The award-winning board game, Arkham Horror is getting a video game adaptation from Asmodee Digital, which will launch next year on Steam. Arkham Horror: Mothers Embrace is an investigation game where players will lead a diverse cast of characters through nine chapters as they progress further into the story. Some of the locations you'll explore include the Arkham Asylum, the Miskatonic University and the Louisiana bayou.
The horror starts in 1926, when an astronomy professor is found dead in her home and believed to have been murdered. Players can choose from a roster of a dozen investigators, each with a unique skill set, to accept the case and find the truth behind this academic's death.
Like the rest of the franchise, the game will take place within the Cthulhu mythos created by H.P. Lovecraft. Players will have to fight off the threat of madness and paranoia as they delve deeper into the mystery. Enemies will include eldritch monsters and a mysterious cult that likely had a hand in this murder. Arkham is also said to have some RPG elements, where your deductions, exploration and choices effect the characters around you and the story's outcome.
Also included is turn-based combat, where players will be able to use a variety of melee and ranged weapons, along with some magic spells. A number of weapons are already confirmed, such as pistols, rifles, knives and a spell book. While there is currently no gameplay footage available, screenshots suggest that combat and exploration will be top-down. There also appear to be a number of story cutscenes from a first-person perspective.
Back in 2016, Fantasy Flight Games came out with its own free to play, app-driven board game called Mansions of Madness. This game lets up to five players return to Arkham, where they need the luck of the dice, alliances with other characters and more to solve the mystery and win the game. If you can't wait to scratch that Lovecraft itch, Mansions might just be able to hold you over till next year.
The original Arkham board game was created in 1987 by Richard Launius, who based it off the 1981 tabletop RPG, Call of Cthulhu. The board game has become so popular that it has gone through two new editions, with the most recent being released in 2018. It truly speaks to the popularity of the Cthulhu mythos that Lovecraft's short story from 1926 has led to such an enduring pop-culture presence. And so, we will keep telling these stories, until the Ancient One awakens from his slumber.