H.P. Lovecraft has created the backbone of psychological horror with all of his tales about these mysterious beings all around us. Even Spielberg finds the Lovecraftian storytelling difficult to comprehend sometimes, but still indulges in it… Big Bad Wolf Studios saw the tale of The Old Ones as a challenge and decided to create a video game where the boundaries of myth and reality collide. It’s an interactive story where your sanity will be tested… Let’s talk madness.
Cthulu: The Cosmic Abyss will take you to 2053, where you take on the role of Noah. Noah is a mysterious figure who represents the Interpol’s secret occult division that has been sent out by the agency to find a missing agent. After some searching in this dark place of a house, you quickly realize that the agent has been caught up in some cult that worships the old beings from beyond. The search gains “high priority status” as a portal to another dimension has been found. You take a peek into the abyss and try to get some ground of the surroundings, you see a glimpse of your missing friend, but something doesn’t feel right… Before you can get a grip on your thoughts, the situation quickly escalates, and the missing friend assaults you, dismembering your hand in the process… Eventually, you’re being saved by your colleague, and you’re being bumped out of the dimension.
“Finding these important scientists might help you in your search for your colleague…”
Trying to get a grip on reality, you fall unconscious and eventually wake up in a submarine on your way to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, where you’ll board a futuristic mining station that’s been set up to search for the myth of the sunken city R’lyeh. The investigation team that leads the research of this mysterious city has vanished, and it’s up to you to search for the team. Finding these important scientists might help you in your search for your colleague who’s been stuck in a mysterious place beyond the dimension.
The whole concept of the game is all about playing the detective who searches through everything he finds, formulates a lot of unanswered questions, analyzes the found information, and tries to fit in the missing pieces, and eventually narrows the information down to a track that helps you throughout the mystery. You’ll find documents, pictures, recording devices, computers, mysterious objects, and all of these interactable objects come with their own descriptive text that quietly enhances the sense of mystery. It’s the interaction with all of this information that makes the game stand out, because it offers tools to give you the feeling of playing that detective part.
“You also get this tool called “Key”, an AI assistant, that helps you with the case.”
For example, all of the found information is being pushed to your vault, where you can link pieces of evidence with each other, hoping to narrow the information down to the most important pieces. By listening to all of these different audios along the way and reading all of the found documents or experiences, questions start to pop up to give you a sense of direction. It’s then up to you to open the vault and connect the dots to give an answer to the questions you’ve formed. By answering the questions correctly (because you can try out multiple combinations between questions and find info), you’ll get a better grip of the situation, and you’ll be able to continue your journey.
You also get this tool called “Key”, an AI assistant, that helps you with the case. Not only does this tool give you a second opinion on your findings or help you to stabilize your sanity when swimming around in the depths of the Pacific Ocean, but it also comes with the ability to analyze the composition of your found objects and thereby create a frequency that will resonate with the same objects in your near or even far surroundings.
“There is also this other feature connected to this pulsating mechanism.”
This helps the player in finding all of the missing objects that might have a descriptive text that can be the key to unlock the case even further. You can tune in on the frequency of documents, computers, alienated objects, minerals, … to help you focus on the right direction. You can even combine frequencies to make the pulse a bit more specific. It’s a clever system that has to grow on you, but in the end, the tool is such an eye-opener that it can smooth out your search.
There is also this other feature connected to this pulsating mechanism. The analysis of these objects is most of the time optional. You don’t have to “analyze” the objects to get the frequency to search for similar objects. If you’re a great searcher, you’ll be able to discover all of these objects just by analyzing the environment yourself. To “analyze” an object, you will have to spend “energy” to gain this information. If you don’t have enough energy, you can always analyze the object, but in return, it will corrupt your mind a bit more. You can replenish this energy bar by discovering orange alienated organisms on the wall that replenish the energy bar. I haven’t had any problems in finding these energy fluids, so there are plenty of energy fluid spots if you just search attentively.
“Another feature I also liked about the game is the “decision-making” part that doesn’t really shine on the surface.”
These systems, like the “pulsing” mechanic and the “vault” to rearrange your thoughts, are very enjoyable to use because it’s an active system that stimulates your own thought process and it simulates progression. You’ll never have the feeling that you’re running around in circles, looking over the most important parts of your search while roaming the environment. Answering your questions correctly is also vital for your mental state. If you can’t solve a clue, it will affect your mental state, and your brain becomes more vulnerable to the corruption of The Old Ones.
Another feature I also liked about the game is the “decision-making” part that doesn’t really shine on the surface. It’s the consequences of your choices within the deeper lines of solving the situation that you’re in. So every chapter within the game gives you a “mystery” to solve in order for you to progress. How you progress will affect your mental state. There are ways to solve the mystery by being logical, and depending on science, you know. Manipulating physical objects around you and getting a grip on reality. The logical solving will enhance your mental state instead of corrupting it. There are also ways to solve the mystery by going deeper into the abyss of the Myth around the sunken city and The Old Ones. Participating in the occult, using the rituals and alienated objects around you to solve the mystery, will affiliate you more with The Old Ones. These actions will corrupt your mind and will slowly consume you. It’s amazing to see the outcome of your mental state after you solve a part of the mystery. Will you follow your logical thoughts, or will you stare into the Abyss until it stares back at you?
“It’s worth it to find these enhancements that can ease the way forward.”
Talking about your mental state, you will also find runes that can enhance your mental capabilities that affect your detective tools. For example, you can enhance the range of your sonar, or you can find enhancing fluids after you solve a question in “The Vault.”… Anyhow, exploring your surroundings helps you in becoming the better version of yourself. It’s worth it to find these enhancements that can ease the way forward.
The game does a tremendous job in creating this mysterious and dark atmosphere around you. For the players who have played the original Bioshock and recollect the memory of the first time you’re using the elevator to the depths of this gigantic underwater city… well, this game can project the same feeling onto you. The feeling of being isolated from the populated world above sea level as you’re venturing into this complex underwater facility, it creates this feeling of thalassophobia, and in a good way. The environment is really well created, which never broke the immersion for me.
“It’s hard not to acknowledge the amount of polishing that has been done to this game.”
The sounds of the metal cracking in the seawater, the dark depths where the light can be found, the horrific visions during your investigation, the crime scene itself, … every single thing builds upon this believable setting that I enjoyed very much, even with this eerie feeling of not ever “truly being alone”. It’s hard not to acknowledge the amount of polishing that has been done to this game.
The game looks great, and it runs fluently. I haven’t experienced any technical issues that broke my immersion. The only problem I had was a “corrupt save file” that made me play a chapter more than once, but the development team took action and resolved the problem in a heartbeat. Voice acting is also a joy for the ears. Every character acted believably, which made the adventure interesting to follow with all these people or testimonies around you.
Conclusion:
In the end, Cthulu: The Cosmic Abyss stands as a compelling and thoughtfully crafted detective-horror experience that leans heavily into its Lovecraftian roots. It doesn’t rely on cheap scares, but instead builds a slow- burning sense of dread through atmosphere investigation, and the constant pressure on your sanity. The interplay between logical reasoning and succumbing to the occult adds meaningful weight to your decisions, while systems like The Vault and the “KEY” AI genuinely make you feel like an active participant in unraveling the mystery rather than a passive observer.
What truly elevates the experience is how all its mechanics (exploration, evidence linking, sanity management) work together to reinforce its core theme of isolation, obsession, and the unknown. Combined with its immersive underwater setting and strong audiovisual presentation, the game succeeds in capturing that unsettling feeling of peering too deeply into something humanity was never meant to understand.
Despite a minor hiccup with a save issue, the overall polish and responsiveness from the developers leave a strong impression. For players who enjoy narrative- driven investigations with psychological depth, this is a journey well worth taking.
