Chronicle of Innsmouth: Mountains of Madness | PC Review

Lovecraftian horror is a genre that many people, including myself, have a particular fondness for. It’s been around for about a century and gets a resurgence every decade. The video game industry is no different, especially with the recent a slew of Lovecraft-inspired games coming out. Now, while HP Lovecraft himself was a terrible human being, the mythos he created has endured and has been adopted by many other writers who put their own, non-racist, spin on it. 

In His House At R’lyeh Dead Cthulhu Waits Dreaming

Developer PsychoDev has done just that with their Chronicle of Innsmouth franchise. In the first game, called Chronicle of Innsmouth, you play a traveler in 1919 who is trying to get to Arkham, Massachusetts, but instead ends up in the mysterious, secretive, and rather deadly titular town of Innsmouth, a well known name to Lovecraft fans. 

One of the characters you meet during this game is Lone Carter, a private detective hired to find a missing person. Chronicle of Innsmouth: Mountains of Madness is a direct sequel to the first game, but now you play as Lone, as he’s dealing with the fallout of what happened in fishy Innsmouth and his miraculous survival of the stunning events that transpired that night..

The Shadow Over Innsmouth

To prepare for Mountains of Madness, I first played Chronicle of Innsmouth before moving on to the second game. I already owned the game, I just hadn’t gotten round to playing it, and this seemed the perfect opportunity to do so. The first game was a traditional point+click adventure game in the same style as the classic Lucasfilm games, with a verb menu, an inventory, and lots of clicking. 

Released in 2017, it’s a pixel art adventure game, inspired by the Lovecraft story “The Shadow over Innsmouth.” PsychoDev managed to get the sinister atmosphere of Lovecraft stories very right, which is the main thing that impressed me with the first game. The artwork was good, and the story moved along nicely, despite a few frustrating puzzles, and the gameplay overall was smooth. It was a very good debut of a promising developer.

At The Mountains Of Madness

The second game, called Mountains of Madness, is inspired by the story “At The Mountains Of Madness.” From the get-go it is clear that the developers kept everything that made the first game good, and improved on that as well. The game is completely voice-acted and that is done excellently, with all the characters sounding as if they actually were from 1919. The pixel art was already good in the first game, but here it is looking quite stellar, especially the cut scenes. 

The biggest improvement is the gameplay itself. Instead of a verb menu, PsychoDev updated the gameplay so that it’s a simple right click to walk and left click to interact with items or people, making it a very smooth experience. What’s also fun, is that you not only get to play as Lone Carter, but also as some other (rather surprising) characters throughout the game. And you can die. But don’t worry, you will probably save a lot and if you do die, then you are restored to a place right before you died so you can try again.

That Is Not Dead Which Can Eternal Lie…

So far so good, but there are also a few things that I thought were a bit frustrating and not improved from the first game. Mountains of Madness does not hold your hand. By that, I mean that there’s no hint system, and the writing doesn’t push you in the right direction. That means that when you get stuck, sometimes all there’s left to do is just talk with everyone again and try and see if anything has changed anywhere. 

For instance, there is a cupboard in Lone’s office that he can’t open. However, once a certain location has been unlocked, it is possible to open it and look inside. Unfortunately, there’s nothing that gives you a hint to go look there. This can be a bit frustrating at times. I’m really glad there’s no timed section as there was near the end of Chronicle of Innsmouth, though. That one had me up the wall. I think the addition of some sort of journal where notes are kept and which could serve as a hint system of sorts would improve the game even more. It could also help when puzzles are too challenging.

…And With Strange Aeons Even Death May Die

None of that kept me from enjoying the game for long. The very mature story was well-paced and took me to places I never thought I’d see in a game. It’s clear that the Chronicle of Innsmouth games are a labour of love for the PsychoDev guys, and they have created a fascinating narrative and characters to go along with it. Their affection for cosmic horror comes out even more in Mountains of Madness, and I sincerely hope this will not be the last of the Innsmouth franchise. I have a feeling that PsychoDev has a lot more stories to tell in this cold, dark, uncaring, yet exciting Lovecraftian universe. If you like point+click adventure games, if you like pixel art games, if you like (cosmic) horror, then you want to play Mountains of Madness. Now if you’ll excuse me, I got a Great Old One to summon.

To hear me talk more about Chronicle of Innsmouth: Mountains of Madness, be sure to check out Episode 339 of The Gaming Outsider Podcast.

This review is based on a PC copy of Chronicle of Innsmouth: Mountains of Madness provided by Jaleo PR for coverage purposes.