Mini Recensione | Lovecraft’s Untold Stories (PS4)

If there is one thing that draws thrill seekers like ants on a picnic they are definitely the works of HP Lovecraft and of course we couldn't let it escape Lovecraft's Untold Stories, new title dedicated to the scary universe of Cthulhu and other cosmic horrors.

A few words about the author

Author of the early '900 Lovecraft is considered one of the masters of horror literature like Edgar Allan Poe if not one of the precursors of American science fiction thanks to the perfect mix in his works of fantasy, fears and cosmic horrors that place the reader both in front of the Sublime of Edmund Burke than to questions that lead to madness if you look for an answer.

Unfortunately, much of the success attributed to him was mainly posthumous and profoundly influenced not only other authors of books but also other media such as cinema and the world of games. Some examples can be RPGs or video games like The Call of Chtulhu inspired by the novel of the same name or real contaminations as evidenced by some analyzes of our Pierluigi.

When The Binding of Isaac meets Mansions of Madness

So let's talk about Lovecraft's Untold Stories, a game developed by Blini games which transports us to the typical settings narrated by the author in a 16bit guise that still manages to convey a sense of anguish.

The gameplay is the most classic of rogue-like, with simple controls and power ups to be found around the map. The different scenarios will have randomly generated rooms within which we can find new objects, clues or traps and monsters. To be the cherry on the cake of dangers that we will have to face we will also have to be careful where we will go poking our nose because some mysteries it is good that they remain so since our mind is not able to find an answer, this will result in damage to sanity that if accumulated they will kill our character.

Our adventure will begin with the Detective, typical all rounder with balanced statistics and mechanics suitable for an introductory gameplay, but during the different levels we will get to know different characters who can be unlocked to face the story from other points of view and with a different approach: for example the Scientist will have a powerful plasma cannon and mines with which to crowd control but will not be a great cashier like the Detective or the Thief it will allow us to approach different situations in a stealth way.

To act as an operational base for our characters is the Strange Place, a kind of alien temple where we will find not only the portal to the different levels but also a common chest in which to store the collected loot, a bulletin board on which the various clues on the Great Ancients and a corpse with which we advise you not to interact.

In conclusion:

For those who love the genre and Pixel Art, this title certainly cannot be missing from their collection. The proposed environments and creatures, however, are not all at the same level, some will be better done than others and on PS4 we have found some drop in performance and lag in the controls especially in the most crowded rooms forcing us to repeat the stage over and over again. Removed these 2 defects we repeat that the game is very valid and with its simplicity it can easily take home the sufficiency.