The Incident at Galley House review

From Blue Prince to Öoo, last year had many 'thinky' game gems – but chances are, you didn't play the masterful Type Help, William Rous' horror-themed puzzle mystery that we raved about in our round-up of 2025's best games.The premise involved you, the player, uncovering the truth behind a series of unusual deaths that occurred over one day in 1936 by figuring out and typing in codes to access files using a text-based interface. You were, in essence, constructing a timeline. With every new scene that you unlocked, you gained not only story but also new details about the characters' whereabouts to help you piece together further codes.With some neat surprises along the way, Type Help had an immensely satisfying gameplay loop where your puzzle-solving directly fed into an unfolding narrative that was both well-written and chilling.Related: TR-49 reviewEven though it was free, it's understandable why such an excellent game went underappreciated. It's purely text-based, and was only released on Itch.io. Well, now we have The Incident at Galley House, a full remake from Rous and The Roottrees Are Dead developer Evil Trout that has graphics and voice-acting and is available on Steam, so you have no excuse not to see what the fuss is about.It's a strange one, though, because even though Galley House has greater production values and is certainly more accessible (and is a game I would still recommend), I wouldn't say it is the best way to experience the game and the story, depending on your personal preferences. I actually think Galley House's presentation makes the story less impactful overall, compared to the original game. Take the UI, for example. Being a text-based game, Type Help required you to manually type in the codes to access new scenes. Galley House takes an entirely different approach, asking you to interact with a machine by clicking on knobs and dials, which generates the code for you, before you click on the lever to watch the resulting scene. It reminds me a little of Inkle's TR-49, and I imagine this interface is compatible with a controller and a Steam Deck.However, there was something more intimate about how you interacted with Type Help. Even though it was text-based, in many ways the typing experience felt more like you were interacting with a machine and doing investigative work compared to clicking on Galley House's unusual and fake – albeit user-friendly – machine.Type Help's interface also worked better for how some of the twists came to you. Let's stick to just the early game and take the first couple of hours as an example. In Type Help, it was less obvious from the outset what the codes meant and what you were trying to achieve, and you had to work a little harder to understand the structure of the game. Galley House spells things out more clearly, which isn't a bad thing as such – I'm sure there will be fewer people bouncing off the game in the first 20 minutes as a result – but the trade-off is that some of the revelations just don't hit the same way.If there's another thing that demonstrates how different the two games are in terms of feel, it's the note-taking and how I consulted my notes across both games.While note-taking is a key part in both games, in Type Help it felt essential. Galley House has multiple screens that records and lets you go through information you've accumulated (in addition to a notes tab). The latter is more accessible, but I would argue comes with a downside. The way things are cleanly presented results in a less personalised experience, as far as taking notes and arriving at conclusions go.Galley House's audiovisual presentation is an interesting one to discuss. I enjoyed the voice-acting and I found nothing wrong with the static graphics, but I actually felt more dread and tension with Type Help as I had to rely on my imagination when reading the scenes. There were some characters I ended up being more attached to in Type Help, and as a result, some of the original deaths had greater impact.There's also a side-effect to having fully voice-acted scenes when it comes to the puzzle-solving. In Type Help, I felt no pressure in reading at my own pace – pausing and scrolling back up as much as I needed to jot down any interesting details. By contrast, with Galley House I didn't want to interrupt the scenes as they played out. I didn't want the impact of the voice-acting or the pacing of the scenes to be lessened, and so in some ways I felt disincentivised to take notes in the moment.It's probably unfair that I'm comparing the two versions so much, because Galley House is still a great game and will be the preferred option for those who enjoy voice-acting and those who struggle to get into Twine games. The core of the puzzle-solving is still excellent and the story that takes place in 1936 remains the same.Perhaps the fact that I played Type Help less than one year ago and is still pretty fresh in my mind – an issue that a lot of people won't have – makes things more difficult for Galley House.Galley House also comes with additional content, in the form of a short segment after you have solved everyone's fates in 1936. Without giving much away, this content contextualises why your character in the present day is investigating the deaths. It comes with new puzzle-solving and a few good twists and is mostly enjoyable, but it isn't a must-play as some of Galley House's wider flaws apply here too and I wouldn't say it meaningfully enhances the main story that's set in the past, which is the selling point of the game.Having reached 100% completion in both titles, I personally found Type Help to be the superior and more memorable version of the game – with its minimalist presentation delivering a greater sense of dread as the layers of the mystery gradually reveal themselves. However, I'm still glad The Incident at Galley House exists if it means that William Rous' storytelling reaches more people.The Incident at Galley House is out now on PC. The original game Type Help is available on Itch.io.