The Innsmouth Case

A promising adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's novella is squandered with illogical solutions, childish humour and too many unsatisfying endings. Completists may enjoy finding all the content, but old school 'choose your own adventure' fans should look elsewhere for their fix of interactive fiction.

Comparing Innsmouth with other games is a little bit like comparing apples and oranges. It’s certainly a well-made choose-your-adventure book and is perfect for a bus journey or train ride on a mobile gaming device, but is not something I would say is suited to a fully-fledged console experience like the Xbox One.

Combining horror narratives with comedy isn't exactly the easiest of tasks, yet The Innsmouth Case manages to successfully mix the extremely terrifying world of Lovecraft, with a pleasantly silly sense of humour. For a game that all you do is read, this has some great pacing, and a very high replay value, with plenty of different endings to discover. Sure, this is by no means a frightening tale, but its purpose isn't to offer eldritch terror. This is a new thing. It's eldritch comedy at its best.

I enjoyed my time with The Innsmouth Case. The pacing is great and the atmosphere is captivating. While I do find that unlocking all endings may cause players to lose interest after some time, it doesn’t take away from my experience with the first couple of playthroughs. The endings I got were quite bizarre and unexpected and for that, I applaud. Spice it up after you finish, and read this story to someone else and let them make the choices.

There were narrative moments I wasn’t expecting, and some were actually rather fun. For instance, I ended up picking up a cube in a lighthouse and spending 6 years in some kind of alien realm while the aliens gathered information on Earth via my body. That was a genuine surprise and perhaps my favourite of the endings I got. I will say that I had a certainly less frustrating time with The Innsmouth Case than I did with the last game of this genre I reviewed, My Aunt is a Witch. At the start, it was able to capture my attention and I was actually really enjoying the story, but it’s a shame that the repetitiveness and the number of different endings you could have just ended up in me losing interest completely.

The Innsmouth Case is a choose-your-own adventure.

I had an enjoyable time playing The Innsmouth Case on PC several times through, but it's probably better suited to its mobile iteration, as the adventure book format works brilliantly on handheld devices. As a distraction from commutes (or a companion to lengthy visits to the toilet) The Innsmouth Case is a great little tale that will entertain fans of either cosmic or comic horror.

The Innsmouth Case is a beautifully written, delightfully dark, and truly excellent experience on a rainy day.

With an emphasis on macabre humor, The Innsmouth Case is a unique adaptation of the iconic story by H.P. Lovecraft.

A very fond memory of mine was choosing a Goosebumps book to read from the bookshelf in my classroom, during our designated reading time. In particular, the choose your own adventure ones. I loved being able to flip back and choose a different path if my story came to an abrupt end, being able to progress and eventually achieve the ‘good’ ending. Well, the Innsmouth Case is just this in game format.