Conarium

Conarium could have pushed deeper, but it stays true to the spirit of Lovecraft's work

Conarium is a good, plot focused and atmospheric walking sim puzzler. Though it's billed as horror, it serves to get under your skin, rather than producing any massive frights. That said, the world created is wonderfully realised and quite beautiful in its freakishness. The way that the game captures the otherworldly vibe of Lovecraft's work, and develops such an engaging story quickly, is something to applaud. Ignoring the poor voice acting, bad character models, and the odd frustrating puzzle, if you're looking for a disturbing, plot focused walking sim experience, or you're just a huge Lovecraft fan, you won't go far wrong here.

Conarium is an enjoyable first-person adventure game featuring a very nice atmosphere, an interesting story featuring core themes from Lovecraft's works and unusual spin on game progression reminiscent of Metroidvania games. The game, however, does very little outside the usual for the genre, so if you're not into Lovecraft-inspired games there isn't anything unique that Conarium can offer you.

I never truly felt scared or even at unease while playing Conarium. That’s perhaps the biggest disappointment that coloured my rather negative review of the game: It never succeeded at making me feel anything. The Literature inside the game somewhat does the source material justice, but it’s a short experience with its ~3 hours runtime that left me wondering what could have been.

Remarkably then, even through disappointing attempts at horror and puzzling, Conarium is just about compelling enough to warrant seeing through to the end. It’s not particularly mind-blowing from a narrative perspective, but it is engrossing and satisfying. If only it pushed harder for a sense of dread and terror, or even simply provided more of a challenge, then we’d be talking about something that truly stands out as a thoughtful, engaging horror game.

We are before a great adventure that manages to capture, and capture, excellently the universe and mythology of Lovecraft. A game of exploration, that although it is something simple, we put the fear in the body on more than one occasion and that thanks to its ridiculous price, € 19'90, it becomes a great temptation to spend time between triple A and Triple A.

Conarium is a solid Lovecraft-inspired title that will please fans of his work despite some design and production flaws

Conarium manages to remain faithful to the legendary worldview of H. P. Lovecraft, although it shares the same problems and weaknesses in transferring the original material.

Conarium is a game that has its own way to structure the high tension. It's clear that most of the dark atmospheres are products of our imagination, while we clarify the purpose of this expedition. The locations are able to shape pictures out of thoughts and premonitions. Better puzzles and a more complex inventory, would have made this game a complete product. Anyway, Conarium has the right to join that group of video games that honour the "lovecraft" style, that style able to create an incomparable horror genre, thanks to its genius and madness.

Puzzles and controls leave a lot to be desired, but Conarium does much else well, making it an easy recommendation for any fans of the author.