Hey dawg, so I put some Cthulhu in your video game....

World of Warcraft, and the tentacle-face alien vagina monsters that make me attack my friends, naturally.

If you're looking for tone, look no further than Amnesia: The Dark Descent.

They pretty much nailed it.  

I thought the weird squid massive squid monster lurking under the inky black watery depths with it's glowing eye from ASSASSIN'S CREED BROTHERHOOD was pretty "Lovecraftian"

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Originally Posted by stelios 

If you're looking for tone, look no further than Amnesia: The Dark Descent.

 

Is that game free to play? Thought I heard that. Where can I find it?

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Originally Posted by roboTimKelly 

Is that game free to play? Thought I heard that. Where can I find it?

No. 15$ on Steam, I think. Worth three times as much. The scariest anything I've ever experienced. With some preparation it's almost unbearably scary.

The Chzo mythos games deal with Lovecraftian horrors, and are totally free adventure games. You can get them here:  http://www.fullyramblomatic.com/games.htm

Eversion is a mario-style platformer crossed with Lovecraft. You can get the free version here: http://zarat.us/tra/offline-games/eversion.html or buy the HD version on Steam.

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Originally Posted by Wayward_Woman 

Doesn't count, babe. Otherwise, every pseudo-tentacle monster in a game would count. Talking more the tone, rather than the bestiary.

They are even called "Dark Ones"! They have tentacles! They make you hallucinate!

Quote:

Originally Posted by stelios 

No. 15$ on Steam, I think. Worth three times as much. The scariest anything I've ever experienced. With some preparation it's almost unbearably scary.

 

 

Quoted for truth. I'd keep an eye out on Steam Holiday Deals, 'cause this is one they put on sale all the time.

And it is scary as fuck.

Old adventure games "Prisoner of Ice" and "Shadow of the Comet" also have lovecraft influence; also the "alone in the dark" series (the original game and the sorta remake "the new nightmare").

"Sanitarium" is another adventure game with lovecraft influence in some of its parts; the original "Quake" had a elder god as its final boss if i remember it right.

A sure classic is "Clive Barker's Undying", which is a must play and has a lot of Lovecraft ideas and tone for a Cliver Barker production.

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Originally Posted by Wayward_Woman 

Holy fuck, I remember The Undying. That was an awesome game. 

The use of the "Scrye" spell in that game was genius...hell, it was hard as hell to play it in the dark with headphones on.

Not the series as a whole, but in Resistance 3 there are some dark atmospheric moments that scream Lovecraft. Theres a level in particular that takes place in an abandoned coal mine where you and a preacher go to fight "the devil", which the design of the monster itself is kind of Lovecraftian. But as you move through some of the areas, the atmosphere and setting make your skin crawl. Good stuff.

The Legacy: Realm of Terror is a big riff on Lovecraft. Probably was pretty decent in its day but unfortunately it has that rare control scheme that makes it basically unplayable today: mouse only, clicking on arrow buttons to move and clicking to attack, like the old first person D&D games. Just painful to play.

But it is Lovecraftian!

I somehow forgot to mention Cthulhu Saves the World. It's a parody game based on 16-bit JRPGs, and it's AWESOME. Can be found on XBL in the indie section, or on Steam.

Dead Space is sci-fi Lovecraft.

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Originally Posted by Wayward_Woman 

Just on a whim - what are some of the most blatant appropriations of the Lovecraft mythos in videogames? I mean, every game and their sequel has a many tentacled eldritch horror lurking in the womblike cavern of mountainous doom, but which games pull off the tone the best? Or lift the concept wholesale of ancient lurking horrors ready to drive you mad? It's kind of hard to think of a game that deals in the supernatural that doesn't contain at least one homage, reference, or wholesale ripoff of Lovecraft and Cthulhu, but what does it *best*?

 

 

I nominate the obvious: Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth, and Eternal Darkness on the gamecube as some of the better (and in the case of the former, the most blatant) lifts or adaptations of the material. 

 

 

Eternal Darkness fits the bill. Man, that game was fucked up and awesome.
 

I also really liked The Condemned games set in a haunted Maximum security prison.