The Mysteries of Baroque
"The Mysteries of Baroque" is a 200,000-word interactive Gothic horror novel by William Brown, where your choices control the story. It's entirely text-based—without graphics or sound effects—and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.
One dark and stormy night in a remote castle in the mountains, you awake anew, resurrected by the brilliant Dr. Holofernes. But even a mad scientist can't keep you alive forever. As the procedure reverses itself over time, you will begin to die again. You must fight to stay alive long enough hunt down your killers, avenge yourself, and protect the ones you love.
Operating out of the mysterious Grand Guignol Theater, your quest will take you through the darkest shadows of the city of Baroque, the City of Dreadful Night, from its vast subterranean slums to the opulent mansions of its jaded, debauched aristocracy. Will you lose yourself in the distractions of romance, assure your own survival through the Holofernes Procedure, or sacrifice everything to take your revenge?
• Play as male, female, or non-binary; gay, straight, or ace.
• Fight to reclaim your old life and identity – or make a new home for yourself in the Grand Guignol Theater
• Trade your soul to a dark god in return for vengeance – or reject its help and fight alone.
• Stalk your killers through the glittering demimonde, mansions, and the slums.
• Learn the sanity-blasting secrets of the occult and risk your mind by unleashing them on your enemies.
• Use the power of science to devise and build bizarre inventions: death rays, gliders, and hallucinogenic grenades.
• Augment your regenerating body with clockwork technology like wings, a camera eye, or steel claws.
• Uphold the forces of law and order, the revolutionary Worker’s Council, or the enigmatic Vendetta faction in the battle for Baroque’s soul.
• Embark on dream quests and night visions to learn new skills and uncover ancestral memories.
• Bring comfort and hope to the suffering citizens of Baroque, or drive them further into darkness in pursuit of vengeance.
You died betrayed. You died in pain. And your troubles are just beginning.
Category : Role Playing
Reviews (20)
Overall good story, but very rushed in the end. Too many concepts and ideas were introduced in such a short time that I found myself disinterested in reading the blocks of exposition. Not to mention the twist came out of left field and it wasn't very welcomed or deserved in my opinion. The pacing is messy, disoriented, and could have used like 3 or 4 more chapters to better develop the ending
The story and the concepts introduced in it were truly fascinating, I just didn't feel like the execution was as good as it could have been. There were great characters, but none felt properly developed. And the stats didn't feel very rewarding. You could only significantly boost one or maybe two stats, so there were many situations where I felt helpless. There isn't anything inherently wrong with creating a sense of helplessness, but it should be intentional. This didn't come across that way
i really liked it. the choices actually matter and influence the story in lots of different little ways and there are a ton of different achievements, routes and endings. sadly, i achieved every achievement in, like, a week and i find that no other games are quite as interesting as this one. it was challenging and even though i basically know everything that can happen in the game by heart, i still replay it often just to get a different combination.
Overall I really like the story, it had an interesting setting that I tend to enjoy and it had some good concepts. I just wish these things could have been explored more and we were given a better ending; it left a lot to be desired. Maybe if we were given more hints about what was happening to the MC and certain ideas were more fleshed out, it would be better. That's just my personal opinion though.
Simply amazing. This is one of the best cocs, if not the best. The author manages to create the perfect atmosphere of what the Baroque world is. All the characters are deep and interesting, and there are plenty of choices, that matter a lot actually. What I like about this game the most is the lack of a "right answer" and the lack of a "bad ending" it just all decisions and that's that. I enjoyed it too much.
Interesting idea but it throws too much at you too quickly. The world this feels rather hollow. Also, the pacing is terrible. It goes really fast, jumping settings in page flips. It gets confusing. Otherwise the characters are well written and it is an interesting world.
One of CoG's best games--funny, gripping, with a lot to explore in its 200k words. The bizarre alternate-Paris setting is packed with references you don't need to get to enjoy (but will add to your enjoyment if you do). The world reveals itself nicely on one playthrough, with plenty of details that emerge and variety to explore on replays. 5/5, would devour the cosmos again.
A twisted story based on straightforward gameplay. I played through Baroque maybe 20 times and have yet to find a bug. It's fun to discover the wrinkles and sub-stories of this captivating game.
Look, I loved the game a lot. It was amazing from start to end! But don't get me wrong, the end felt... awful. It was good, yes, but I feel like it was so, so rushed. It could have used 2 to 3 more chapters to actually, successfully wrap it up. For me, it was a bit short. But overall? It was good.
Wow. Just wow. This story would be a great piece of literature. The fact that is an interactive novel puts it in a class all its own. The author is extremely knowledgable on a variety of topics (philosophy, history, psychology, etc) and uses it all to create a world that never was, but feels authentic. The author also pays loving homage to a number of past greats (HP Lovecraft, John Carter of Mars, the best damn cpu rpg of the 90's Torment). I will think of Baroque long after my last game.
A great read. Great world building and characters feel strong and have personality. I actually re read and got much different outcomes based on my stats and decisions. I only wish the story let me spend some time with the characters beforehand
Very little character and relation building possibilities. If you do not make the obvious choices which belong to the same plotline, the story becomes shabby. Nice atmosphere and storytelling. Would have been better off as a novel than a "game".
I really love the concept. Sort of a combination of Dishonored and Penny Dreadful. I had a similar idea for a 'Choice of ' game, only it was set in a more 20th century pulp world. Anyway, great story.
A well-written satisfying book. The spices and exotic ideas of occult and the drive of the story makes me keep reliving the story more and more. Great book. thank you!
You'll find pretty much reference to the Lovecraftian in this eldritch monstrous world-building. High replayability because there are some mystery to discover that can't be seen in only one playthrough.
Very cool setting. The story was rushed though. It built up to the ending way too fast. Still a very interesting game.
Wow, I love this game/story! I've played a lot of these choice based narrative games but this one goes beyond them all with incredible world building and interesting characters that left me very much wanting more stories from this universe
I love it but there could be more to it. A more in depth story or getting to go on side quests or whatever. This story can be much more.
By far the best COG GAME you will ever play, the choices are a ten, the characters have novel quality depth, and the story is outstanding.
A very well written book overall. I couldn't find a single typo (truly a feat for these kinds of interactive novels) and everything flowed well. At some point, the plot kind of went sideways and I had no idea what was happening, but it righted itself. My biggest regret will perhaps be the fact that we had to choose which "problem" to resolve, leaving open many other issues to fester, and that the world building went from 0 to 100 in one chapter and then kind of subsided again.