Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss

The Cosmic Abyss has enough variety to make the runtime never feel overly long, and the optionality within each chapter provides a significant amount of replay value.

Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss is a wonderful narrative adventure that rewards you for the time you spend with it, offering a great story and some fantastic detective elements.

An ambitious, visually striking cosmic detective adventure that blends smart scanning mechanics with rewarding puzzles. While it rarely threatens, Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss is soaked in immersive detail that even rises above its bugs.

Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss feels like a breath of fresh air to Lovecraft’s body of work. It revels in forcing the player to parse through the madness, unraveling the unfathomable questions of places and being we are not meant to understand. Wrapped in cosmic horror like an offering to the Old Gods, this is a claustrophobic journey that respects the player’s intelligence in putting the pieces together to solve eerie mysteries and hopefully not succumbing to the influence of insanity.

Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss does ample justice to its grim source material, fashioning a compelling investigative adventure which generously drips with atmosphere but one which is sadly somewhat undercut by a wealth of technical issues that take the sheen otherwise what is a highly enjoyable Lovecraftian romp.

Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss presents itself as a homage to one of the greatest horror authors of the 20th century. Even with some minor performance issues, the derelict locations you explore as Noah are some of the most beautifully crafted renditions of Lovecraft’s mythos that have ever been put to a screen.

Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss successfully nails the elements I love most about cosmic horror: the crushing weight of thalassophobia, a dense atmosphere, the chilling descent of humans into madness, and Cthulhu himself. I mean, we usually watch civilians become his victims in most stories, but in this one, we have scientists losing their grip and believing his mad cult, on top of some investigative systems that are genuinely clever. So it is very interesting! However, there were some stumbles along the way that were hard to ignore and ultimately took some of the shine off the overall experience. Ultimately, the game did make me lose my sanity, but not always for the reasons I expected. While the atmosphere is great, the lack of technical polish in the latter half of the game is a significant hurdle. If Big Bad Wolf can iron out the performance following launch, this will be an indispensable title for fans of the genre. For now, it's a brilliant but bruised descent into the abyss.

While there are many games based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft, Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss stands out thanks to its focus on you conducting an investigation. With some genuinely tough puzzles to solve, it's just a shame that one or two are more frustrating than they are fun, and that there are numerous technical issues to deal with too.

Even reviewed under punishing conditions and burdened with a technical performance that H. P. Lovecraft would probably have described as “indescribable” at least a dozen times in the same chapter, something still compels us to focus on the strengths that emerge from Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss. A diligent and conscientious student of an enduring literary mythos, the game by Big Bad Wolf skillfully lines up its references, but is unlikely to sweep connoisseurs off their feet with a narrative that—even when set in the future—lacks a bit of madness and surprise. It nonetheless remains an investigative game with a gripping atmosphere and rewarding mechanics, and deserves credit for the bold choice of placing its full trust in the player’s powers of deduction.

Without resorting solely to superficial mythological elements, Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss does a decent job of structuring its experience around investigative gameplay while also exploring the thematic dichotomy between a logical approach to often illogical cosmic events. While this may not be particularly original within the genre, finding such a consistent execution is still far from common.

Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss has some interesting ideas, but it hides them behind poorly explained puzzles and deceptively linear design.

Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss is far from a perfect game, with some noticeable issues in pacing and in how it handles several key choices. While the technical side isn’t particularly impressive and the experience is marred by a number of non-negligible flaws, it still manages to stand out thanks to its strong sense of identity and internal consistency, offering a solid experience—especially for fans of the Providence author. It may not be the best game inspired by H. P. Lovecraft, but it leaves behind a lingering sense of unease, which is perhaps the most authentic achievement a work inspired by the Master can hope to attain.

Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss shows interesting ideas for horror cosmic fans, but it doesn't offer anything new. Furthermore, it's suffers from performance problems.

Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss doesn’t truly excel at anything, chucks in a few unnecessary mechanics, and can be technically wobbly, but fans of cosmic horror and in-depth puzzle-solving will surely enjoy it as a perfectly competent investigation game that offers a sinister and spooky edge.

It's beautifully designed and takes you through some impressive and mind-boggling worlds, but I'd say you need to be a real fan of these detective games for Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss to be worth your while. As mentioned earlier, there are elements that make the whole thing a bit too convoluted and slow the game down even further than it already is. There are also a number of technical issues that are hard to overlook.