It’s been two years since we reviewed the first Amanda the Adventurer game for Halloween. Since then, we’ve had a sequel and Amanda’s adventure finally seems to be near its end.
When we first met Amanda, she was an uncanny and creepy little girl, she has some clipworthy creepy moments and a few jumps, but over time (and throughout the second game) we’ve learned more about her. Now, we can empathize with her and maybe even trust her a little.
We’ve also learned through our time together that there’s more than just monsters and haunted video tapes to the mystery here. What is Hameln Entertainment? What happened to all the kids who disappeared and what makes Amanda (or rather Rebecca) so special?
Amanda the Adventurer 3 brings us closer to the answers but is it as satisfying as the first game?
Amanda the Adventurer 3
Developer: MANGLEDmaw Games
Publisher: DreadXP
Platforms: Windows PC
Release Date: November 6, 2025
Price: $34.99
CAUTION: Due to the linear story of the series, it’s almost impossible to review this game without spoilers for Amanda the Adventurer 1 and 2. As for 3, we’ll try and keep story spoilers to the first act.
Amanda the Adventurer 3 takes place immediately after the events of 2. We continue our adventure as Riley, who inherited the cursed tapes from local librarian Kate. After sticking our noses where it doesn’t belong, we’ve found ourselves in the middle of a decades long conspiracy. At the center? Hameln Entertainment, the town of Kensdale, and of course Amanda the Adventurer.
After the events of 2, we’ve learned a few things. The friendship between Amanda and her animal sidekick Wooly is even more strained than we thought, and that Amanda is directly aware of what Riley is doing outside of the TV.
We got a few hints in the first game, but the way Amanda switches between lucid 4th wall breaking and then going back to her childish TV antics, it’s hard to tell when we she’s trying to tell us something important. It’s this kind of cryptic storytelling that keeps me engaged in the mystery.
But, it also begs the question: why is she acting? What’s compelling her? She’s taken off her proverbial mask and addressed us directly before. Maybe there’s an existential threat that can reach Amanda, even in the world of the tapes?
The game begins in what appears to be an underground facility that was owned by Hameln Entertainment, and after the introduction of a second demonic-like entity which looks a lot like Wooly, we’re happy to be somewhere safe…ish.
Now, in the facility, we follow the tried and true Amanda the Adventurer formula of solving puzzles and watching video tapes. But, things are different now. The stakes are more real as we find ourselves face to face with the underlying combination of science and demonic rituals that caused all of this trauma.
Amanda the Adventurer 3 attempts to empower us as a player, over the past two games we’ve become more than just a passive victim of Hameln’s conspiracy. MANGLEDmaw makes use of storytelling tools like a tutorial, taking place before the events of the games, which gives us a little more perspective for how many people have been impacted. We, as Riley, are a relative newcomer to this tragedy, but it falls to us to give everyone peace and closure.
The first game was scary, but also kind of cozy. The second game took things a bit further with jumpscares, and now in the third game I’m unsure how to feel. I want to explore, solve puzzles, and learn the story, but the environment is more anxiety-inducing than before. On one hand being scarier is surely a good thing right?
On the other hand I feel like the mystique in the game’s story is fading, we’re figuring out Amanda and the rules she follows and that’s making me feel a little bolder as the protagonist. But maybe that’s the cost of narrative-building. It’s hard to keep the esoteric and eldritch horror vibe of the first game when now’s the time for the mystery to pay off.
Amanda the Adventurer 3 feels more like a proper horror game. It’s clear that MANGLEDmaw has learned from the success of the series and has reinvested their experience by polishing the game. While it has larger environments and more gimmicks for puzzles, it’s lost some of the cozy, indie jankiness that made the first one feel so unique; or at least that’s how I felt at first. The second act brings some surprises and creepiness that I felt was missing from the start.
However, the larger scope means more sacrifices in puzzle design as well. The puzzles are excellent and require a real bit of thought, but to keep the game on the rails it can be difficult to know when you’re meant to solve them. I’ll give an explicit example, there’s a rat puzzle in the first act where you have to feed them “slop”.
I saw the clues and understood they were clues, but I didn’t realize it was a three part puzzle. I watched the video till the end and then ran around for forty minutes trying to solve a puzzle I’d already failed because I wasn’t on the right part of the video.
Sometimes the video will automatically pause to cue you to solve a puzzle, other times the pause button just pulses yellow. It’s this inconsistency that causes me to trust the game less than past installments. Furthermore, the game is quick to lock you out of accessing puzzles as you progress through the videos.
This isn’t a huge problem, but there’s unskippable cutscenes and videos which make repeat playthroughs troublesome and annoying, especially when there’s a secret you just can’t find. After I beat the game, I went back twice from the first act and only found 1 more secret tape I’d missed my first go around. I know there’s still more to discover.
Visually, Amanda the Adventurer 3 keeps the same intentionally low-budget feel in order to evoke that analogue horror aesthetic. The game also continues the series tradition of live-action segments featuring past events in the story, showing us the events leading up to and immediately after Rebecca Colton’s disappearance.
Ultimately, Amanda the Adventurer 3 elevates the series with polished gameplay and a continuation to its gripping story, but its broader scope smooths over some of the eerie aesthetic that made the original a standout.
I still maintain that Amanda the Adventurer deserves a spot among other indie horror icons, providing a fresh and more thoughtful experience than the jumpscare-heavy franchises which have dominated discourse.
