As of late 2023, there were over 600 games on Steam tagged as “Lovecraftian” and the number grows each month. The games listed here include the excellent, worthy, and notable of the Lovecraftian/cosmic horror titles currently available. Links to Steam and Good Ol’ Games (GOG) are included.
Alan Wake (2010)/Alan Wake 2 (2023) – Survival horror. A best selling crime writer haunted by personal demons is suffering from a case of writer’s block. While visiting the rural Washington town of Bright Falls, his wife disappears and he is attacked by nightmarish versions of the town’s residents and landmarks. The plot and setting are more Stephen King than Lovecraft, but the result is one of the best examples of cosmic horror in video games. The 2023 sequel follows Alan’s escape from the nightmarish Dark Place, while FBI agent Saga Anderson investigates a cult and murders in Bright Falls. Available on PlayStation, XBox, PC and Nintendo Switch
Alone in the Dark: The Trilogy 1+2+3 (1992/1993/1994) Point and click adventure. A popular series from influential developer Infogrames, the Alone in the Dark series follows private investigator Edward Carnby’s fight against supernatural menaces in the 1920s. The first game in the series is the most Lovecraftian, with appearances by grimoires and creatures from the mythos. Later entries in the series follow more traditional supernatural menaces. The original games are still available from online stores for those wishing to experience the early days of horror gaming, and a modern remake is currently in development with David Harbour voicing and providing motion capture for Edward Carnby. Available on PC
Amnesia Dark Descent (2010) Survival horror. A young man named Daniel awakens in a castle in Germany in 1839. With no memory of who he is or how he came to be in the castle, Daniel must explore his surroundings, find ways to open locked passages and discover letters that slowly reveal the truth. Maintenance of sanity is a key element of the game and so finding and creating light sources is critical to surviving. Lovecraft’s mythos are not specifically referenced in Amnesia, but it captures the spirit of his short stories in which past events hang dreadfully over the present. More than a dozen years on, it still holds up as one of the most frightening and intense survival horror games. Available on PC, Mac, PlayStation, XBox, and Nintendo Switch
Bloodborne (2015) Action RPG. Many reviewers have called this the dark fantasy action epic the greatest Lovecraftian game ever. Bloodborne has earned such praise for its story and atmosphere, rather than overt references to Lovecraft’s mythos. The main character is known only as the Hunter, who must make way through the plague stricken city of Yarnham. The spreading sickness turns people into monsters and seems to be a prelude to the return of the Great Ones. Brutally difficult, especially for players unaccustomed to ‘Soulslike’ games, Bloodborne is worth playing just to appreciate the nightmarish Gothic setting. Available on PlayStation
Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth (2006) Survival horror. A mentally unstable private eye in the 1920s is enlisted by the FBI in a mystery that draws from Lovecraft’s Shadow Over Innsmouth and Shadow Out of Time. Dark Corners of the Earth was produced under a license from Chaosium, and while it was commercially unsuccessful, many of the game’s innovations influenced later horror games. Available currently on PC
Call of Cthulhu (2018) RPG. This role playing mystery is the most recent game developed under a license from the Chaosium pen and paper game. In this original story, a Boston private detective travels to Darkwater Island to investigate the death of an artist. Equal parts Chandler and Lovecraft, Call of Cthulhu has a cinematic take on the classic tabletop game. Available on PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch
Call of the Sea (2022) Adventure puzzle. Call of the Sea is a combat-less adventure puzzle game. The player’s character is Norah Everhart, a woman in the 1930s searching for her missing husband on a strange South Pacific island. Lovecraftian references abound including newspaper interviews with Inspector Legrasse and a strange device built by a scientist named Tillinghast. The game’s art style is bold and colorful like a painting from a pulp magazine cover. Available on PC, PlayStation and Xbox
The Chant (2022) Survival horror. A young woman joins a friend on an island for a spiritual retreat, but finds that the group’s leader has disturbing plans. The story is deeply Lovecraftian, placing elements of “From Beyond” and “Color Out of Space” into a New Age folk horror story. Available on PC, PlayStation and Xbox
Get it here: Steam
Conarium (2017) Adventure. On an Antarctic research station in the 1940s, scientist Frank Gilman awakens after an experiment into human consciousness using the Conarium device. Finding the station abandoned, he ventures outside and into tunnels underneath the ice. Despite a few inconsistencies with the source material, Conarium works well as a sequel to “In the Mountains of Madness.” Available on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox
Control (2019) Action-adventure. Beginning as more of a supernatural spy thriller than a horror game, Control nonetheless becomes more cosmic and disturbing as one progresses into the story. Searching for her missing psychic brother, Jesse Faden ventures into the Oldest House, a strange Brutalist designed government facility that has been taken over by an “Altered World Event.” Jesse must face possessed government agents and the house itself where the laws of space and time are in flux. Remedy, the developers of Alan Wake, plan further releases to showcase the two games’ shared universe. Available on PC, PlayStation, XBox and Nintendo Switch.
Get it here: Steam
Cultist Simulator (2022) Deck building card game. Intentionally designed to offer only the vaguest instructions, in Cultist Simulator the player takes on the role of a character in a 1920s horror setting. The plot is driven by drawing and combining event cards, propelling you towards greater power or greater insanity – or perhaps both. For those tired of typical survivor horror games this game conveys stress, fear and the unknown through a game mechanism rarely applied to horror games. Available on PC, Mac, iOS, Android and Nintendo Switch.
Dead Space (2008/2023) Survival horror. A remake of a 2008 release, Dead Space leans into the science fiction roots of cosmic horror. Engineer Isaac Clarke must enter and fix a massive planet cracking ship that has gone dead in space. The first game in the series is a well done ‘monster on a ship’ story, but the two sequels move squarely into cosmic horror with classic elements such as alien worshipping cults, unfathomably remote and powerful beings and the terror of man’s insignificance in the vastness of space. Available on Playstation, PC and Xbox
Get it here: Steam
Dreams in the Witch House (2023) Point and click adventure. Playing as Walter Gilman, you must study for tests, earn money, stay healthy and, of course, try to avoid the witch Keziah and her familiar Brown Jenkin. Dreams in the Witch House is an unexpectedly deep and inspired adaptation of Lovecraft’s classic story, especially as it is largely the work of a single developer. Available on PC
Dredge (2023) RPG. Creating its own genre, Dredge is a unique combination of fishing simulator and horror adventure. As the captain of a fishing boat you must earn money and upgrade your ship by catching fish, but as one ventures further into deeper waters, strange ocean creatures emerge. And then there’s those strange objects found in the depths, and the mysterious man who pays you for their return. A breakout hit of 2023, Dredge shows that there are still new ways to bring the Cthulhu mythos into video games. Available on PC, PlayStation, Xbox and Switch.
Fallout 4 (2015) RPG. The retro futuristic Fallout games, all set many years after a nuclear war, are inspired far more by apocalyptic sci-fi than cosmic horror, but Fallout 4 deserves inclusion in this list for its many Mythos elements . In the ruins of a post-nuclear Boston, players can find Pickman’s Gallery and a series of tunnels outside of the city was created by a company called the Dunwich Borers. The expansion content Far Harbor ups the Lovecraftian content and adds a new setting in a remote New England fishing village . Available on PC, PlayStation and XBox
Forgive Me, Father (2022) First person shooter. This recent retro style shooter is a homage to Quake’s combination of monsters and guns. Forgive Me Father’s comic influenced art and monster design gives players a fresh take on what can be a repetitive game genre. Available on PC, PlayStation and Xbox.
Get it here: Steam
From Beyond: Prologue (2018) Point and click adventure. This point and click adventure is a prequel to Lovecraft’s similarly named short story. From Beyond: Prologue follows a young Professor Tillinghast on an expedition to an abandoned village that has been struck by a violent calamity. The style and look of the game is a faithful recreation of late 80s point and click games such as Deja Vu and Shadowgate. Available on PC and Mac
Get it here: Steam
Lovecraft’s Untold Stories (2019) Action RPG. Lovecraft’s Untold Stories remixes characters and settings from a number of stories into a single narrative game. The player can choose one of four characters (Detective, Ghoul, Witch and Thief) and navigate through a variety of pulp settings – dockyards, cemeteries, labs and the Dreamlands. Randomly generated maps change the game with each play through, and after enough repeated tries, players may have collected enough artifacts and clues to defeat the Great Old Ones. Available on PC, PlayStation, Xbox, iOS and Nintendo Switch
Mothmen 1966 (2022) Point and click adventure. Mothmen 1966 is a point and click adventure also focuses on three characters – a young couple and a gas station owner who encounter a strange creature in the Midwest on the night of a meteor shower. In keeping with the legend of the mothmen, their appearance signals something far more ominous. Available on PlayStation, Xbox, PC, and Nintendo Switch
Get it here: Steam
No One Lives Under the Lighthouse (2020) Survival horror. No One Lives Under the Lighthouse begins with a deceptively simple premise – as a lighthouse keeper, the player must maintain the facility and light the lamp but as days pass, equipment mysteriously breaks or goes missing. Soon however, events spin into something far more unsettling and disturbing. Available on PC, PlayStation and Xbox
Get it here: Steam
Quake (1996) First person shooter. A classic in the FPS genre, Quake throws together modern weaponry, dark medieval fantasy and Lovecraftian creatures into a strange but successful combination. So successful was the game that it received a number of sequels and spinoffs, in addition to countless imitators. Quake is also notable for its famous contributors, with music composed by Trent Reznor and game design by Chaosium’s Sandy Peterson. The 2021 remake changes very little about the look and feel of the original games but updates it for modern systems. Available on PC, Mac, PlayStation, XBox and Nintendo Switch
Sherlock Holmes The Awakened (2023) Adventure. A remake of the 2008 game by Frogwares, developers of a series of Sherlock Holmes games, rebuilt as a sequel to their recent Sherlock Holmes Chapter One. In The Awakened, a younger Sherlock Holmes and Watson begin with a seemingly normal disappearance case that leads them into a conspiracy of abduction and murder perpetrated by a Cthulhu cult. Frogwares’ take on Holmes is by now its own fully realized version of the classic character, and integrates well into the universe of Lovecraft. Available on PC, PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch
Get it here: Steam
Signalis (2022) Survival horror. Signalis is a new game visually reminiscent of 90s console games. Set mostly on a remote mining station in the far future, Elster, a replicant space traveler, must survive attacks by mindless replicants and delve into the mysteries of her own memories. The game directly references Chambers’ The King in Yellow and H.P. Lovecraft’s The Festival and the themes are evocative of Kubrick or Lynch. Available on PC, PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch
Get it here: Steam
The Sinking City (2018) Mystery RPG. This title from Ukrainian developer Frogwares has a similar style to their Sherlock Holmes series, in which players must find clues and connect the evidence inside a ‘mind palace’ puzzle to move the plot forward. In The Sinking City, Frogwares has built the huge open world setting of Oakmont, Massachusetts. Following the government’s attack on Innsmouth from the “Shadow Over Innsmouth,” nearby Oakmont suffers devastating floods which submerges parts of the city and brings horrible creatures and plagues into the streets. Charles Reed, private investigator and WW1 veteran, travels to Oakmont to investigate a missing ship and is soon hired by Robert Throgmorton. Available on PC, Playstation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch
Get it here: Steam
Song of Horror (2019) Survival horror. Hearkening back to classic 90s survival horror with a fixed camera angle, limited resources and a high level of difficulty, in Song of Horror players must investigate the disappearance of writer Sebastian P. Husher. If its title and plot were not enough to show the game’s influences, you can set the game at its hardest level – H.P. Lovecraft Difficulty. Available on PC, PlayStation and XBox.
Get it here: Steam
Stygian Reign of the Old Ones (2019) RPG. A great many of Lovecraftian video games are built around the concept of stopping a cult that is trying to summon one of the Great Old Ones. Stygian Reign of the Old Ones begins after a cult succeeds in such a plan. In this 1920s-set game, the town of Arkham has been sent off into a dark realm after an event known as the Black Day. After building a character, your initial quest is to find the Dismal Man, a mysterious lantern bearing figure who knows something about the origin of the Black Day. The developer’s ambition was clearly to create a cosmic horror RPG as immersive as the early Fallout games; a goal that is a almost but not quite reached. Available on PC and Mac
Sunless Sea (2015) RPG. Set in an Victorian fantasy world in which London has been moved to a deep underground location and the player captains an underwater steamship. The captain must maintain and supply a crew, complete missions to different locations and content with gargantuan underwater creatures. There are multiple paths to victory, either through exploration or wealth, but the game’s ‘permanent death’ system and procedurally generated maps guarantee repeated play-throughs to finish. A 2019 sequel, Sunless Skies, moves the setting to outer space and references the 19th century science fiction of H.G. Welles and Jules Verne. Available on PC, PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch
The Terrible Old Man (2019) Point and click adventure. This is a short and inexpensive adaptation of Lovecraft’s short story with a unique pulpy art style. Available on PC
Get it here: Steam
Transient (2020) Adventure puzzle. From Zoetrope, the developer of Conarium, Transient reimagines Lovecraftian mythos in a far future cyberpunk setting. From his apartment in the domed city of Providence, Randolph Carter uses cybernetic enhancements to explore his city, alien worlds and the dreams of others. Available on PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch
World of Horror (2023) Point and click adventure. Equal parts frustrating and fascinating, World of Horror combines low-fi Junji Ito inspired art, Lovecraftian Old Gods and Japanese folk horror into a retro point and click adventure. How retro is it? World of Horror’s Polish developer built the graphics using MS Paint. The story, music and art style all work to create a deeply disturbing and eery environment. However, it’s interesting to wonder if the games weaknesses – poorly explained combat mechanics and quest system – are intentionally designed to enhance the players anxiety or merely the result of a semi-professional developer. An interesting side note for weird fiction fans: horror writer Cassandra Khaw is the co-writer. Available on PC, Mac, PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch
The Lovecraft eZine 
Hello!
I would suggest to add https://store.steampowered.com/app/1741640/Shadows_of_Forbidden_Gods/ – strategy Lovecraftian game is a rare bird. I played it and I think that it is both good game and good example of Lovecraftian work.
BTW, I would like to present my own game. “Dominion of Darkness” is a strategy text game in which the player takes on the role of a Sauron-style Lord of Darkness with the goal of conquering the world. He will carry out his plans by making various decisions. He will build his army and send it into battles, weave intrigues and deceptions, create secret spy networks and sectarian cults, recruit agents and commanders, corrupt representatives of Free Peoples and sow discord among them, collect magical artifacts and perform sinister plots. Note – one game takes about 1 hour, but the premise is that the game can be approached several times, each time making different decisions, getting different results and discovering something new.
Sounds more Tolkienian, than Lovecraftian, right? But your Dark Lord is not only entity which endangers civilizations of mortal, nor the most powerful being in the universe. There are Things who treat your conquest as funny entertainment and which could help you… or help you die if it would be interesting. There are inscrutable gods, which mad goals can collide with your plans. In the deserts and sea deep there are remnants of civilizations ancient even for Dark Lord. And if you will comprehend secrets of the blackest magic, more eldritch ascension awaits.
Game is avalaible for free here: https://adeptus7.itch.io/dominion
And here are the reviews:
– Indie Sampler (video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LM6f4UCEgWU
– [BOKC] BlancoKix (video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgNpSKToOSg
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