Eldritch Preview: Lovecraftian to the Core

There is no shortage on games based in the Lovecraftian universe. It’s a popular topic for a reason: You’ve got early 20th century locales to provide an eerie and sometimes gothic atmosphere, a wide canon of monsters to write about, and a mythos that is gigantic enough to consume you before you even have a chance to save the world from an awoken Eldritch Abomination.

Speaking of Eldritch Abominations, there’s this game called Eldritch set to be released in October for the PC. I was lucky enough to be able to play through a preview build of the game, leading me to find a new passion for books, lizard men, and glass bottles while still trying to maintain a sense of sanity. In other words, it’s Lovecraftian to the core--seeped in mythology and made with a real understanding of the source material.

Created by twin brothers David Pittman and J. Kyle Pittman of the newly-formed Minor Key Games, Eldritch is a first-person independent release inspired by roguelikes and immersive sims. The graphics are simple and a little shoddy, the music is loud and unsettling, and the goal is simple: Get out of the library. The proper way.

No, don't go through those books. You might regret it.

From the preview, it seems that the entire game takes place inside of the library, but instead of confining it to a few surprisingly large rooms, you have to jump in and out of sparkling books to collect souls, powers, and items while exploring the world around you. It's in these books that you encounter strange creatures: Hooded figures, frog men that leap towards you grunting, snakes that scream. It's the perfect introduction to the fact that in these other worlds, nobody is going to help you (except for the shopkeeper. He's not too bad. Just ugly).

The same could be said for the developers. While you are provided with a small grid in the corner of the screen that identifies important areas, it doesn't help you in regards to how deep the levels after going down stairs or jumping over cliffs. It's nice that the game doesn't hold your hand through the levels, but I frequently got lost, especially since most of the areas look the same. Each room subsequently becomes repetitive, with the same abominations showing up. Minor Key spreads introductions out throughout the level so there is some variety, but the screaming and murmurs kind of lose their power.

On the upside, these large, confusing maps add to the tension. When you're going through the labyrinth and you hear one of the frog men, but can't parse where it's coming from, you kind of want to spend as little time as possible searching for hidden items and more time trying to get to the end of the level with most of your items intact since dying just respawns you but takes everything (although luckily there are chests scattered around where you can store things).

The game doesn't provide you with many weapons to start with, but if you search through doors and in hidden areas you can find guns, rocks, bottles, and special powers that can help you to defeat the abominations. They're not difficult to beat for the most part --usually two gunshots to the body will do the trick for the average one--although once you run out of bullets it becomes a matter of making sure you're not just using your fists. Plenty of games have tried this mechanic before, although Eldritch is more balanced than others. For what it's worth, the combat is simple, but it's fun.

Of course, we'll have a better picture come October 21 when the game hits the company's online store. For now, it's currently available for a $15 preorder and is on Steam Greenlight. There's also little tidbits like this that can help you to make a decision. Do you like Lovecraft? Indie Games? More Lovecraft?

Have I mentioned Lovecraft? Because there's a lot of that in here.