Lovecraft's Untold Stories

About Lovecraft's Untold Stories

Lovecraft's Untold Stories is a pixel-art action roguelite by Blini Games. Fulqrum Publishing released it on Windows and Mac in January 2019, after a stretch in early access; BadLand Publishing brought it to PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch in May 2019, and Blini Games put it out on iPhone, iPad and Android later that year. It takes the places of Lovecraft's fiction, a creepy Victorian mansion, a hospital where forbidden experiments took place, a jungle of forgotten rituals, a port city, and builds them anew each run.

At heart it is a twin-stick shooter. When you walk into a room with enemies the doors close until every one of them is dead, so a level becomes a chain of fights between quiet stretches of searching. The map fills in as you explore, loot piles up faster than your small inventory can hold it, and shops turn what you carry into money or knowledge. Bleeding, poison, parasites, broken legs and curses wear you down between rooms.

Five investigators each have their own storyline, weapons and style. You begin as the detective, who is balanced; the others join as you solve the puzzles that free them. The professor fights at range behind a shield from his Tillinghast device, the witch hits hard with spells and teleports but dies quickly, the thief relies on stealth and melee, and the ghoul regenerates but cannot use medkits.

The horror is in its Mythos rules. Documents, paintings and strange objects invite you to interact with them, and the wrong choice shakes your sanity; if it falls too far the character goes mad and ends their own life. Before you can face Cthulhu, Nyarlathotep, Dagon, Shub-Niggurath or Azathoth you need knowledge of them, scattered through each level; meet one unprepared and the sight alone drives you insane. The pixel art is dark and bloody, with monsters cut in half by a shotgun and slow, mournful music.

It is an action game first, closer to a dungeon crawler than to a slow horror game, and it suits players who want Lovecraft's monsters and lore in a game they can fight through. A sequel, Lovecraft's Untold Stories 2, followed.

How to play Lovecraft's Untold Stories

1. Pick a difficulty and start as the detective; the professor, witch, thief and ghoul join as you solve the puzzles that unlock them.
2. Move through each randomly generated level; a room with enemies locks until you have killed them all.
3. Search rooms for items, notes and clues about the Great Old Ones, and choose carefully when an object or event offers a choice, since a wrong one costs sanity.
4. Equip the weapons, gear and artifacts you find or buy in shops, and sell what you cannot carry.
5. Gather enough knowledge before the special levels where a Great Old One waits, then face it.

Tips

• Explore every corner before leaving a level: the knowledge items are what let you face the Great Old Ones, and secret areas often hide behind walls a trail of blood leads to.
• Keep the level map open as you go: rooms have several doors and it is easy to miss one.
• Do not fight next to explosive barrels or flamethrower cultists; a blast can break your leg or kill you outright.
• Match your gear to the level's hazards, such as fire or poison, before you push on.
• The ghoul cannot use medkits, so lean on its regeneration and avoid long fights while hurt.

Questions