In the village of Sardinia, Italy, I thought I knew my way to the church. After coming across the local restaurant, I just had to keep walking up north. I'd learned that if I stumbled upon the intersection leading to the Miniere di Gravoi and the Castello Bissani, I had taken the wrong turn. The sight of the pharmacy was a sign that I was on the right track. But now I couldn't find it. The village had once again shifted its streets and landmarks in an attempt to keep me trapped another day.

Saturnalia, by developer Santa Ragione, is a third-person horror adventure set in a fictional Italian village. The story begins with Anita, a geologist, assaying the viability of the local mines. As you meet the other three playable characters, it doesn't take long to realize that the mass everyone recently attended was tangled with an eerie, ancient ritual.

In old-school horror fashion, you need to gather clues to learn more about the mystery, find tools to access new areas, and manage limited resources, from matches that illuminate your surroundings to firecrackers that create distractions. Noteworthy clues are added to a detective board—less Sherlock Holmes's mind palace and more a static tree that connects branches when you find supporting evidence or answer a previous question. Each major discovery leads to a new objective to tackle. The detective board serves as an indispensable tool to check on your progress and pending tasks—which is ironic, when you juxtapose the board with Saturnalia's map system.

Guidance is mainly given by local maps and street signs. If you need to visit the hardware store in search of an emergency hammer, for example, you'll first have to visually learn its location and then memorize the streets to get there. Most direct paths to landmarks are inaccessible, forcing you to find—and ultimately create—shortcuts for subsequent trips. But here's the trick: If all four playable characters die, the village retains your story progress while completely shifting its own layout as a trade-off.

Various difficulty settings can either clear up or further obfuscate navigation in Saturnalia. There are some additional mechanics that can help you out as well. For instance, when reading a map on the street, you can pinpoint a specific location for your character to memorize—albeit only temporarily. If another character is currently tagging along, you can ask them to take you to the desired spot. That is, if you don't get caught by the strange entities hunting you down.

Procedurally generated environments are often included in pursuit of replayability, shifting secrets or enemy encounters around to keep future loops fresh. In Saturnalia, the mechanic is subverted—familiarity is used against you when the puzzle you've been unraveling for hours shuffles the order of its pieces. All of a sudden, the sight of a pharmacy on a different corner is as scary as the dark figure standing in an empty street.