Christian McKnight revisits 10 of the best Lovecraftian horror games you need to add to your gaming backlog.
With the release of Sinking City 2, I figured it was time to take a look back at some great games with some heavy Lovecraftian inspiration. You know, the cosmic horrors, descending into madness, creatures beyond our understanding. That kind of thing. And yeah, he wasn’t exactly a stellar guy, but he did create some pretty cool mythos. Without further ado, here are 10 Lovecraftian games that I think you should check out, in no particular order.
Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth (2005)
This is a first-person survival horror game that is heavily inspired by Lovecraft’s work, if the name wasn’t a dead giveaway. Specifically, The Shadow Over Innsmouth. Made for the original Xbox and now playable on Steam, the game blends first-person shooter, survival horror, and investigation.
You play as Jack Walters, a police detective who is called to an estate in Boston where a cult is in a standoff with the police. Of course, the standoff doesn’t last; chaos ensues, and Jack finds himself contending with much more than he bargained for. The game does a fantastic job of balancing horror and first-person gunplay. The game was generally well received, though it lost points for being pretty buggy. And really hard. That aside, however, Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth is a weird, wild little gem that you should check out if you have the chance.
Call of Cthulhu (2018)
Despite sharing (most of) a name and basically the same protagonist (a police detective sent to investigate a mysterious case), Call of Cthulhu plays out differently than Dark Corners of the Earth.
This detective, Edward Pierce, is an alcoholic and pill addict plagued by weird dreams and the loss of his wife. It is still a first-person survival horror and investigative game, but here, there are RPG elements to it. You can level up different skills of your choosing to approach problems in different ways.
I will warn you. While there are multiple possible endings to this game, none of them are particularly happy. After all, when dealing with an unknowable being, a crazed cult, a couple of addictions, and never-ending rain, did anyone expect this to end in sunshine and rainbows?
Bloodborne (2015)
Bloodborne was the first Souls-like game that I attempted. And when it came out, I was terrible at it.
I mean terrible.
Somehow, between then and now, I developed the hand-eye coordination to be able to play these games. This means I finally got the chance to experience the incredible atmosphere that this game has. Starting out, the game gives very much Van Helsing vibes. Gothic horror. Werewolves and what basically equates to vampires stalk the streets. Everything feels dark and dangerous, but still familiar to the player. Then the night progresses
As the game continues, the world begins to change around you. Horrors on a small scale, like a rabid werewolf, begin shifting into wilder and more confusing nightmares. Mind flayers stalk the streets, Great Ones haunt the skies, and the denizens of Yharnam are all losing their sanity. If you haven’t and you can, please play this game.
Amnesia Series (2010-2023)
The next few in the list are all by the same developers. Somebody is a big fan of H.P. Lovecraft’s works.
The Amnesia series has been around for a little while now. These games really emphasize the helplessness of a person facing incredible, unknowable beings. Only in the most recent game in the franchise, Amnesia: The Bunker, can you actually fight back against the beings that are after you.
The lack of ability to fight back is one of the things that made these games just so terrifying. So much is out of your control. In so many survival horror games, you can simply pull out a revolver and shoot your way through a situation. Here, you have to hide, monitor your sanity, and pray that whatever is lurking in the dark doesn’t find you before you stumble to the next closet to hide in. That feeling of helplessness is a huge part of what makes Lovecraft work, and Amnesia takes full advantage of it.
Penumbra Series (2007-2008)
If you thought Amnesia was obvious in its Lovecraftian influences, wait until you hear about Penumbra.
They named the engine used to run the game after Howard Phillip Lovecraft. It is literally called the HPL engine. The main character is named Phillip. I mean…
These games were a precursor to the Amnesia series, and you can really feel where the cosmic horror touches. You are once again placed in situations where you are largely powerless against whatever is hunting you. Forcing you to rely on stealth and your wits, rather than simply shooting everything that moves. If you enjoyed Amnesia, you’ll love plenty about where the series began.
SOMA (2015)
Same developers, same inspiration. SOMA is also a stealth-heavy survival horror game. This time, the emphasis is much more on the storytelling.
The last of humanity. A remote underwater research vessel. Terrifying leviathans of the deep. Sounds pretty Lovecraftian to me. But SOMA does something a little bit different. Instead of just having the player run and hide for their lives, the game makes you consider serious, disturbing questions about human consciousness and what it actually means to be alive.
Still Wakes the Deep (2024)
Still Wakes the Deep, like many on this list, is a first-person survival horror narrative. This time, the game takes place on a deep-sea oil rig. The crew digs a little too deep and unleashes something more horrific than any of them could have imagined. Sound familiar?
The isolated setting is what makes this game so unique. There is nowhere to run, very few places to hide, and almost no chance that anyone is coming to rescue you. The oil rig itself becomes a maze of collapsing passages, flooding halls, and whatever the crew seems to have unleashed on the world. The game does an excellent job of taking the Lovecraftian idea of discovering something that humanity never should have touched and putting it in an already terrifying location (if working on an oil rig wasn’t dangerous enough).
Dredge (2023)
Here is a nice shake-up in the gameplay. Dredge is not another survival horror game. Well, not on the surface at least. The player takes control of a fisherman and his ship. During the day, you go about fishing and upgrading your boat. However, when night comes, these mechanics shift. You start to experience true terrors as the seas become dangerous.
You have to watch your sanity meter, contend with giant monsters of the deep, and hope your boat doesn’t fall apart on you as you try to make it back into port. There is something so Lovecraftian about the ocean. You can’t see what is under you. You have no idea what lurks beneath the waves. And unlike an abandoned building or a dark forest, you can’t simply turn around and walk out.
Dredge takes that idea and runs with it. This is a must-play game. Not just for fans of Lovecraft, but for fans of horror gaming in general.
Moons of Madness (2019)
Isolation, paranoia, a slow descent into madness. Does anything match the vibe of Lovecraftian themes more than that? Moons of Madness takes a little bit of a different take as well. Instead of dealing with your everyday terrestrial cosmic horrors, Shane – the player character– must deal with these problems on Mars.
You are not only fighting against unbelievable horrors, but you also must fight with the very air– or lack thereof– around you. A hostile environment besieged by hostile forces, leaving you stranded, alone, and fighting to maintain that last shred of hope and the last scrap of sanity left in your mind.
The uniqueness of the setting here is the real selling point for this game. Lovecraftian horror is often associated with old fishing towns, ancient ruins, and dark Victorian streets. Moons of Madness shows that you can take those ideas and drop them onto another planet. It turns out that space is just as horrifying as the ocean.
Alone in the Dark Series (1992-2024)
The Alone in the Dark franchise has been active for over 30 years now. The first game was released in 1992, and a remake came out in 2024. A horror franchise lasting so long is nothing new, but a video game franchise lasting over 30 years is impressive, to say the least.
While the remake might have been a bit of a flop, that doesn’t mean that the series has not done incredible things for the gaming industry as a whole. Especially the horror gaming industry. In fact, the first game in the franchise was the very first 3D survival horror game. It helped establish many of the conventions we would see in later games. Which means that, indirectly, Alone in the Dark is responsible for giving us the camp masterpieces that are the Milla Jovovich Resident Evil movies.
That alone makes this franchise worth checking out.
The Lurking Horror (1987)
Okay, I am definitely cheating here by adding in an eleventh game. However, I think it is important to note one of the earliest games that featured Lovecraftian horror. This was a text-based, choose-your-own-adventure style game in the same vein as ZORK. And while I am not old enough to know ZORK, my dad is, so I know ZORK. This game requires imagination to play. No audio. No video. Just you and a text box that tells a terrifying tale. If you are going to explore Lovecraftian video games, you might as well go all the way back to where it started.
