No matter the medium, Lovecraft is hard to pull off. His cosmic tales of horror fail in most forms of adaptation. Why? Mainly because of the purposeful ambiguity in the writing and the difficulty in portraying Lovecraft's creatures and the themes of insanity that come with it. Showing the monsters often takes away from the fear the writing builds. However, despite these challenges, video games have actually been the most reliable source in adapting Lovecraft to the world.
Video games have the incredible ability to put players directly in the shoes of the characters and that is crucial when recreating the horror that one expects from something like a Lovecraftian adaptation. Making them not merely viewers, but active participants in the Mythos.
10 There Are Monsters Out There The Light Cannot See - Sunless Seas (2015)
Easily one of the best-written adventures in recent years, Sunless Seas has players become the captain of their own ship in a steampunk London where all sun is gone. The player creates their captain and has to battle with both dangerous quests and insanity in order to survive. The game is a strict roguelike.
Between each playthrough, the player will lose all progress and only pass on one item to their lineage. Will the next captain encounter the horrors of the sea and live to tell the tale? Or eat their crew and die trying.
9 Bethesda's Underrated Attempt At Lovecraft - Call of Cthulu: Dark Corners Of The Earth (2005)
Bethesda's single-player adventure Call of Cthulu: Dark Corners of the Earth is an incredible infusion of Lovecraft mystery. Directly adapted from the source material, the game sees the player as a private detective investigating a strange coastal town and the disappearances of people within it.
The game starts off at a slow, atmospheric pace before quickly ramping up the mystery to involve cults, fish people, and otherworldly creatures. As the game progresses, it certainly shows its age, and Cthulu is defeated admittedly a bit too easily. But ultimately, it's one of the most interesting adaptations to have been released.
8 Drive Yourself Mad, Detective - Call of Cthulu (2018)
2018 also saw the release of a Call of Cthulu adaptation with Cyanide's game of the name. The opening beats are the same: detective, town, cult, fish people, Cthulu. However, what makes this game stand out is its hyper-focus on player detective work and on multiple paths and routes. The player is encouraged to create the detective they see fit focusing on certain skill areas.
Focusing on strength may get players into locked-off areas with extra clues. Whereas a focus on cult knowledge will reveal more into the mystery and understanding of what is happening but also lead to potential insanity. This is one of the few adventures gamers will urge newbies to go for the bad ending, especially if they're vying to see the dark one himself.
7 Pixelated Lovecraftian Mystery - The Last Door - (2014)
For a game made in low-res art, this game is shockingly scary. The Last Door is a psychological horror mystery following a man in Victorian England exploring a mansion after receiving a letter from a friend that something is very wrong.
Without ruining the mystery, the player is quickly sucked into a dark world of the occult and otherwordly beings that spans four playable episodes. Furthermore, with the release of a sequel in 2016, there's more than enough 32-bit mystery to discover.
6 Try Not To Forget, Daniel - Amnesia: The Dark Descent (2010)
One of the most influential horror games of the past decade, Amnesia: The Dark Descent is who gamers have to thank for survival horror as we know it today. This is a game that often ranks at the top of the charts for the scariest game ever made and for good reason. The horror in Amnesia clearly draws on Lovecraftian mythos.
In this game and its sequels, players quickly realize they are dealing with otherwordly cosmic horror. The Grunts and Brutes beneath the manor are nothing compared to the dark mysteries Daniel made himself forget. Furthermore, the direct counterplay of insanity within the game is an obvious call to Lovecraft. See too many horrors and Daniel will be unable to move, literally frozen with horror. Not very helpful when gamers are running away from monsters.
5 An Augmented Reality Lovecraft Tabletop Video Game? - Mansions of Madness (2016)
Originally beginning as a tabletop game, Mansions of Madness has now turned into a semi-video game and semi-tabletop adventure for gamers willing to meet up in real life (or solo players brave enough to go in alone.) The game has players exploring a series of Lovecraft-inspired mysteries across the board game. The DM is the computer augmenting the tabletop into virtual reality.
Within its cardboard streets and plastic cosmic-horror miniatures, players will find themselves struggling against all odds (and their own sanity) to solve unforgiving mysteries and working cooperatively to stop the great evils that lurk in the shadows. Players may be forced to betray their friends to secretly win and even potentially have to kill them.
4 Dark Fantasy Madness- Darkest Dungeon (2016)
Darkest Dungeon is a dark fantasy rouge-lite seeing players leading a team of dungeon explorers deeper and deeper into the eldritch horror that lies within. The game's Lovecraftian-inspired elements come from the game's killer atmosphere, monster design, and insanity checks. One of the biggest challenges players face within the game is its punishing insanity levels.
Players have to deal with masochism, fear, irrationality, and other quirks their team is afflicted with that only get worse the deeper they progress into darkness. It's the frightening (but fair) difficulty and stellar atmosphere that is sure to leave players chilled to their bones.
3 Legends Mixed With Lovecraft Horror - World Of Horror (2020)
Junji Ito is arguably the Lovecraft of the modern-day. Nobody writes cosmic horror stories nowadays as near as terrifying and thrilling as his. From the spiraling Uzumaki (soon to be an Adult Swim series) to his gory Gyo, there is no lack of Lovecraftian otherwordly horror to be found. World of Horror is a tribute to these masterminds of horror.
World of Horror is a rouge-lite adventure where players explore multiple stories all taking place within the same town. In any given adventure, they can expect to find cults, cosmic horror, and disturbing mutilated imageries all around: all in a cute black and white pixelated style. The game is still in early access with a lot of new content on the way but has received nothing but thrilling reviews from supporters. This is a love letter to horror done right.
2 RPG Action Mythos - Lovecraft's Untold Stories (2019)
Lovecraft's Untold Stories is an action rogue-lite love story to the man of cosmic horror himself. The game has a lot of RPG charm to it with a beautifully designed top-down pixelated art. Players play as one of five characters each with their own set of interconnecting mysteries as they explore various Lovecraft story locations.
To defeat the Ancient Ones, players have to survive hordes of enemies and research their weaknesses. Failure to do so will drive the player mad and ultimately lead to a game over. It's an upbeat thrilling action title for those who need a little bit more bullet hell in their Lovecraft.
1 Explore An Underwater City - The Sinking City (2019)
The Sinking City is a Lovecraft horror detective game created by Frogware, the folks behind the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes series. Like a lot of other Lovecraft games, the plot points are basically the same. Detective, creepy New England city, fish people, Cthulu, madness... This game shines however in its lush environments and graphics. Players have to travel on a boat through a large number of districts each in various states of flooding and decay.
Sanity plays a large role in the gameplay as well, directly affecting how well the player can investigate the mysteries and eventually become fatal if it's totally lost. While the game had a rough launch, the release of patches has made this game somewhat of a hidden gem. All Lovecraft enthusiasts definitely need to give this one a shot.