Adaptations and interpretations of H.P. Lovecraft’s works are plentiful and everywhere. In games, we have the likes of Call of Cthulhu or Alone in the Dark, which drew incredibly heavily on the Lovecraft Mythos. Whilst masterpieces such as SOMA, which don’t directly adapt the mythology are based heavily on it, instead building their own world on the themes. Cthulhu is the most well-known work of Lovecraft, so it’s unsurprising that it gets so much love in the gaming world, and I’m here for it. 

Set in the year 20.53, the world has embraced more powerful technology, but resources are dwindling. In an attempt to counteract this, corporations are investigating deep-sea resources. You play as Noah, an investigator looking into the strange disappearance of the Ocean-I facility. What appears to be a normal archaeological discovery is only part of the truth, and the nature is much darker. With members of the Ocean-I expedition teams looking to awaken an ancient one known as Cthulhu. Noah must investigate the cult and stop them from releasing a cosmic horror beyond human imagination. 

Yeah, about 500 times after all the crashing.

Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss immediately sets itself apart from other attempts at mythology by placing the events in a near future where AI-Companions are fully integrated, rather than the 1900s. It helps give the game its own identity whilst pushing some more clever ideas that combine Cthulhu with technological advancements. It’s really easy to get hooked into the story of a Cthulhu game, and Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss does a great job as well, with strong world-building and backstories that unravel as you explore the base of Ocean-I, as well as ancient lost cities, following an expedition team that is, of course, up to some shady stuff and heavily involved in the occult. All of this leads to some surprisingly solid twists.

Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss is what I’d call an investigative horror game. It’s a tense and psychological delve into a dark mystery that will unravel a grand cosmic entity and your mind. Whilst you will encounter creatures throughout your adventure, this isn’t like Alone in the Dark, Amnesia: The Bunker or Resident Evil, where you can fight back against a tangible threat. Creatures serve more as roadblocks, forcing you to find different ways around. They will tear you apart. So if you are expecting that sort of experience, you will be disappointed. Instead, it’s a lot closer to the likes of 2018’s Call of Cthulhu, so if you want a detective-style cosmic mystery to unravel, then Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss will be worth paying attention to. 

There’s a lot of reading and investigating in Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss. To help you in your in-universe AI Companion, Key will be your… key to progression. By interacting with and scanning the various clues and materials in the scanner, you can then use this information to find other objects within that same class. The scanner is a cool tool and really handy for finding those sneaky objects that are hidden all over the place. You can also filter it further to highlight objects that meet all the criteria. It may sound a little overwhelming, but Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss does have some great quality-of-life features that help it out tremendously. The tracker will remove resources that might not be in the chapter, for instance. 

“Cthulhu, this name keeps comin’ up over and over and over again. Every day, Cthulhu’s mail is getting sent back to me…. I got to find this guy, I got to go up to his office…”

You will also have access to an incredibly handy conspiracy-style board called The Vault, that lets you draw connections between clues and discover new ones. Certain clues will start a deduction marked in purple; finding the corresponding clue will then complete that deduction. It’s a nice way to guide the player experience without it becoming too hand-holdy. Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss trusts the player enough to find the solutions, and the clues it places are often incredibly well done. Although, if you do need a hand, an optional difficulty setting will allow you to interact with Key to provide additional context and point you in the right direction without it feeling too hand-holdy, regardless. Her clues start off small, but items often have multiple layers that become more guided the more you ask Key for help. Of course, this is entirely optional. 

Typically, each chapter has two ways to complete it, which can affect your experience and endings. By interacting with the occult, your corruption level rises, which drives up your insanity. This reduces the options later in the game and also potentially destroyes your evolutions the more you mess with the occult. However, by paying attention to the environment and clues, you might be able to find another way through each chapter, resisting the call of Cthulhu, and keeping your sanity. Not only does this create an engaging loop in each chapter that had me scouring the environment and pulling together clues, but it also encourages a second playthrough to see how these objectives play out. Your corruption level will also impact which endings you have access to.

For the most part, I had a good time playing Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss. The investigative gameplay trusts the player enough to figure things out. I rarely ever felt lost, and I was making good progress when the game was working as intended. Though a few sections can be frustrating, with awkward pathing or a lack of clear direction in the latter chapters. It felt like there was a lack of polish, and the game needed a little more time in the oven to iron out the kinks. 

Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss kills it with fantastic world designs.

Then we’ve got the more egregious bugs that break into the more game-breaking territory. To put it bluntly, the game is unstable, with frequent crashes that have sent me back hours. Just as I was getting into the groove, I’d be sent back to the PS5 home screen and have to start the chapter again, and once I was sent back to the previous chapter as well! I would be a touch more forgiving of the crashing issues if checkpoints worked as intended, but that doesn’t seem to be the case, and it consistently happens in the game’s third chapter. A patch has significantly improved the reliability of checkpointing, and overall performance has seemed much smoother, allowing me to progress further into the game. Even though I still saw some common crashes, I had already been somewhat soured by this point. Something to be aware of, and your mileage may vary here, since I was playing on a pre-release build.

I want to give this game a break, though, as I really enjoyed my time with it when it was working. As such, I’d still recommend the game, but wait for a few patches or look into the PC version. As it stands, the base PlayStation 5 version is something I cannot recommend and was bordering on unplayable with how frequent the crashing was. Frame rates would fluctuate wildly, data errors would occur frequently, and the aforementioned crashing issues could waste hours of your time. Hopefully, this is fixed in a day-one patch.

Aside from the issues, the visuals are actually really solid. There are dense and varied environments as you explore abandoned cabins, underwater bases, and the cities of a long-lost civilisation overrun with corruption. The music swells as it pulls you right into each new area and uncovers its darkest secrets. Unfortunately, I didn’t find the voice acting all that convincing, often lacking the nuance and horror I was expecting from someone losing their mind over the course of this roughly 15-hour adventure. 

Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss uses creatures sparingly.

I really wanted to like Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss more than I did. Somewhere behind the ridiculous performance issues, crashes, and janky game design is an utterly compelling experience with a few issues holding it back, and it became downright frustrating to play. When the game was working, I was hooked on solving the mystery. With a fantastic mind map system and solid investigations that really don’t hold your hand throughout. I urge fans of cosmic horror to check this one out, maybe after a patch or two, just to make sure. 

Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss is available now on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.

Reviewed on PlayStation 5.

A Copy of Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss was provided by the publisher.