly worse-for-wear farm - the old, seemingly troubled former owner went quietly missing. However, everything seems calm and cozy at first. While, to my knowledge, you can't pick what type of farm you want like in Stardew Valley, the land you're given to tend is gorgeous. A trickling stream, bridges, charming stone steps, ramshackled but quaint barns and sheds, and a beautiful old farmhouse for you to reside in. While it's all realized in a pixel art style, Grave Seasons tilts things slightly by opting for a more isometric view versus Stardew's top-down approach.

When it comes to life on the farm, things feel as close to Stardew as you can get. I had a shovel, a watering can, an axe for chopping wood, and a pickaxe for mining rocks. To grow crops, you dig a hole, plant your seeds, water them, and wait for them to sprout without much drama. That is until Grave Seasons throws an unnerving curveball your way. While innocently digging a hole to plant some carrot seeds, I uncover an amputated, decomposing hand. Gnarly.

Almost immediately, though, you're thrust back into your cozy duties. Pick up the trash that's accumulated on the farm. Head to the shed where you can craft items and make produce out of the crops you've harvested. Place any unwanted items into the chest by your front door, which will automatically sell everything inside at the end of each day. Chat to a couple of NPCs who arrive to introduce themselves to the newcomer in town. It's all very familiar. From the slice I saw, the NPC writing seems engaging and believable, and wasn't as corny as I feared. Each is rendered in beautifully drawn artwork that appears during conversations, helping flesh out their character.

One such NPC, in the goodness of their heart, invites me to go foraging later that evening for a rare plant that only appears at night. A kind and exciting offer. However, it's clear that in Grave Seasons, when the sun goes down, shit goes down.

Arriving in the nearby woods with the NPC, our quest for nocturnal plants quickly takes a turn - in one of the wildest tonal shifts I can recall in a videogame, a giant, demonic werewolf snatches and mauls her, turning the friend I made just that day into a pile of flesh and bones. While pixel art has a bit of a ceiling when it comes to how shocking and gory it can be, it certainly doesn't hold Grave Seasons back in this moment. Rags of clothing on tree stumps from where the beast has thrown this poor lass around. Massive, bloody footprint trails. Remains that resemble roadkill. It's a pretty savage scene for a game where I'd been picking strawberries two minutes prior.

After gathering all the evidence I can find at the crime scene, my hands-on time sadly draws to a close, but I also get a run-down of the murder mystery aspect that permeates Grave Seasons. Like Stardew, there's a lineup of NPCs to befriend or even romance. However, at the beginning of each playthrough, one is selected at random to be the killer. They will consider some of the other NPCs their allies and will therefore spare them. Others are 'targets' that they're out to slay. The rest may just get caught in the crossfire. It could transpire that the villager you've befriended or even hooked up with ends up being a killer. Perhaps you actually want to woo the local murderer? Or, if your detective skills are as stellar as your farming, you could find the culprit and prevent any further violence.

This sounds, on paper, like a brilliant new wrinkle to the typical social aspect of a cozy life sim. It's unclear how well this will wrap into the general, day-to-day Stardew-ness of Grave Seasons, and there's still plenty more of it to see and explore. But from what I played, it's shaping up well. So congratulations to Grave Seasons for not only being one of my favorite games of SGF, but also for climbing straight to the top of my wife's Steam wishlist.