Lovecraft Would Dig these Video Games

[Kaelestes]

I'm a big gamer - I loves them good - and I really love games with some mythos kick. These are the games I know of that show direct links to Lovecraft's work, but I'm interested in all horror titles with that special feel. If you know of any good ones absent from the wee little list I'm going to toss down below, please do share!

NOTE! I'll let the games' trailers do most of the talking.

• Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth (Xbox, PC) - Ambitious but flawed FPS/Stealth/Adventure goodness based on The Shadow over Innsmouth. It was deeply mired in a dying development company's woes, but I think the good points outshined the technical issues.
• Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem (GameCube) - FPS psychological greatness. If you want to get deeply creeped out at 2AM, play this one. Best game on the Cube!
• Sam and Max: The Devil's Playhouse (PS3) - Point & Click Adventure 5-part episodic, thick with goofy homages to Lovecraft's works.
• On the Rain Slick-Precipice of Darkness (Xbox360, PS3, PC) - Penny Arcade point & click adventure 4-part episodic. Episodes 1 and 2 are heavy handed silly adaptations of Lovecraftian mythos. The final 2 episodes can officially be considered vaporware until further details arise.
• Darkness Within: In Pursuit of Loath Nolder (PC) - First-person adventure horror in the style of Myst. Very, very creepy first installment in a planned trilogy.
• Darkness Within 2: The Dark Lineage (PC) - Part 2! This time with lifelike character control!

[Danial]

I think Dark Corners of the Earth had a lot of potential, but as you mentioned, it had a lot of development issues that pulled it down in the end.

[Rob]

Agree with the comments on DCOTE. Had some great moments but was also extremelty frustrating in places

Going back to PC game ancient history - I really enjoyed Shadow of the Coment and the first Alone in the Dark

[MartinRonnlund]

Prisoner of Ice was also a rather good one, at least most of it leading up to the final chapter.

[Danial]

I just watched the new Sherlock Holmes film and it reminded me that there was a Sherlock Holmes vs Cthulhu Cult game called The Awakened. It wasn't my cup of tea (too slow), but some of you might like it. If they had taken a leaf from this new film and incorporated some fighting into it (something along the lines of Batman: Arkham Asylum) then it would have been much more appealing

[Bulbatron]

The Call of Cthulhu - Dark Corners of the Earth had a lot of great moments, but as others have said, it was just a little too annoying in some sections.  Eternal Darkness is also a very good game.

Never played the Darkness Within games, but I've seen them being played on YouTube.  They look great and I wish more stuff like this would come out for Mac, or dare I say it - consoles!

[fishy]

The Call of Cthulhu - Dark Corners of the Earth had a lot of great moments, but as others have said, it was just a little too annoying in some sections.  Eternal Darkness is also a very good game.

Never played the Darkness Within games, but I've seen them being played on YouTube.  They look great and I wish more stuff like this would come out for Mac, or dare I say it - consoles!

I would not call the "escape from the hotel sequense" annoying. I would call it totally mindblowing frustrating....my console nearly went out the window there. Never got through it, even with a walk-through

[Manndroid]

You absolutely have to look up and play Penumbra: Black Plague. It's the second episode in a series, but you need no prior experience with the first to enjoy it (the first isn't all that great, and the introduction to Black Plague sums it up nicely.) Here's a trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAvQAkXqnUg

Probably the scariest game I've ever played. You can get it cheaply in a package now on Steam. It's heavily influenced by At the Mountains of Madness, and plays out as a 3D adventure game with FPS elements (except, you can't fight... You must run, hide, and sneak, which makes the gameplay absolutely terrifying and filled with paranoia.) The developers pretty much openly admit to being influenced by Lovecraft, as the protagonist's name is Phillip, and his father is Howard.

Also, keep an eye out for Amnesia: The Dark Descent, the next game by the same company that did Penumbra. Looks to take a page from The Rats in the Walls. You can watch a trailer for that one here: http://www.amnesiagame.com/

[Kaelestes]

I would not call the "escape from the hotel sequence" annoying. I would call it totally mind blowing frustrating....my console nearly went out the window there. Never got through it, even with a walk-through

Haha! Fair enough! I don't think anyone having played CoC:DCotE was ever able to beat that segment on the first or possibly even the second run through. Again, it just goes back to how little time the company had to play-test and smooth over the game's rough edges. There was just no money left. And it's really a shame the end result was so soul crushingly difficult, because the idea of being chased through an unfamiliar hotel and over rooftops by gun wielding psychos without any means to defend yourself is believable enough to be really scary. I think I got it down after my fifth or sixth try, but I had forewarning about the difficulty so I wasn't quite so enraged by it all.

You absolutely have to look up and play Penumbra: Black Plague. It's the second episode in a series, but you need no prior experience with the first to enjoy it (the first isn't all that great, and the introduction to Black Plague sums it up nicely.) Here's a trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAvQAkXqnUg

Also, keep an eye out for Amnesia: The Dark Descent, the next game by the same company that did Penumbra. Looks to take a page from The Rats in the Walls. You can watch a trailer for that one here: http://www.amnesiagame.com/

Sweet mother of awesome-sauce....those two look incredible....and soil yourself scary. The lack of combat reminds me strongly of games like Clock Tower and Haunting Grounds, which are both titles I absolutely adore. Thanks for the tip! My girlfriend will be cursing your name when I make her keep me company through those!

And I almost forgot one of my favorite Lovecraft inspired games of all time: Eversion. Don’t let the cutesy Mario Bros.-style gameplay confuse you; things get real creepy real fast. Eversion was developed as an experiment in reexamining the horror genre and focusing on the psychological aspects of fear. I don’t want to say much because it would be really easy to spoil the atmosphere of this title, but I will say that there are 2 different endings to find and my favorite Outer God makes a cameo appearance. Eversion is free to download and only takes about 20-30 minutes to complete on your first run. Enjoy!

[fishy]

I would not call the "escape from the hotel sequence" annoying. I would  call it totally mind blowing frustrating....my console nearly went out the window there. Never got through it, even with a walk-through

Haha! Fair enough! I don't think anyone having played CoC:DCotE was ever able to beat that segment on the first or possibly even the second run through. Again, it just goes back to how little time the company had to play-test and smooth over the game's rough edges. There was just no money left. And it's really a shame the end result was so soul crushingly difficult, because the idea of being chased through an unfamiliar hotel and over rooftops by gun wielding psychos without any means to defend yourself is believable enough to be really scary. I think I got it down after my fifth or sixth try, but I had forewarning about the difficulty so I wasn't quite so enraged by it all.

And then we have not even touched the small little detail about savingpoints...how the howling hell could they come up with the idea that there was no savingpoints during that whole sequense ? Some savingpoints here and there would have made much difference there....sighs..

[Bulbatron]

I've played all the Penumbra games and they're all very good indeed, though Black Plague is definitely the best.  I've already pre-ordered and paid for Amnesia - The Dark Decent.  Absolutely cannot wait for that one!

[Danial]

I think I got it down after my fifth or sixth try, but I had forewarning about the difficulty so I wasn't quite so enraged by it all.

Sounds just like my experience. I played it on the PC, and from what I hear, that hotel scene was quite a bit easier with the added accuracy of a mouse.

[Bulbatron]

I played Call of Cthulhu on the Xbox.  I think it took me at least 8 attempts to get past the hotel escape section.  On paper it sounds great, but to actually play, it can be a bit of a bugger at times.

I think my favourite part of that game was when you arrive in Innsmouth, but before everything kicks off in the hotel.  I liked just wandering around Innsmouth and snooping down all the little alleyways and corners, and looking in through windows.  Very atmospheric.

[Manndroid]

The funny thing about the hotel sequence is that the first time I played it, I got through it just fine. However, on my second playthrough of the game, I had to do it four or five times. Lady luck was on my side, I guess!

I had gotten pretty far in DCOTE, before my first 360 red-ringed and I had to send it in. When it came back, the savegames were corrupt. Just CoC, though - I guess because it was an original XBox game. Frustrated, I haven't really touched it since. I might get it on Steam and play it on the PC, as it'd probably make those tricky parts easier. Like the damn Shoggoth.

[Danial]

There were a few things that DCotE was meant to have at one point or another that were scrapped for whatever reasons...

Such as a stealth system:




And a Dark Young:



I personally think both of these would have been very cool