Eldritch

Part Minecraft, part Lovecraft, all cry in the corner-craft. Bring clean underwear. [Feb 2014, p.78]

Eldritch is a punishing difficult game that tests a player’s ability to survive in a Lovecraft-inspired world.

For all its borrowings and influences, all its sleights and feints, Eldritch's dark alchemy ultimately lies with the way it uses a blocky, cheerily primitive art style, silly sound effects and a surprisingly forgiving level of challenge to summon the kind of creeping dread that H.P. himself would be delighted with.

Unlike Spelunky, most players will see the end before their hundredth death. Onwards! There are cute monsters to kill.

No matter what powers, weapons or gear you end up with, Eldritch challenges you to learn its systems. You can't memorize the level layout, so you'll have to take into careful consideration your surroundings, what you're capable of, and how you can put your abilities to proper use.

Eldritch is almost two games for the price of one. Initially it could be said that it’s a comedy. The difficulty is un-obstructing and many of the enemy designs and animations are actually quite cute for nightmarish abominations. It welcomes you in and builds up your confidence, only to tear you back down again in New Game +, where Eldritch reveals its true colors as a first-person Spelunky with a horror slant.

Eldritch is brutally tough until you learn it, and then settles down to be pleasantly challenging, It’s a big random first-person dungeon crawl dripping with atmosphere, evil and fun in equal measure, and as a bonus you get to be a librarian reigning in the power of dark tomes of terrible knowledge.

This game has surely glimpsed the Necronomicon, and while the blood-curdling rituals may not bewitch you for years to come, it's a delightful cantrip to enchant you for a fortnight or so.

Eldritch's various components tend to work quite well on their own, and create most of a great Roguelike. But the speed and arbitrary nature of death means that the crazy desperate stories of near-death (or death) that make other games in the genre so memorable are unlikely to occur.

An accomplished Lovecraftian adventure with a bunch of potential that gives up its deeper secrets too easily.

There's scope for additions and improvements in future updates, of course, but right now Eldritch feels more like a game with a lot of potential than the next big thing in roguelike-inspired games -- a game worth playing, for sure, but one which could perhaps use a bit more time in the otherworldly oven.

Eldritch does right with the revered Cthulhu mythos, bringing to life its sinister lore and pitting gamers against Lovecraft's insidious demons. Though a short ride, the game provides plenty of jumps and scares, just in time for Halloween.