Lovecraft's Untold Stories

A nice little shooter that looks rough around the edges, and gets very repetetive after a while. My biggest criticism however is the inability to save whenever I want to and not having access to all my inventory at all time. I just had to do the Innsmouth level again completely, because I accidentally stored the boat keys away at the only save station the game gives you per stage. Since I don't feel to do all of that over again, I will probably simply never finish this game.

The first character, the Detective, is very fine. It's definitely playable without the need of grinding. The second one, the Professor, doesn't really make sense. In the jungle levels, under easy difficulty, I literally need to use artifacts such as invisibility or invincibility for at least half of the room. I mean, yeah, sure, it's definitely "playable" if you decide to grind for maybe 20-30 invincibility and the same amount of invisibilities. But hey, it's just a game. If I need that kind of grinding, I better grind for Leetcode. At least it pays. The other parts are fine. Art and sound are both good. If you like grinding, buy this one, otherwise skip it. Life is too short -- plus grinding on a randomly generated game even makes less sense.

What I really liked about it is that it's an “old-fashioned” game, i.e. it doesn't explain things directly. On the other hand, it is well codified, meaning that you always end up with the same pattern: (The aim is to gain knowledge by facing the game's many bosses. This knowledge will enable us to face the 5 great elders without going mad.) - 5 characters, 1 story per character - 1 prologue + 4 chapters per story - Each chapter has two levels. - You can start on the first level after meeting a boss - Or pick up items to access the second level, to face a second boss. -Between chapters, you can access a hub, shared by all characters, where you can check your progress and build up your inventory. - In chapter 4, the boss of the first level usually offers an item opening the way to one of the 5 grand ancients. When I lost time, and had to repeat chapters, is that the rule sometimes changes. For example, the portal to Shub-Niggurath can only be obtained after fighting a secondary boss in chapter 4. And as the game is difficult, you don't always have the means or the inclination to risk going through an entire level... After all, there are plenty of items to get you through the most dangerous situations: temporary invincibility or invisibility badges, items that instantly kill all monsters in a room. But these items are rare (or expensive), and require repeated runs. Apart from that, the game is very clean. Many environments are reused from one character to the next, but new ones are sometimes added, which is a nice touch. If you're not afraid of understanding things by yourself, and sometimes go back because the game has several "variations", then I invite you to try it. I recommand to begin in easy mode (which is still difficult!).

I may be a little biased because I've always been a fan of H.P.Lovecraft and the Cthulhu Mythos, but this game has kept me entertained for hours on end so far. The mood, the gameplay, the artwork, the music - all of it ties together very nicely. If I had to make one change to this game, I would add a rare item that, when used, revealed all of the "additional powers" of the items that your character is carrying on them at the time. I've guessed at a few of the items secondary powers, but so many of them remain a mystery. Other than that, well done!

I eyed this game for some time, yet didn't know how much I'd enjoy it. Games often need to "feel" good as a shooter, like this one. There is obviously information that can be found online for the items that I don't understand, but it is fun to figure out a lot of it on my own. I enjoy the random choices that affect your sanity. I also have greatly enjoyed the option to read the lore and how it ties into lots of different Lovecraft material. The gameplay is difficult, but there are different difficulty choices and you can restart an area if you fail and you don't even lose all of your items or anything super frustrating. I got it on sale, but it would have been worth full price.