Chronicle Of Innsmouth | Review | Lovecraft and Lucasarts Together At Last
52Ahh, HP Lovecraft: the master of cosmic horror. The style that everyone wants to get right, but almost no one does. Why is that? Why is it that the Cthulhu mythos is basically the grim lovechild of the internet in this day and age, but the majority of attempts to translate that into pop culture tends to get it wrong? Some could argue overexposure is an issue. That or underexposure: I wouldn’t be surprised if the vast majority of people who love themselves some elder gods have never actually read any of the work of Lovecraft, Robert E Howard, or any number of the pulp authors who originated and expanded on this world. And, frankly, I don’t blame them. That stuff is dense. And I know I’m going into heretic territory here, but not all of it is good, either. It can be difficult to parse the genius from the subpar. So why does cosmic horror seem to be experiencing such a heyday while also being genuinely misunderstood by so many?
I’d argue it’s the monster.
We love a monster. And Lovecraft created some of the best. The trouble is that the monster in Lovecraft’s work was subtle—a shadow in the background that hinted at the microscopic significance of mankind. The whole point was that taking in the horror and the monster at its fullest could drive people to madness. This idea in the hands of best creates slow, driving, dread. At its worst, it’s just another Universal monster: “Oh look at me, guys: I’ve got tentacles! So Cthulhu! So spoooooopy!”
And that’s why it’s hard to find video games that get the Lovecraft notion right. Instinctively, we expect video games to be faster-paced and even bombastic. If you’ve got a millennia-old horror from out of space, there’d better be a magical sword or some damn thing that we can use to kill it. And that’s just not how Lovecraft tends to work in the long run. His notion on science fiction is that space and the cosmos holds secrets so alien to our human minds, that even our major victories against them are only pushing back an inevitable and indecipherable defeat.
But when it comes to games that do get Lovecraft right, I tend to look toward the adventure genre. They’re story-driven, they’re character focused, and they allow for a more slower, literary pacing. What an adventure game might lack in spectacle or action, they’ll tend to more than make up for in the overall theme and dread that you’re meant to be feeling. Chronicle of Innsmouth is just such a game.
Developed by Umberto Parisi and Amadeo Vasaturo, Chroncile of Innsmouth follows your protagonist as he uses the classic nine verb style of adventure game in an effort to learn more about the forbidden and secretive New England town of Innsmouth. And right off the bat, I was impressed at the attempt that the developers made to stay true to both Lovecraft and the classic Lucasarts adventures of the 90s. The real Monkey Island or Indiana Jones feel you get from this game is absolutely perfect for those of us who loved these games in years gone by. You can tell this was made by people who adored that style, and it doesn’t go unappreciated.
You’ve got to collect items, try to combine them with each other, push, pull, and look at everything around you. There is some definite moon logic that rears its head during this game, and frankly, I’m not sure whether or not to put that under a flaw or a feature at this point. Those old point and click games were basically defined by the stretches in imagination that you had to put yourself through just to progress, and I’ve met just as many people who love the frustration as hate it. Anyway, there are plenty of puzzles to figure out in Innsmouth, and some are simpler to figure out than others. Even if you do feel frustrated by several of them, for Lucasarts veterans like me, it was a good frustration. Your own, non-masochistic and completely mentally balanced experience may vary.
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