Arkham Horror: Mother's Embrace - Announced for March 23
- Thread starter HiddenX
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I feel that it's almost every year now, that one or two new "Lovecraftian" games are announced. The hype rises...only to fall rather flat once the reviews start popping up.
Could this be the one? Lol, putting it on my wishlist just in case (but I'm not holding my breath this time)
Could this be the one? Lol, putting it on my wishlist just in case (but I'm not holding my breath this time)
KaosWarMonk
Keeper of the Watch
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Fantasy Flight's Arkham Horror franchise on which this is directly based has been around for over 10 years and has roughly half a dozen tabletop game titles, most of which have been very successful. Similar to GW though Asmodee (who owns FF) has been hit and miss when it comes to the digital stuff they've put out. This doesn't look like a digital version of any of the existing AH board/card games and would appear to be an original PC game, which is something I don't recall seeing from them before. As a fan of the franchise but aware of their past offerings I'll be waiting and watching the reviews too.
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Feist - I think it will depend on what you want from your Lovecraft games. Very few capture the (cosmic) horror of Lovecraft's work in any meaningful way, simply because the visual nature of video games encourages a "show don't tell" approach which really doesn't work for Lovecraft. Indeed, one of Lovecraft's enduring themes was that if you ever actually caught sight of the truth, you'd go insane.
Ironically, one of the better games was the old Lurking Horror text adventure!
The boardgames on which this is based are very good at telling "old dark house" adventure stories, with intersting puzzles and stories. However, monsters are definitely there to be beaten up, and madness is largely reduced to a secondary form of HP.
As such, I would expect an interesting story/setting, the odd twist, but no real sense of fear (beyond having to re-load/start over, or bugs!). There will be combat, against all-too-familiar monsters. The closest we're likely to get to horror is a "you can't actually win against a cosmic foe" ending.
But, as a game, it may be quite fun. Personally I enjoyed both Call of Cthulhu and Sinking City last year. Both were flawed in significant ways, but I finished both, and have good memories. (Although sinking city… why open world with so many monsters… why? [Shakes head]).
Ironically, one of the better games was the old Lurking Horror text adventure!
The boardgames on which this is based are very good at telling "old dark house" adventure stories, with intersting puzzles and stories. However, monsters are definitely there to be beaten up, and madness is largely reduced to a secondary form of HP.
As such, I would expect an interesting story/setting, the odd twist, but no real sense of fear (beyond having to re-load/start over, or bugs!). There will be combat, against all-too-familiar monsters. The closest we're likely to get to horror is a "you can't actually win against a cosmic foe" ending.
But, as a game, it may be quite fun. Personally I enjoyed both Call of Cthulhu and Sinking City last year. Both were flawed in significant ways, but I finished both, and have good memories. (Although sinking city… why open world with so many monsters… why? [Shakes head]).
Definitely curious about this one. I'm a huge fan of the Arkham Horror Living card game, and while this looks to be quite different, it still involves the same developers as well as the same intellectual property (I know it's Lovecraft, but Arkham Horror has a lot of it's own writing as well as established characters who I recognize from the trailer).
But as Irien said, it's likely to be more of a horror based adventure/RPG with spells and weapons and monsters to fight, which isn't necessarily quite in flavor of Lovecraft's original writing. But they have done some pretty good story lines in the past that can still be pretty creepy/disturbing, as well as slowly developing mechanics that help capture the horror/hopelessness of fighting some of the enemies.
But as Irien said, it's likely to be more of a horror based adventure/RPG with spells and weapons and monsters to fight, which isn't necessarily quite in flavor of Lovecraft's original writing. But they have done some pretty good story lines in the past that can still be pretty creepy/disturbing, as well as slowly developing mechanics that help capture the horror/hopelessness of fighting some of the enemies.
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Carnifex
SasqWatch
A detective game with turn based, tactical combat. Yeah, I'll be keeping an eye peeled for this one!
Arkham Horror is a very good board game. I wouldn't expect this game to be a full fledged rpg, though. Board game adaptations, especially the for more succesful complex games like Scythe and Gloomhaven, seem to have a built in audience on Steam, as its often hard to find people to play such long and complex games with, and the CPU presents the ability to find other players.
The gameplay trailer shows a little more.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuaEGixrWqM&ab_channel=AsmodeeDigital
The characters appear to have individual skills and stats, and it features turn-based combat, but yeah, I'm guessing the RPG elements are light. At least that's the impression I have.
This is actually true in the board game as well. Each character has their own starting gear, attributes and unique ability.
Edit: Watched the trailer. There is a little more than the board game here (but not a lot) but what little of the interface we see definitely goes beyond a standard board game adaptation. I'll be interested with the results.
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