Make horror movies Howard Phillips Lovecraft (Howard Phillips Lovecraft) – it is, as they say, both a gift and a curse. On the one hand, everything seems to have already been invented for you and before you, there are plots, characters, motives and an army of fans of his work. On the other hand, you need to resist the temptation to fill the game with cheap “screamers” and, on the contrary, do everything in a restrained, atmospheric, intelligent, Lovecraftian way – otherwise this same army of fans will send you on a date with Cthulhu. Studio Zoetrope Interactive copes with this exam for the third time – after the dilogy Darkness Within she released her new horror movie Lovecraft, Conarium.
Cold experiments
However, strictly speaking, Conarium – this is not a game Lovecraft, but in the spirit of his work, namely the book “The Ridges of Madness”. The overlaps with it are obvious, but overall the authors tell an original story. The action also takes place at a research station in Antarctica, which is located almost at the South Pole. We play as one of the scientists, Frank Gilman, who wakes up and finds himself completely alone – all his colleagues have disappeared somewhere, and he himself doesn’t really remember anything.
Finding various records, we gradually understand that some experiments were carried out at the station, during which scientists, with the help of strange instruments and substances, were immersed in a hypnotic sleep. So they wanted to join the secrets and knowledge of the ancient alien race of the Elders, whose caves are located just under the station. There, members of the expedition discover strange devices, wall inscriptions, stones with runes, unknown plants blocking passage to some areas, as well as sarcophagi with mummies of reptilian creatures that replaced the Elders.
And Frank, and we together with him, feel in our gut that there is someone or something else here – strange, dangerous, incomprehensible and therefore even more terrible..
Ridges of Madness
This, however, does not mean that we will have to constantly run away and hide from some monsters and shy away from “screamers”. Such situations, of course, arise, but in very measured doses – the authors rely on thoughtful research of locations and gradually increasing tension.
We find and study all kinds of https://spinsheavencasino.org/login/ documents, listen to audio recordings, periodically try to contact others, see events of the past and fall either into memories or into a dream – gradually the line between the present and the past is erased, and now it’s not really clear where this is a dream, hallucination, and where is reality.
Transition between different states of consciousness in Conarium made very accurately and subtly. Here we see a flower and a cat sitting next to it, the shadow of which falls on the wall, and now the flower suddenly begins to grow before our eyes, covering the entire room with its petal tentacles, and the cat’s head takes on a strange shape, enlarges, distorts, it turns… Brr. In this situation, it’s much more frightening than just another “boo” – it looks truly crazy, Lovecraftian.
The scariest thing is not even when strange shadows periodically flash before your eyes or you have to run away from something terrible that rolls over you with primitive horror, but when at the very end we understand what the scientists’ experiments led to, what price they paid for trying to touch something that a person should not touch. The logic of the story dictated that this is where everything would come, but still, when you first see the consequences of these experiments and understand what really happened to Frank and his colleagues, it makes a very strong impression..
Mysteries of history
Compared to the duology Darkness Within V Conarium There are fewer complex, abstract puzzles. At first, everything seems primitive – find the key, pour gasoline into the generator and start it, knock down the door after several blows, pick up the item and use it in the right place.
Then you will also have to destroy the stone ceilings with an ax and charge special crystals with energy so that they help remove the plants blocking the path. At some point, you even need to sit at the helm of the underwater vehicle and swim underwater in a somewhat arcade style, trying not to crash into anything – the device only has three “lives”.
Of course, more traditional puzzles appear periodically when we need, for example, to correctly set up radio waves or place coins with symbols in the right sequence on a stone pedestal. But there’s nothing particularly complicated there either – a clue can always be found somewhere nearby or in Frank’s diary, where he carefully writes down and sketches all the notes and documents he finds.
This does not mean that the game has turned into something easy and even arcade-like in places. It’s just that the authors this time decided to focus on a consistent, coherent story, distracting from it with some tricky puzzles would be too dangerous for the carefully built atmosphere.
Conarium – this is, in fact, a game “for our own”, for devoted fans of creativity Lovecraft, who will find here a lot of references to their favorite works. The authors are not trying to make some kind of revolution in the genre and scare the player to death, but instead tell a very exciting, tense and atmospheric story. It’s just a shame it’s very short.
Pros: fascinating story; truly Lovecraftian atmosphere; a lot of references; nice graphics; authentic music.
Cons: the game is very short; puzzles compared to Darkness Within have become easier.