| Arkham Horror: Mother's Embrace | |
|---|---|
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| Developer(s) | Artefacts Studio |
| Publisher(s) | Asmodee Digital |
| Platform(s) | |
| Release |
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| Genre(s) | Adventure, tactical role-playing |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Arkham Horror: Mother's Embrace is a digital adaptation of the board game Arkham Horror developed by Artefacts Studio and published by Asmodee Digital. It combines gameplay from adventure games and tactical role-playing games.
Players control a group of investigators in the 1920s, each of whom has a special skill. As they investigate a murder mystery involving the Cthulhu Mythos, players encounter puzzles, as in adventure games. Failing the puzzles causes time to advance, and five failures causes the investigators suffer various penalties, such as performing worse in combat or losing items. Investigators who encounter distressing elements of Lovecraftian horror may suffer blows to their sanity that cause further penalties. These penalties persist throughout a scenario but can be cured afterward, when moving on to the next step in the investigation. Eventually, players come into contact with Cthulhu cultists and other enemies, who must be defeated in turn-based and tactical combat. [1]
Developer Artefacts Studio is based in Lyon, France. [2] Arkham Horror: Mother's Embrace was originally announced in 2018 as Mansions of Madness: Mother's Embrace, an adaptation of Mansions of Madness developed by Luckyhammers. [3] By 2020, Artefacts Studio took over development, and it was reworked to be an adaptation of Arkham Horror . [4] Asmodee Digital released it for Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch on March 23, 2021. [5]
On Metacritic, Arkham Horror: Mother's Embrace received unfavorable reviews for Windows and mixed reviews for PlayStation 4. [6] It was one of the worst reviewed games on Metacritic in 2021. [7] IGN said it is passable but does not modernize tropes that have become commonplace. They disliked both the combat and investigating, which they felt were simple and uninspired, respectively. [1] It also received negative reviews from Eurogamer [8] and 4Players . [9]
Call of Cthulhu is a horror fiction role-playing game based on H. P. Lovecraft's story of the same name and the associated Cthulhu Mythos. The game, often abbreviated as CoC, is published by Chaosium; it was first released in 1981 and is in its seventh edition, with licensed foreign language editions available as well. Its game system is based on Chaosium's Basic Role-Playing (BRP) with additions for the horror genre. These include special rules for sanity and luck.
Cthulhu is a cosmic entity created by writer H. P. Lovecraft. It was introduced in his short story "The Call of Cthulhu", published by the American pulp magazine Weird Tales in 1928. Considered a Great Old One within the pantheon of Lovecraftian cosmic entities, this creature has since been featured in numerous popular culture references. Lovecraft depicts it as a gigantic entity worshipped by cultists, in the shape of a green octopus, dragon, and a caricature of human form. The Lovecraft-inspired universe, the Cthulhu Mythos, where it exists with its fellow entities, is named after it.
At the Mountains of Madness is a science fiction-horror novella by American author H. P. Lovecraft, written in February/March 1931. Rejected that year by Weird Tales editor Farnsworth Wright on the grounds of its length, it was originally serialized in the February, March, and April 1936 issues of Astounding Stories. It has been reproduced in numerous collections.
Arkham Horror is a cooperative adventure board game designed by Richard Launius, originally published in 1987 by Chaosium. The game is based on Chaosium's roleplaying game Call of Cthulhu, which is set in the Cthulhu mythos of H.P. Lovecraft and other horror writers. The game's second edition was released by Fantasy Flight Games in 2005, with a third edition in 2018.
Lovecraftian horror, also called "cosmic horror" or "eldritch horror", is a subgenre of horror fiction and weird fiction that emphasizes the horror of the unknowable and incomprehensible more than gore or other elements of shock. It is named after American author H. P. Lovecraft (1890–1937). His work emphasizes themes of cosmic dread, forbidden and dangerous knowledge, madness, non-human influences on humanity, religion and superstition, fate and inevitability, and the risks associated with scientific discoveries, which are now associated with Lovecraftian horror as a subgenre. The cosmic themes of Lovecraftian horror can also be found in other media, notably horror films, horror games, and comics.
Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth is a survival horror video game developed by British studio Headfirst Productions for the Xbox in 2005 and for Microsoft Windows in 2006. It combines an action-adventure game with a relatively realistic first-person shooter and elements of a stealth game.
Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land is a Lovecraftian horror tactical role-playing game developed by British studio Red Wasp Design in conjunction with Chaosium. The game was released in 2012, for iOS in January, for PC in May, and for Android in June.
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Mansions of Madness is a tabletop strategy game designed by Corey Konieczka and published by Fantasy Flight Games in 2011. Players explore a locale filled with Lovecraftian horrors and solve a mystery.
Elder Sign: Omens is a video game developed by Fantasy Flight Games based on a board game of the same name. It was released on iOS on October 31, 2011, and on PC on November 27, 2013.
Eldritch is a 2013 first-person shooter video game developed by David Pittman and published by American indie studio Minor Key Games. It was inspired by the writings of H. P. Lovecraft and gameplay elements of roguelike games. The expansion Eldritch: Mountains of Madness was released in December 2013. The game's source code was released in 2014, though the content itself remains proprietary.
Call of Cthulhu is a role-playing survival horror video game developed by Cyanide and published by Focus Home Interactive for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. The game features a semi-open world environment and incorporates themes of Lovecraftian and psychological horror into a story which includes elements of investigation and stealth. It is inspired by H. P. Lovecraft's short story "The Call of Cthulhu", while also being an adaptation of the 1981 role-playing game of the same title.
Conarium is a Lovecraftian horror adventure video game, inspired by H. P. Lovecraft's novella At the Mountains of Madness. The game was developed by Turkish game development studio Zoetrope Interactive, published by Dutch indie game publisher Iceberg Interactive, and was first released for Microsoft Windows in June 2017. It was subsequently ported to Linux and macOS in 2018, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in 2019, and the Nintendo Switch in 2021.
The Sinking City is an action-adventure game developed by Frogwares and inspired by the works of horror fiction author H. P. Lovecraft. Set in the fictional city of Oakmont, Massachusetts during the 1920s, the story follows private investigator and war veteran Charles W. Reed as he searches for clues to the cause of the terrifying visions plaguing him, and becomes embroiled in the mystery of Oakmont's unrelenting flooding.
Dire Documents, subtitled "Diabolical Dossiers of Doom", is a supplement published by Chaosium in 1993 for the horror role-playing game Call of Cthulhu.
The Shore is a Lovecraftian horror exploration and adventure video game developed by Greek indie developer Ares Dragonis. The game takes place on a remote, mysterious island, where the protagonist is searching for his missing daughter.
Sucker for Love: First Date is a parodic dating sim and horror-themed visual novel developed by indie developer Joseph "Akabaka" Hunter, and published by DreadXP. It was released on January 20, 2022, for Windows and December 19, 2022, for Nintendo Switch. The game revolves around a young man who obtains a pink version of the Necronomicon, and begins performing rituals to summon moe anthropomorphic beings from the Cthulhu Mythos, such as Ln'eta, a female version of Cthulhu, sacrificing his body parts and ultimately threatening the world with annihilation. The game received generally favorable reviews from critics, who praised its writing, voice acting and artwork, but criticized its short length, glitches, and low emphasis on romance for a dating sim. A sequel further exploring the Cthulhu Mythos, Sucker for Love: Date to Die For, was announced later in 2022.
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