Inspired by the award-winning board game franchise, Arkham Horror: Mother’s Embrace is an investigation game served with turn-based combat, set in the cult universe of H.P. Lovecraft.
"In 1926, a team of investigators try to uncover the dark secrets of an eerie mansion. Finding weapons, tools, and information will be the only way to solve complex puzzles and fight living nightmares, insanity, and death. It will take more than just survival to conquer the evils terrorizing the town. Will the team make it out alive and solve the mystery?"
Mixed
687 Steam reviews
| LANGUAGE | AUDIO | SUBTITLES | INTERFACE |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Y | Y | Y |
| French | — | Y | Y |
| German | — | Y | Y |
| Italian | — | Y | Y |
| Spanish (Spain) | — | Y | Y |
The game play might be a little slow by today's standards, but it's an enjoyable Lovecraftian mystery with some twists and turns.
Agréable partie à la manière d'un jeu de rôle, narratif bien écrit, dialogues et musique immersifs. ça fonctionne et vous emmène dans l'imaginaire Lovecraftien. à considérer comme un jeu de plateau adapté au vu de la technique limitée qui fait très jeu indé, pas un jeu vidéo au sens habituel, mais j'ai pris grand plaisir à cette aventure tranquille.
love this game
As a fan of the Arkham Files universe, I went in with tempered expectations and came out with mixed feelings. The Lovecraftian atmosphere is genuinely well-crafted — the locations, music, and narrator all contribute to an immersive 1920s horror setting — but the gameplay underneath feels underbaked. Investigation mostly boils down to clicking everything in sight, the turn-based combat never evolves beyond basic gun-and-overwatch tactics, and the inventory system is frustratingly tiny. The sanity mechanic, which should be the heart of any Cthulhu-themed game, ends up feeling more like arbitrary punishment than meaningful tension. If you can snag it on a deep sale and love the Arkham Horror IP enough to overlook clunky animations, pathing bugs, and shallow systems, there's a serviceable 8-10 hour story here — but everyone else should look elsewhere.
very fun gem
No entiendo las reseñas negativas, la verdad es que he recibido lo que esperaba (o incluso más)
Obviamente no se puede comparar con los juegos de mesa, pero como jugadora de Las Mansiones de la locura en mesa, se agradece poder jugar sin montar todo el chiringuito y con una muy buena cinemática, que te mete de lleno en la historia desde el principio.
Así que iré por partes (contando positivo y negativo también):
- CONTROLES: a mi se me hace muy incómodo jugar con el teclado, pero he enchufado el mando de la xbox y he jugado la mar de bien poniéndolo en la tv del comedor con el cable hdmi y veía la historia cómo una película.
- LA HISTORIA: es una historia muy típica de las mansiones, con personajes del juego de mesa y otros nuevos que van apareciendo. a mi me parece bien hilada y con una buena trama (eso supongo que irá a gustos)
- JUGABILIDAD: me parece fácil de jugar, aunque a veces sientes que das muchas vueltas por los escenarios. una cosa que me ha gustado mucho es que si te matan o algo te sale mal tienes varias opciones:
1- volver al último punto de guardado automático
2- volver al último punto de guardado propio
3- volver al principio del nivel
Esto te permite investigar todo y probar hasta que lo haces en el orden ideal (si eres un psicópata como yo que quiere todo al 100% en un juego tienes horas de diversión)
- NIVEL DE LOS "PUZZLES/ENIGMAS":
ni lo suficientemente fácil para que te aburras ni difícil para que te frustres...ideal para pasar un rato relajado sin querer lanzar el mando o pegarle una patada a la pantalla
-SISTEMA DE BATALLA:
Aquí llega el punto que me ha costado un poco pillarle el punto al principio, pero luego ya he llegado a hacer mis estrategias y a decidir quien era el "capitán" en la batalla y quien se queda en trincheras. Pero incluso eso me ha parecido interesante cómo reto.
En definitiva, lo inicié para probar el tutorial y me he comido las 13h del tirón (parando a comer algo jaja)
Me parece una buenísima alternativa para jugar tanto si conoces el juego de mesa y el mundo de Lovecraft cómo si no
No soy de poner reseñas, pero esta tenía que ponerla y hacerle justicia, dale a la manita para arriba y esas cosas, que me lo he currado ;-)
Nice horror setting and story
I had fun playing Arkham Horror. It pretty basic as far as RPGs go but I didn't think it had anything that particularly soured my experience (except for one boss fight that was insanely difficult). Are there better games out there, yes. But honestly I still give this one a chance if you have the time for it. It only took me 9 hours for one playthrough.
This game was difficult for me in deciding to give it a recommendation. I love the Arkham Horror brand. I love the boardgames, the LGC and the books. Which makes sense that the story in this game is top-notch. I really enjoyed it. I loved how you got to play various Arkham Horror Investigators. This is the whole essence of Arkham Horror, the characters that live in a unique connected universe, that makes it compelling. With the great voice acting and story, you get to know and understand who these characters are a bit more. If this sounds like what you are looking for then I am recommending it. But in reality this game should not get a positive recommendation because it's janky. The PCs get stuck in different spots when they walk around and it becomes hard to get them unstuck. This happened many times. The controls are not intuitive and require some getting used to. Backgrounds drop out even at the highest settings.
The biggest problem is the turn based combat, it's just not fun. It's distracting and it seems random at times. It took me out of the story and honestly is not really necessary for this game. Don't know why this choice was made? It should have been a point n' click investigation game or a survival horror game, instead. Even if you are a fan of turn based combat it does not work that well. Firstly, I found there were not enough slots to carry all the things you need. The combat is uneven, some scenarios are easy and some very hard. It was very chill in the beginning few scenarios and then it gets excruciating difficult and frustration around the middle of the game (not the end) and then it gets easier again at the end. The ending seemed anti-climactic. That was a bit strange.
Keep all this in mind if you are playing this game. You will get a great story (especially if you are a fan) and enjoyable investigating mechanics but it will we a slog to get through because you have to master the combat before you can progress.
So, well aware the game runs on rails for the most part. I'm fine with that. Also a big fan of the turn based combat, since most survival horror winds up with me dying before even getting past the first zombie/nurse/dinosaur. Biggest issue I run into is when one character is blocking the movement path of another character, but that's fine. Really just happy to be playing something atmospheric and creepy with several nods to the oddball Cthulhu fanbase that's arisen over the past few decades. GO 'PODS!
One note: there are a few places in here where you can get stuck and have to restart the scenario. So far, Act 4 has a spot where one of your investigators can get behind a bookcase long before you're supposed to, and Act 5 has a moment in Lanuit's shop where the exit is off screen due to the screen width with no way to move the camera.
I loved this game so much! I played it twice and went for a 100% run. This is Arkham Horror done right! The story is great. The mechanics were fair.
Thank goodness you can't miss attacks in this game like the board game.
My only real critique is that Carolyn Fern is worthless. She's one of my favorites in other games, but in this game she's far outpaced by her companions. Never used her.
Really well done. If you're a fan of Arkham Horror games, don't sleep on this one.
It could have been so much better if they had focused on the investigative part and hadn’t tried to include weird tactical combat and awkward inventory management. The story is way too generic for Lovecraftian stuff, and boy, do I hate the mandatory asylum level — it’s way too clichéd at this point.
Very annoying, dialogs are very childish and simple, mechanics are just ridiculous, sanity checks with each step its just stupid, looks like they can do a good lovecraft game but they dont want to, at least its cheap and i didnt wasted a lot of money
Nice story, fights where a bit too easy but then there is all the sanity getting you when you take too long
Ho amato questo gioco Lovecraft! Ne voglio altri 16! Non so come faccia la gente a lasciare recensioni negative!
Good story line, a little short. Overall I like the game play and found it fun.
Given the legacy of Lovecraft and Arkham Horror, the game does feel a little rough at times, but it still has its charm. I’d say the "Mixed" rating is pretty fair.
leider kann ich schon im 3. Level nicht weiterspielen, weil ein bug mich hindert durch türen zu gehen....
Sadly I was not able to play the game more than an hour without getting stuck because of bugs. On many occasions the camera gets stuck after investigating an object. At this point your only help is to reload the checkpoint. thz perfromance is all over the place and, at least for me, i have crackling audio, an accustic and visual glitches.
While I like the overall artstyle, the gameplay itselft feels a bit wonky. far to many interactions trigger a sanity check: Looking at a newspaper about missing persons, entering combat, reading a letter etc. While I totally get that "getting insane" is an intergral part of lovecraftien tales, in this game it seems a bit much.
I bought this game while it was on sale, but even the 7€ I paid feel to much. sad.
Exploration is not fun in this one. Combat is okay but doesn't do anything that isn't done better elsewhere. You should go elsewhere for your Lovecraft fix.
12 h de jeu perdues
J'ai tout essayé mais à chaque arret et reprise du jeu je tombe sur la meme sauvegarde
L'atmosfera è ben curata, con una storia intrigante e personaggi interessanti. Il gameplay a turni è semplice ma funziona, perfetto per chi cerca qualcosa di rilassato senza troppa complessità. Qualche limite tecnico c'è, ma niente che rovini l'esperienza. Consigliato ai fan del genere investigativo e dell'orrore lovecraftiano.
Un grazie speciale a mio cugino che me l'ha donato. Grazie Alex che ci guardi da lassù xD
🔷INTRO🔷[b]Arkham's Horror: Mother's Embrace[/b] is an investigative RPG with turn-based combat mechanics set in a Lovecraftian universe.
🔷TAGS🔷Turn-based combat. RPG. Exploration. Lovecraft.
✅PROS✅
-I found the story simple but quite enjoyable, with some nice references to Lovecraft's works.
-The combat system is great (if you like turn-based gameplay). It's pretty standard, with the health bar, the sanity bar (if it's at 0, your character will be nerfed), and the action points (some actions or weapons will require you to use 3 or 4 action points, others 1 or 2, etc.). It's fluid and enjoyable.
-The weapon management (+ ammo and durability) is good.
-Different type of weapon: Ranged (guns and shotguns...), Melee (knife, chopper, hands...) and Magic (grimoires with offensive or defensive spells).
-I like the fact that magical attacks have a random chance of casting a second spell... the rage of seeing that you've healed an enemy by mistake is real LOL!
-The different characters each have skills, bonuses, and penalties that require us to think carefully before choosing who to take on a mission (Tips: the Musician is a must-have, as well as the Detective).
-The level design is good in the sense that I was able to progress while learning the game's mechanics.
-Graphics are pretty and polished, and cartoonish, which is nice.
-Good atmosphere.
-The Mystic Clock is a great feature. It adds a sense of urgency and despair. Frankly, it annoyed me, in a good way. It stressed me out.
-When you want to enter a place where there are enemies, there is an indication on the screen (a golden light under the door) so you know that you will have to fight if you enter and you can prepare before the fight.
❌CONS❌
-The auto-save system is very frustrating, but that's part of the game...
-FAR TOO MUCH dice rolling regarding sanity; it's difficult to move on without losing your sanity.
-The inventory is so small it's frustrating.
-Too much RNG regarding the items you can find during exploration or the dice rolling.
-There's no difficulty selection (no easy/medium/hard mode).
-It's not possible to replay chapters. Once you've finished your game, if you want to redo certain things, you'll have to start a new game.
⏱️DURATION⏱️ 12 hours.
I bought this game because it was set in Lovecraft's universe and the combat was turn-based and I was curious about it. To be honest, I wasn't sure I'd enjoy it; I simply took advantage of the discount, and it was a wonderful surprise! I quickly got the hang of it and had a great time playing this game. I hope one day there will be a sequel or a similar game in the same universe.
The game's premise is simple and its execution is great. I really enjoyed the tactical aspect of the turn-based combat (I generally like this genre), having to think about how to use our action points most effectively, the positioning of the characters, who will attack and when, etc. Additionally, the Mystic Clock was like a sort of sword of Damocles hanging over your characters. The Mystic Clock advances each turn, and when it completes a full turn, a cosmic curse falls upon the player, giving them a penalty, either until the next fight or for the rest of their mission...and this can stack!
The exploration part was enjoyable, having to search for clues and advance in the story, finding equipment, weapons (+ ammo), and consumables. However, the inventory was a big problem for me because it's so tiny... it adds an extra difficulty.
The character management and selection part is interesting. When a character's mental health drops to 0 during a mission, they gets a penalty (a trauma... which can be problematic both for the exploration and also during combat) and to remove it you will have to leave this character aside for an entire mission (that is to say, do not take this character during a mission if you want their trauma to disappear).
I'm pissed off that we can't replay chapters, though.
🔷CONCLUSION🔷I like it. :)
The game is well done with a good aesthetic and satisfying story with only one bug I came across.
It was not very hard to complete if you have reasonable grasp of tactics.
No sé porque este juego tiene tantas reseñas negativas. Es una fantasía para todos aquellos fanáticos del universo Lovecraft. Para aquellos jugadores que hayáis jugado al juego de mesa "Las Mansiones de la Locura" es literalmente jugar uno de sus casos pero en ordenador y con una durabilidad más extensa.
El caso que vamos a investigar es la desaparición de la profesora Wilhelmina Tillinghast y buscaremos pistas, personajes y objetos para avanzar en una historia lineal sobre esto.
El juego tiene una duración más que aceptable, he tardado aproximadamente 10 horas en completar la historia. Cabe destacar que el juego no es rejugable, ya que al terminar la historia, nuestro guardado se eliminará y nos dejará crear una nueva partida que seguirá exactamente los mismos patrones, mismas pistas y mismos objetos en cada una de las ubicaciones.
Quizás el precio en Steam sea algo caro, yo tuve la suerte de conseguirlo en un Humble Bundle pero igualmente considero que merece la pena.
Por último, si vais a querer platinar este juego, recomiendo que os miréis los logros antes de empezar a jugar ya que si os dejáis algún logro por el camino vais a tener que empezar una nueva historia y se hace un poco pesado rejugarlo.
Recomendado totalmente.
Slow, bland, clunky, un-fun.
Lov~ely game!
A great game. I wish there would be a sequel
I'm a fan of the various Arkham Horror tabletop games, I've played them multiple times already and I'm familiar with the mithos and characters. I'm also a fan of strategy games, haven't really played much xcom but I knoh how they fell and play out.
This game is simply underbaked, the investigation axpect is really confusing and the combat feels really clunky with not much to do, no option to interact with the environment and really bad behaviour.
I cannot recommend this game, it's simply bad and a disappointing entrance in the arkham files
Not perfect but a great port!
It´s a great game! Great graphics, humour, really nice settings! Amazing strong female characters, nice length, if you dont try to make 100% you can finish it in 8 hours. Pls more!
A ver... no ganará el GOTY...
Pero si lo puedes comprar barato, te distraerá durante unas 10 horitas...
Es un juego de combate por turnos, en el que te vas moviendo libremente entre los combates. Llevas un personaje y los otros 2 lo siguen.
Si hubiesen otras historias (DLC) los jugaría si los encontrase bien de precio.
Let's make one thing clear. Arkham Horror: Mother's Embrace is not the digital version of the famous board game, nor was it much beloved card game.
Arkham Horror: Mother's Embrace is more in spirit with JRPG than TTRPG. Was the game good? No, it is not as good as it should have been, but it could be way worst than what we got.
What you love/hate about Arkham Horror is here. The colorful character roster, the Sanity check, the Mythos penalties and so on. The graphic is decent, the soundtrack is fine, and surprisingly, the dialogues are fully voiced.
So would i recommend Arkham Horror: Mother's Embrace? It's depend how much you love Arkham Horror as a franchise. If you do, yeah, go ahead. Not like there is other option. If not, you would not miss anything.
3.5/10 Press Space To Accelerate, like im some sort of car
VROOOM WROOOM!!!!!!!!!
just default the game to always running. im never going to not be using that
+ voice acting
- combat is janky at times. strait up wont let me attack sometimes
This game sucks. The game won't let me change enemy targets, keeps forcing me to select the enemy the game wants me to select. This game is a major fail.
It's fun if you enjoy the source material.
If you like the Arkham Horror Games (especially Mansions of Madness): Take a look, you might like this game! Otherwise: Don't bother, there are better options.
That being said: I liked it. Primarily because I like the Arkham Horror Franchise and its characters.
Bad To easy and repetetiv played it to the end in one day only play if you like the setting for nothing more and dont pay 20 bucks for it grab it one sale for a maximum of 5 bucks
Bem fraco como jogo, mas justo pelo preço
Stürzt mach dem ersten lvl ab.
'..snatched from the jaws of victory'. The game not my playthrough. I cannot in any way, unfortunately, recommend this game. I have played through 6 of the chapters so far but gave up having twice not got through the final fight in no 6. But that is not the reason I stopped. It is all the annoyance created getting to that point. Main issues - problems with movement, I have had to ctrl alt del to get out of the game numerous times because my character was stuck and unable to move as it was blocked in by the scenery or other characters. Luckily when I rebooted it took me back to the same place but in a different position so I could carry on. But is this acceptable? Given the price of the game, is it really that unfinished. Secondly, the sheer nauseating monotomy of clicking on every white dot mostly to find that you get a sanity check. As others have said, you pick up a piece of paper that has today's date on it, oh no sanity check, lose one sanity. that is not gameplay that is weak playtesting and only annoying to the people trying to play the game. If you want to play the story ie get to the end, use one of the guides which say 'if you click on the shrine you will get a sanity check'. You can then avoid them and the game actually flows better.
Alas this is not like the boardgame, there is no thrill of the chase or team bonding here, it feels like a cop-out. To be fair I dont think it started out that way and there are lots of familiarities here with the original Arkham but I feel that this would be much better done as an X-Com or Phantom Doctrine type background with Arkham layered over the top. That way the movement would be excellent, you could have sanity and health for each character, you could have your base with team members working on other things while your team goes out to discover clues and battle the cults, and you could create the right atmosphere. Lots of scenarios such as finding the other team members, investigating a suspicious event, battling a known cult hideout and eventually build up to the grand finale etc.
This game is a travesty I am surprised it even got a mixed grading. I went for it because it was Arkham but wish I hadnt bothered.
Arkham Horror: Mother's Embrace is a handheld (Nintendo Switch)/console game that's also been put on Steam as a bit of an afterthought, as it's very much designed for the handheld/console gaming audience.
This is one of the worst Nintendo Switch ports I've seen for a long time. It's not even a proper video game, it's a rather poor conversion of a component of a boardgame that's trying to cash in on the works of HP Lovecraft entering the public domain. Not a great boardgame, and a much, much worse Nintendo Switch game.
One of the big problems here is in terms of the general design and the way the boardgame was ported. There's two aspects of any game. The mechanics of the game, and the interface that the players have with that mechanic. Poker, for example, is about randomly generated hands that players get, and the interface is the randomly drawn paper cards. If you keep the random hand, but remove the physical cards, the game still works, but it's streamlined, more pure. That's video gaming. The best video games put the players directly against the core game mechanic. We don't love games because of their interfaces, we love them for their mechanics. The less that the interface gets in the way, the better. So here, we have a boardgame/cardgame conversion, and the focus of the developers has clearly been to keep, and emulate the annoying physical interface, without bothering to improve on the mechanics or put the players closer to them. As a result of this hamfisted decision, the game is clunky and annoying to play compared to games that were designed from scratch to be PC games.
From a technical perspective, the game doesn't meet basic minimum requirements that most PC gamers expect as standard.
The developers didn't design the game for modern gaming PCs, as such the game is capped at console peasant 30hz refresh rate. This is completely unacceptable for any game on PC.
The controls can't be customised, which will be an annoyance for many, but it can also render the game unplayable for differently-abled gamers, left handed gamers or gamers using AZERTY or other international keyboard layouts.
Another defect in the game caused by the console-peasant-centric design is the intolerably bad camera controls. There's no effective mouselook, and control of the viewing angles is deliberately outside of reasonable control from the user.
This defect springs from the limitations of inferior console peasant children's toy gamepads, but on PC we don't have this limitation due to KB+M controls... however, the developer deliberately chose to arrogantly foist this handicap onto PC gamers. Out of spite, or laziness, it's unclear, regardless, once more console peasants and console devs have made gaming worse for everyone.
Because this is designed for handheld/portable gaming appliances, it carries a number of deliberate design deficiencies. Compromises were made to cater to the low power handheld gaming appliances that the game was designed for. These are unfortunate compromises and limitations that PC gamers shouldn't be forced to accept, but it's evident that PC was a second thought for the mobile game developers. The game is deficient as a result of these choices, and would have been so much better without the handicaps that designing games for low power handhelds forces upon a game. While this might run well on a Steam Deck, we must remember the vast majority of gamers here are gaming on PC.
These technical defects push this game below acceptable standards for any modern PC game.
So, should you buy this game? Is this one of the best of the 100,000+ games on Steam?
Arkham Horror: Mother's Embrace has the cash grab price of $20 USD, for which you could easily get any number of older AAA games. Given the defects and quality issues with the game, coupled with the unrealistic price, this is impossible to recommend.
For comparison, the $20 asking price for this game could get you games like "Red Dead Redemption 2", "Yakuza 0" or "Factorio". Quality, professionally made games like those are frequently on sale cheaper than this.
It is a nice touch. Not quite terrifying, but interesting, especially, if you like the tabletop games with the same characters.
;]
If you're a fan of the Fantasy Flight Arkham Files series of board games, you'll love this!
Celkom zabavna oddichovka
two disclaimers up top: 1, i love FFG's Arkham Horror Files universe, so i was predisposed to enjoying this title. and 2, i NEVER write reviews. with that said...
this game is BROKEN on steam deck, despite its gold rating on protondb. after nearly every action/turn, the game hangs for a solid minute, maybe more. is that a playable game? yes... but only technically. i really want to continue playing it, but i don't think i have the patience to deal with what is effectively a loading screen after every in-game action.
Kind of clunky controls in general, but I abandoned it after one of my characters got stuck in a bookshelf after resolving a cutscene (a bug, not part of the plot). Mansions of Madness is fun, but this adaptation leaves a bit to be desired.
As a fan of the Arkham Files board games, I had high hopes for Arkham Horror: Mother's Embrace, but it falls short in key areas. While the story and characters are true to the mythos, the gameplay itself feels slow and lacks depth. Team composition doesn’t matter, and the sanity mechanic, which should be critical in a Lovecraftian game, is practically irrelevant. You’ll just click around randomly, sometimes getting random sanity effects, but they have no real consequences. Characters move so slow around the map it makes you feel they did it on purpose to make the game longer... With no meaningful strategy or sense of progression, the game ends up being a shallow experience that doesn't do justice to the Arkham Files universe. Play it only if you are an Arkham Files fan for the story.
Неплохая попытка адаптации настолки. Дёшево, но достаточно сердито - пусть графика и удобство управления так себе, но вот атмосферу лафкравтовщины хорошо передаёт. К сожалению, в жанре маловато игр....
The game play is reminescent of the old Sierra games. Limited text bases choices requiring you to do what the devs thought was the right answer. I find it clunky. In the late 1980's, it would have been acceptable tech. Not now. The Developer Lucky Hammers closed in 2019.
Well polished, entertaining. Get it for the immersive thematic environments <- Yup, sincerely.
If you like Lovecraft's stories and setting this is worth a play if you can buy it on a LARGE discount. It is somewhat atmospheric, and is well narrated (other voice acting is hit and miss). Graphics and music are better than expected. Game play is very simple, almost walking simulator simple, if that makes sense (but it isn't a walking simulator).
What are you getting? A weird combo b/w a very simple adventure game, and a poor xcom style tactical battle system. However, as I said, if you like Lovecraftian stuff the adventure components are ok and the combat is tolerable for brief periods. It isn't a hard game and is a good one to play if you just want to turn off your brain and chill. I'd give it.... 5/10? Really only worth it if you like the subject matter and are feeling a bit starved.
호냐 불호냐 하면 호에 가깝긴한데 진짜 미묘함.
멀티라도 있었어도 이거보단 평가가 좋았을 듯 하다.
스토리 구성이랑 퍼즐은 나쁘지 않은데 연출이랑 전투가 너무 구림.
근데 생각해보면 이회사가 게임 잘만드는 회사는 아니었던것 같고 별로 기대 안했던 것도 같고..
보드게임 팬이면 그나마 할만할 듯.
Premetto che io sono un gran fan di Arkham Horror e tutti i giochi a esso correlato. Nonostante reputo questo gioco un buon titolo non riesco a dargli un voto positivo per molti motivi. Anzitutto voglio elogiare la forte ispirazione che ha unito gioco da tavolo e il Living Card Game portando molti elementi da entrambi e unirli magistralmente. Un vero peccato se si parla di molti aspetti fondamentali:
-Una singola storia a 9 scenari è veramente troppo povera, ppotevano mettere molti più scenari o almeno più storie, solo il gioco da tavolo ha tipo 10 scenari e il LCG esistono almento 5 storie (per quel che ne so) con 7/8 scenari a storia
-La difficoltà è trooooooooooppo facile. Si ha un'alta probabilità di terminare la storia senza subire conseguenze eccessive, Arkham Horror è noto per essere molto difficile ed è questo che lo rende bello
-Non ci sono tutti gli investigatori, inoltre non sono divisi per categoria (guardiano, studioso, incantatore, canaglia e sopravvissuto)
-Il sistema di Sanità Mentale è orribile, non c'è modo di controllarlo, è tutto randomico. Inoltre alcuni elementi di gioco non sai che effetto provocheranno, il che è frustrante
-Ci sono troppi oggetti in ogni scenario e troppo utili
-Con l'occasione di creare un gioco su Arkham Horror e con tante creature avete scelto la meno mainstream? Shub-Niggurath? Ma scherziamo?
Infine dico bella l'esperienza di gioco, peccato che se la può godere solo chi ha masticato il goco da tavolo e il LCG. Un utente che non conosce la serie non può che reputare questo gioco una schifezza anche perché guarderebbe solo il lato grafico (non necessariamente elevato in tipologie di giochi come questo). Per me passa al lato emotivo, ma non tecnico.
Excellent jeu dans l'esprit Cthulhu, je passe un bon moment :)
Il en faudrait plus des comme ça ...
Dommage que l'inventaire soit pas plus grand mais sinon vraiment bien.
It's basically a digital boardgame. The game is subtitled Arkham Horror, but the gameplay is closer to single player Mansion of Madness. It's fun if you know what you're getting into, just don't expect more.
Le jeu est plutôt simple et rapide, mais l'atmosphère est suffisamment prenante pour passer un bon moment.
Ho iniziato questo gioco da poco ma la storia ed il contenuto sembrano ben studiati ed anche la grafica aiuta nel rendere il gioco piacevole. Unica pecca il sistema di movimento che già in più occasioni mi ha bloccato costringendomi a ricaricare il salvataggio. [u]Personalissimo voto: 7.5/10[/u]
The only things good in this "game" are some artworks during loading screens
It's so incredibly scuffed, but it has some interesting ideas. You might click with it if you have a high tolerance for jank.
Mother's Embrace is a feature length campaign for an adapted version of the board game Mansions Of Madness. This is already a few weird jumps away from stable design, and I do not envy the team that worked on this for juggling faithfulness to the brand with attempts to make mechanics that function in a more conventional crpg environment. As is, they don't really succeed, but the game also feels like it was made for touchscreen and that's another mechanics design gate and honestly it's a miracle that this thing plays at all.
So how does it play? You wander very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very slowly around cramped environments, interacting with flagged objects and losing sanity and/or getting random drops as you do. Sometimes the game tests you on your reading comprehension with a puzzle, so you can't just click through all of the filler text, but there's a lot of filler text and the writing is okay but not compelling enough to justify the stagnant waddle that is your walking speed.
You do have a run button, but it only upgrades your stagnant waddle to a dead mosey.
Fortunately, there's combat. In combat, all attacks hit, but weapons have a set number of uses (that the game doesn't tell you, only gives you vague clues about.) Ranged weapons use ammo, and spell tomes can miscast and do trivial and irrelevant things to other characters in your squad. This means that you kind of have to hoard weapons or fall back on your 2 damage punch. And this is difficult considering how limited your inventory space is. So combat is basically a resources check, with the occasional crit to KO one of your characters at random.
Fortunately, combat is one of the safest places for you to be. If you get a mythos clock rotation in combat, the fight just gets a little harder. Out of combat, you might get the "fail all sanity checks for the rest of the scenario" result, which means you'll pick up 2+ madnesses on each squad member if you got it early enough.
The mythos clock theoretically exists to keep some pressure on you, but all it does is arbitrarily punish you for wiggling cabinets instead of lifting them over your head and emptying them out. When you interact with objects, sometimes the game will ask you to choose how you proceed, and the choices are arbitrary. If you have the right skill, you might get a clue as to which choice is correct, but the clues are like "If you wiggle and juggle this cabinet, the jello man will arrive" and then the choices are Wiggle / Jiggle / Wait For The Jello Man To Arrive.
Also, in amongst this mess, your companions have collision turned on. They will trap you in rooms. And you'd better hope you don't wedge yourself behind a potted fern or something, because this game is an autosaver with very hard boundaries and very few protective measures against you getting permastuck.
So why do I recommend Mother's Embrace, when 90% of players stop halfway through the game at 3 hours in?
Well, I think it's on to something. Stygian does everything in Mother's Embrace better, and you should absolutely check out Stygian if you're reading this review, but Mother's Embrace has the rudiments of a good game in it. I wouldn't mind seeing this team make another title in the series, tighten a few bolts, make combat less vanilla. Call Of Cthulhu is a fun roleplaying setting, and it really hasn't had the crpg it deserves. If you're going to get Mother's Embrace, definitely get it on deep sale, but if you like jank and you like games that almost succeed with all the odds against them, you might enjoy this.
Edit: Holy nebulous objective flagging, Batman. "You need to hold out for as long as possible" actually means "you need to dps rush this boss." "You should knock down all these ritual altars to disrupt the cult" actually means "if you knock down too many of them, you'll get the bad end." Not really sure what they were going for with this, but the madnesses equals bad ends system is let down by sanity checks being pure 60% RNG (unless you get the mythos event that makes them worse.) So you can do everything right and still get the bad end---which is basically what you do in the tabletop game, but in that you're at least not stuck in a box canyon walking two miles per hour.
2nd Edit: Had to rotate my camera to find the interact point inside of a door. The door was essential to progress and the interact point was in the black void on the other side and the only way to see it was by slowwwwwwly rotating the camera into the black void on the other side. If the most recent cutscene hadn't made such a big deal about the door supposedly being open, I wouldn't have thought to try this. Certainly not the biggest problem with the game, but it makes me wonder how many items I've missed because they required me to rotate my camera inside the level geometry to see them.
3rd Edit: I didn't bring it up before now because I was trying to give the game a fairer chance, but the majority of items suck and there's no way to know this going in. Guns are the good weapon. Character has weak ranged? They're trash. Character has strong magic? They're double trash. Exactly two spellbooks are viable, damage and heal, and the damage tome is just a suckier gun. Heal is a suckier bandage. Theoretically you can use these spellbooks to sub occasionally for your better equipment, but by later game you have a decent supply of bullets and there's no reason not to only use guns. Also! There's one passive item, the one that buffs firearm damage, that's any good. The rest are a wasted inventory slot. And of the consumables, the one that removes conditions is maybe the worst item in the game. If it had no AP cost it would still suck. Also the melee weapon that SAN checks you every time you use it in exchange for just regular mid damage output is bad. This is a lot of small things, but they each play their little part in making the game not better.
4th Edit: So, the thing I don't enjoy in CoC tabletop is the way the gameloop fights itself. You need to explore to engage with the mystery, but each time you explore you get hit with a SAN check. The game punishes you for doing the thing it wants you to do. And this is ultimately fine. Most people play CoC as play-to-lose. But in a tabletop game you can kind of lean into that, enjoy acting, see what kinds of dramatic messes you'll get into. In a crpg, it's not really satisfying to play-to-lose, and this is why Stygian and World Of Horror and other lovecraft-derived roleplaying video games tend to modify the SAN system a bit so that the player can interact with it as a game element. In Mother's Embrace, aside from the very rare cigarette you can smoke, the sanity system just happens to you. It's an RNG that determines whether you get a good ending. And like. I dunno if I can recommend a game that makes you put up with all this nonsense and then coin flips you for the ending. Thumbs down. Although you still might enjoy it if you have a high tolerance for clunky games.
5th Edit: Final boss is an absolute chump. You'll three-round him without trying. And I don't know how you're supposed to get the madness ending on that level without intentionally bringing a squad of three pre-maddened investigators. There's like one sanity check, and it's upon entering combat. Oh, and there's no ending other than a paragraph of text which maybe only changes if you somehow got the madness ending for the last chapter. Your choices most assuredly don't matter. Also the game permanently blackscreened when I skipped the end credits. The overall storytelling is fine---if you paired this plot with better mechanics and gave it room to breathe I think this'd be a sleeper hit. But the plot's not anywhere near good enough to carry the game, and the game doesn't provide any substance to the plot.
The game has a great story, great sound effects and great perfomance by the voice actors. I would rate it at 4 stars.
There are some annoying bugs when interacting with some objects and doors and the NPCs keep staying in the way of your movement.
But other than that is great horror game and forces the players to make many diffucult choices, such as inventory to keep, NPCs to chose for each chapter and even saving or not someone's life.
I'll probably play again to reach more achievments.
Gran juego de rol para los amantes de Arkham Horror y Mansiones de la locura. Los controles resultan algo tediosos y el apartado gráfico está lejos de lo que acostumbramos a ver actualmente, pero se deja jugar. A mí me encanta "Las mansiones de la locura 2ª ed." y lo estoy gozando de lo lindo.
Not a bad game overall. Graphics appear circa late 1990s and the controls are a bit clunky but overall a decent Mythos (H.P. Lovecraft) game. Much better than many I have played.
This was supposed to be so much more when it was first announced. Based on the Mansions of Madness, I expected a replayable randomly generated storylines. Instead, we got a pretty linear and dull game. I refunded it and maybe I will purchase it in 50+ % sale someday. Maybe. Just for the love of Arkham Horror.
There was supposed to be a game here but it was published before it was finished. Simple and linear to the extreme. If clicking on glowing blue dots equals "investigation" that randomly either hurt you or help you with no clue beforehand, with no rhyme or reason sounds like fun by all means play this game. Else, stay away. So sad, Lovecraft fans, stay away.
Alright, but the board game is wayyyyyyyy better. This Game is frustrating too put it lightly.
L'ambiance sombre et mystérieuse d'une enquête à Arkham est bien retranscrite.
Difficulté bien dosée dans les combats au tour par tour.
C'est un jeu à découvrir !
Character models, story, and setting is really cool... game is decent. I think it has a steep learning curve and isn't as fun as similar games in the genre. If you get it really cheap, I think it's worth trying.
It's basically a digital board game, so the combat and gameplay mechanics are very basic. I enjoy the Arkham Horror board game, but I enjoy it because I play it with friends. This game takes those same mechanics and tries to turn them into a single player game. However, without other players to interact with, it quickly becomes clear how shallow the mechanics are. Perhaps a good story or characters could've saved the game, but it doesn't have those either. Like with the board game, the plot and characters are just thin justifications to setup various scenarios for you to play through. If they’d condensed this thin content into 5 hours or less, that would’ve helped. Instead the game drags on for 9 hours and completely overstays its welcome.
Overall, this game isn't worth playing at any price. It's simply a waste of time.
Very very mild recommendation (and only for fans of the genre).
I expected it to be more like the Arkham Horror games, but it's more like it's own thing and unfortunately has zero replay value. I finished the very railroaded campaign it in a handful of hours, investigating every nook and cranny. However, it oozes atmosphere and I enjoyed the adventure.
+ Oozes atmosphere & enjoyable story (Lovecraftian to a T)
+ Decent gfx and great scenery
+ Nice and fun little campaign (if you enjoy Call of Cthulhu or Arkham Horror games)
+ Great notes and text throughout
+ Mostly good voice acting (I like what they did with the old lady narrator, but not all will)
- Short (but worth it on sale)
- Zero replay value
- Perhaps too easy (no difficulty, nor replay)
- Cannot tilt camera up (uuugh)
- You really can tell it was a cheap rush-job with some sprinkle of great writing (I do not regret playing it)
Only recommended if you think you'd enjoy the story + get it dirt cheap on sale! (I got it in a bundle)
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This is so good. I'm hooked. Feels like an Arkham Horror board game and Xcom in one.
The ending is too short, could be more story-rich, I guess I'm a bit disappointed... also, I didn't like that I had to heal my investigators half of the game time... not well balanced in that regard, imho
Otherwise it was great, comparable to Sherlock Holmes series, but not as much investigation is involved (similar in gameplay otherwise)
also, I got 100% achivements and it was really fun! Definitely recommend
compared to the board games, it's easier to play because you don't have to set it up, but still iconic
I don't like horror. I don't like the premise. I don't like the weirdness. I didn't play much -- just "nope"'d right out of it. Other than that, if you like those things, this game is actually really great. Good graphics. Good feeling. Good startup, character selection, and just a really good feeling.
值得一玩，悬疑氛围营造的不错
nice 10 hour-ish turn-based game
Nice quick little game in Lovecraft universe
Jednoduché, svižné, inspirované deskovkami Arkham horror. Můžu jen vytknout to, že bych čekal podobně jako u deskovek lepší opakovatelnost, jako třeba alternování lokací klíčových předmětů nebo obměňování zápletky a cíle hry...
Pienso que las resenas no le hacen justicia al juego, jamas he jugado el juego de mesa, desde la perspectiva de un juego para PC me parece bastante bien centrado, ningun bug, los modelos, las voces de los personales, la historia y el diseno de peleas por turnos esta muy bien hecho, en general para mi fue un 10/10.
We need chinese!
Arkham Horror: Mother's Embrace prende spunto dagli innumerevoli giochi da tavolo della serie Arkham Horror (tutti ottimi giochi) e pertanto riprende i personaggi e le varie meccaniche (chi ha giocato i giochi da tavolo si sentirà a casa e saprà maggiormente apprezzarlo).
In pratica è un investigativo con combattimenti a turni, una volta iniziata la partita, dovremo girovagare per gli scenari in cerca di indizi (segnati da un puntino bianco), in questi punti potremmo trovare un oggetto per il nostro inventario (molto limitato, possiamo portarci massimo 5 oggetti tra armi, tomi, consumabili e potenziamenti), oppure potremmo interagire con esso (in tal caso potrebbe apparire un menù a scelta multipla, sbagliare scelta equivale a far progredire un'apposito contatore dei Miti che una volta arrivato alla fine attiverà dei malus ai nostri personaggi), in teoria le capacità degli investigatori dovrebbero aiutarci nella scelta (indicandoci l'azione corretta), ma il più delle volte tale scelta è affidata al caso (esempio trovo una scatola posso decidere se osservarla, aprirla o romperla, non c'è modo di capire quale sia la soluzione esatta). Durante la nostra esplorazione ci imbatteremo in nemici ispirati ai Miti (cultisti, creature, posseduti ecc...) ed in questo caso partirà un combattimento a turno dove dovremmo utilizzare i punti azione a disposizione per spostarci, attaccare o compiere qualche azione), scopo del gioco consiste nel cercare indizi per poter proseguire nei vari scenari.
PREGI:
Si ispira ai giochi da tavolo pertanto ci sono tutti i riferimenti del caso (gli orrori che corrispondono alla sanità mentale del personaggio e le debolezze che vengono attivate dopo un certo numero di orrori ricevuti)
Durante il nostro cammino si aggiungeranno altri personaggi, il party sarà composto da 3 elementi (dotati di proprie caratteristiche e debolezze)
Si può iniziare il gioco scegliendo tra diversi personaggi dotati di diverse caratteristiche
DIFETTI:
Come i giochi in scatola la casualità è un elemento predominante (alcuni orrori non sono prevedibili, se ad esempio indago su un dipinto i personaggi potrebbero spaventarsi e subiranno un orrore)
Longevità limitata ma volendo è possibile iniziare la partita selezionando un nuovo personaggio
Graficamente non è per nulla dettagliato.
VOTO: 8,5
Arkham Horror: Mother's Embrace riproduce perfettamente l'atmosfera dei giochi da tavolo, l'avanzare dell'indicatore dei Miti (che "pesca" a caso malus di vario tipo) e l'inserimento della sanità mentale danno la sensazione di essere in balia degli eventi. Notare che dopo un certo numeri di orrori, viene permanentemente attivata una debolezza (dopo 3 debolezze una di queste si aggrava e diventa definitiva, fortunatamente è possibile eliminarne una casualmente facendo riposare l'investigatore tra uno scenario e l'altro) questo rende il personaggio decisamente più debole!
Gioco imprescindibile per chi ha giocato/amato i giochi da tavolo della serie Arkham Horror.
PC in uso:
Processore Intel Core i7 6700K 4.00GHz
Memoria ram 16 Gb 2133 Mhz
scheda madre MSI Z170A GAMING M3
scheda video RTX 3060 Asus Duo OC
sistema operativo Windows 10 64 bit
sistema di controllo Pad Xbox One Elite
Big fan of many of the Arkham board and card games but not this.
Familiar characters and locations are about all the DNA shared between the existing material and this pos.
This is neither spooky or intriguing and the mechanics are poorly explained if at all in relation to sanity loss it is just pure luck. The turn based combat is very basic but you get punished so hard the longer a fight drags out via the Doom clock advancing and the action point system is so biased towards guns as the pitiful movement eats all your AP.
Performance wise it runs poorly and it is hardly a graphical masterpiece, it is perfectly serviceable but it is inexcusable how stuttery it can be for the detail it provides.
As I said I would be among the "target audience" and I think this is a massive stay away EVEN if you are an AH fan.
Pretty simple and fun. It can be a little glitchy at times, and I got soft locked at one point in the fourth chapter, which was annoying. But overall a decent game.
If your a fan of lovecraft you will enjoy this, be prepared to go insane MANY times, death is never permenant !!!
Простая, короткая, лишь потенциально хорошая. Но я так сильно люблю настолку и так сильно рад видеть любимых героев не только на картоне, что всё равно палец вверх.
Ich bin ein großer Fan der Arkham Horror Brett- und Kartenspiele. Aus diesem Grund habe ich mir auch Arkham Horror: Mother's Embrace gekauft. Auf dem Papier sieht das Spiel nicht schlecht aus. Die Story ist nicht allzu schlecht allerdings auch nichts besonderes, der Typische Arkham Horror Plot. Irgendwelche Mysteriösen dinge geschehen, es wird ermittelt und man entdeckt die Verschwörung eines Kultes der einen der Großen Alten Beschwören möchte. Am Ende gibt es noch einen kleinen Twist aber an sich ziemlicher Standard. Der größte Pluspunkt den ich dem Spiel machen kann ist, dass man die bekannten Ermittler aus den Arkham Horror Spielen spielt und es tatsächlich stellenweise die Atmosphäre dieser Spiele einfängt. Leider sind ca. die Hälfte der Ermittler nur spielbar wenn man Sie direkt als Startermittler auswählt. Später im Spiel ist es nicht mehr möglich diese zu erhalten. Das finde ich sehr schade, so hätte ich gerne z. B. Zoey Samaras, William Yorik und Jenni Barnes in mein Team aufgenommen, da ich zu beginn aber Harvey Walters gewählt habe, kann ich den Rest des Spiels nicht mehr auf die genannten Ermittler zugreifen. Einen zweiten oder dritten Run werde ich aufgrund der folgenden negativen Aspekte des Spiels aber sicher nicht starten. Die meiste Zeit verbringt man nämlich mit sammelt von Hinweise und bekämpft Kultisten und diverse Monster. Leider ist aber so gut wie jeder diese Punkte sehr schlecht umgesetzt. Die einzelnen Spielabschnitte sind sehr klein, die Ermittler unterscheiden sich spielmechanisch kaum voneinander und verfügen über keine besonderen aktiven Fähigkeiten. Objekte mit denen man interagieren kann sind durch Markierungen hervorgehoben und die Kämpfe machen mangels taktischer Tiefe auch keinen Spaß. Eigentlich läuft jeder Abschnitt gleich ab. Man läuft durch die Level und klickt stumpf alles an was geht. Zwischendurch wird man noch von den eher nervigen Kämpfen abgelenkt. Bei letzteren hat sich die Taktik bewährt alle Ermittler mit Schusswaffen auszustatten und immer Roland Banks dabei zuhaben. Mit der 45er kann Roland 2 Mal schießen und zum Abschluss in Habachtstellung gehen um dem nächsten Feind der sich bewegt ne Kugel zu verpassen. Die anderen Charaktere können in der Regel pro Zug nur einen Schuss abgegeben aber zusammen mit Roland hat man trotzdem null Problem die meisten Gegner zu töten bevor diese überhaupt Gelegenheit zu einem Angriff bekommen. Spannend ist das jedenfalls nicht.
Ein Fortschrittssystem für die Charaktere gibt es auch nicht. Dazu kommt, dass das Spiel grafisch wie technisch keine gut Figur macht. Vor allem in den ersten Missionen stehen einem die Begleiter ständig im Weg und halten einen so in Ecken und Nischen gefangen. Bei den letzten 3 Missionen wurden alte Abschnitte einfach recycelt. Das ist zwar teilweise in die Geschichte eingearbeitet aber macht das ganze auch nicht besser. Insgesamt wirkt das komplette Spiel sehr lieblos und unfertig. Schade, da wäre wirklich deutlich mehr drin gewesen. Eine gute digitale Version des Brett- oder Kartenspiels wäre meiner Meinung nach besser. So bleibt ein schlechtes Spiel, welches selbst absoluten Hardcorefans der Arkham Spiele nur eingeschränkt zu empfehlen ist. Schade denn ein wirklich gutes Videospiel im Lovecraft-Universum gibt es immer noch nicht und hier wurde eine weitere Chance verschenkt.
It's rare for me to start a game and not finish it, but this one is just SO DULL. I put a few hours into it, knocked down a couple of chapters. But I have absolutely zero personal motivation to go back and finish it. Absolutely nothing memorable, interesting, or exciting. Like watching digital paint dry.
meh. i understand its originally a boardgame and probably pretty good when you play it with your friends, but for me it just doesnt translate to pc game mechanics in any sort of of interesting way. sure, if you get it on sale you can spend a couple of hours here, but then again you could also do something much better with your time and money. 5/10 just meh
If you're a fan of the lovecraft themed card/board games(arkham horror, mansions of madness, eldritch horror, etc) then you'll probably enjoy this game. It's basically a digital take on those, it's not exactly super deep but it does a good enough job at what it's trying to do for it's price point.
Es un juego precioso. Tiene todo lo que tiene que tener del maestro del terror. Ambientación, misterio y por sobretodo la necesidad de saber que sucede, a cambio de la locura, por supuesto. Si te gusta HPL, este juego es una gran representación de los mitos.
Pretty short and very simple. No challenge at all like it`s walking simulator. You just go for the markers and read text. Sometimes you fight, but even if you do no-brain moves during the combat you can fail.
The story is square and usual. All characters are same with only difference if it`s melee or ranged character. No specifications from original game.
Graphics are like it`s mobile game.
Dont buy even if you like the board game.
Esse jogo não tem nada a ver com os jogos de Arkham Horror. Poderiam tem apenas adaptado os sistemas que já estaria ótimo, mas decidiram misturar um xcom com point and click.
game breaking bugs.
This just isn't any good. I went into it with low expectations and somehow was still disappointed.
It would be a nice game, if it was an app on the phone you play when you're trying to kill some time and you paid a couple of dollars max. When the game was over I genuinely thought that was just the introductory chapter... so I restarted playing 100% sure that NOW the real game would begin. Well, I was wrong.
A ver. Siendo honesto el juego es malo. Pero me gusta la idea de que se explote el universo de Arkham Files de Fantasy Flight Games.
Lo recomiendo para aquellos que les guste la temática Lovecraftiana y sobre todo que hayan jugado o conozcan algo de los juegos de mesa. Creo que ese es el gancho para jugar esto, sino no tiene sentido y no te va a aportar ningún valor un juego como este.
Se trata de ir caminando de aquí a allá haciendo clicks en los puntos que te dicen mientras haces una tirada de chequeo de cordura (que te puede complicar bastante, o bueno, eso pretende) y juntando items (que no son muy variados).
El juego se compone de 9 capítulos, el último es una batalla final con un "boss". Narrativa muy simple, gráficos malos pero se aceptan, y la dificultad podría ser algo mejor.
Espero ver mas juegos inspirados en Arkham Horror o Eldritch Horror.
If you've played any of the Arkham Horror board or card games, you will find this very familiar to play and captures the feel of that world very well.
Arkham Horror: Mother's Embrace feeds a niche need for gamers in terms of turn based strategy games and I applaude that!
However 20 bucks for it is simply too much to ask compared to all the great indie titles you get for that kind of money. BUY ON DISCOUNT!
The game starts of solidly for the most part but unfortunatelly gets worse and worse as you keep playing!
Let me elaborate why I feel this way:
- very little diverse weaponry: You get firearms, melee weapons and spell books which in theory is fine...however there is
no variety to it whatsoever. For example there is 4 different firearm types: Revolver, Pistol, Shotgun and Rifle...however every
Revolver has the same stats and that's how it works for every weapon in the game!
- the difficulty starts of very low which is alright to learn the games' mechanics but it never get's more difficult. Players get
better weapons or trinkets and the game becomes more and more of a joke difficulty-wise.
Arkham Horror: Mother’s Embrace is done and dusted. It’s advertised as being inspired by the Arkham Horror boardgames, and I can see that. A lot of the automatic sanity damage in certain battles and the random seeming choices during investigations (despite it not being random) have a definite boardgame feel to them. It also definitely pulls from actual Lovecraftian lore, which is always nice.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2985367566
From a feel standpoint, this game definitely captures the dark and often visceral horror aspects of Lovecraftian writing and imagery. Sanity factors in heavily, both from a gameplay and story aspect. Sanity is handled in a way similar to Darkest Dungeon inasmuch as it triggers negative personality aspects. Because it’s written into some encounters and in others it’s based on your decisions, it can feel a little unfair at times. However, it never actually gets in the way of the game, and so it still works. And, much like DD, characters can rest for a mission or two to reverse an insanity penalty.
The gameplay is a mix of turn based combat without cover or environmental factors; and RPG style inventory management where each character is given four inventory slots. As a result, inventory juggling is a very real thing. In between missions, all items you had on your inventories at the end of a mission go into a chest which is shared by all characters, and as you start a mission, you can assign up to four of them per character to take with them. Weapons and spells degrade with use and can’t be repaired. Everything has a destroy option, but the only things with any benefit to doing this are guns, during missions, as that allows you to put that guns ammo back into the ammo reserve for reloads. There are of course some single use items as well.
I thought the graphics looked cool and were quite faithful to a pure Lovecraftian experience with solid design and nice looking still frame cutscenes. The voice acting was also done well and captured that Victorian era feel well, with accents appropriate to the setting as well. The characters were likewise well written and appropriate to the setting. You will add four story characters to your group in addition to your starting character, of which you have a few distinct options.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2985367468
There is a fair amount of reading, so I imagine you could skip through stuff to enjoy in a later playthrough. You do also become pretty OP by the end, so that’s worth mentioning.
It took right at eight hours to complete the nine game missions and all sub quests within the levels. I don’t really feel like there is much in the way of replay value unless you just really want to try the different starting characters or rushed through the game and missed a lot of the lore. It is, in my estimation, quite worth a playthrough if you enjoy Lovecraftian game. This is a pretty honest addition to the genre. Perfectly Steam Deck compatible as well.
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