H. P. Lovecraft’s contributions to the world of fiction forever changed the way people look athorror. His literary works have had such an impact that it led to the creation of the subgenre: Lovecraftian. And in video games, there have been plenty of releases directly based on his stories,though sometimes with mixed results. However, his influence can be spotted in numerous other games, some of which can be considered more science fiction than horror.
10 Best Horror RPGs
When it comes to horror RPGs, they don’t get better than these.
After all, there was more to Lovecraft’s writings than just focusing on giant squid monsters like Cthulhu. They dealt with themes of insanity, ancient entities, impossible nightmares, and hopelessness. Now, prepare to step into the realm of cosmic horror and explore the top games that share these elements.
10Little Nightmares II
A World Where the Horror Won
Little Nightmares II
If you’ve ever read some of Lovecraft’s tales, you’ll notice they always toy with making the protagonists seem small or insignificant to the greater horror. Often, his stories revolve around deities known as the Old Ones, powerful alien creatures waiting to awaken and ruin the world. So, what would it look like if the Old Ones had won?
It’d probably resemble the realm ofLittle Nightmares II. Everything about this game screams something terrible has already happened. Now, all that’s left is a nightmare crawling with enormous monsters trying to masquerade as humans. Even the name of the place feels empty: The Nowhere. As for its small main characters, Mono and Six, all they can do is flee from the horrors chasing them in the hopes of finding somewhere better.
9Half-Life 2
“Wake Up and Smell the Ashes”
Half-Life 2
Some may gawk at this entry. How canValve’sclassic sci-fi series have anything in common with Lovecraft? Well, stop and consider the world ofHalf-Life 2. It’s destroyed and empty, riddled with hostile lifeforms from other worlds brought in through portals. On top of that,of all its memorable characters, there’s one considered by players as the biggest mystery in gaming: The G-Man.
Throughout the game, the G-Man is always watching the player, always keeping his agenda to himself, always only going on about his mysterious Employers. Even the way he acts feels alien—as if the skin he wears and the voice he uses are all foreign to him. Then again, which truth is scarier? That G-Man’s some cosmic entity, or at one point was just a man, and now has been twisted into something inhuman? One thing remains certain, whenever G-Man appears, prepare for unforeseen consequences.
There’s No Hope
Stories about the end of the world sometimes try to inspire hope, to show the player that there’s still a chance to overcome the worst. That’s not the case for Lovecraftian tales. When faced with something bigger than you, something truly cataclysmic, everything feels fruitless. Nowhere is this more evident than inSOMAand its hopeless world.
Among its many terrors faced while trapped at the bottom of the sea, the story sells how absolutely doomed the Earth is. The plot isn’t about saving the world but fleeing it. It’s a depressing thought, but it’s just one of the many heavy themes SOMA deals with.
7Bloodborne
Battling Eldritch Nightmares
Bloodborne
What often attracts people to Lovecraft’s works is the abnormal and strange creatures featured in them. Such imaginative designs have been replicated in multiple forms of media, but especially in video games. Among the countless entries that have attempted to replicate Lovecraft’s monsters,Bloodbornestands as the best for its selection of nightmarish enemies.
For beginners, what starts as a Soulslike game, soon shifts into a grotesque eldritch horror experience. Behind its Gothic appearance is an atmospheric world teeming with sinister and almost alien monstrosities. And buried beneath its challenging battles, is hidden lore about the dimensional entities responsible for all this madness, the Great Ones. To survive this Lovecraftian world, be sure to bring extra Blood Vials.
Fight For Reality
In a game that feels like the X-Files meets Lovecraft,Controlis not about destroying the supernatural but locking them away. In a world where the paranormal can come in any form, the Federal Bureau of Control was invented to capture and contain strange objects that cross over from other planes of existence.
Funny enough, not every mysterious thing is malevolent — some range from benign to helpful. Even the FBC’s director takes orders from a group of cosmic entities known only as the mysterious Board. Of course, when the FBC comes under attack by a hostile presence called the Hiss, it becomes a battle not just for the Bureau, but for reality itself. Thankfully, it has a cunning new director and a wise janitor to clean up the mess.
5Mass Effect Legendary Edition
All-Out War with Outer Gods
Mass Effect: Legendary Edition
What happens when you take Cthulhu, turn it into a spaceship, and give it an endless army of duplicates? Though the series is not in the same category as horror, theMass Effectgames blur the line between science fiction and cosmic horror. In a series about discovering new locations and forging alliances, the main plot boils down to a single human and their team trying to save all life from the threat of the Reapers.
10 Best Locations in the Mass Effect Series
It’s time to cruise through the galaxy as we visit some of the most phenomenal locations across the Mass Effect universe.
As the closest thing to outer gods, the Reapers are ancient and powerful entities capable of indoctrinating all organics with their mere presence. Lovecraft’s stories always teased the concept of what it would be like if the Old Ones awoke to destroy all life, and Mass Effect is one of the few stories to try and capture how such an event would occur. And the only solution is to fight or die.
This entry may be cheating as it’s three games in one, but since the Reapers serve as the main antagonists of the trilogy, it has to be counted.
4Silent Hill 2
The Town Is an Entity
Silent Hill 2
TheSilent Hillgames have taken inspiration from a multitude of horror sources, Lovecraft being their biggest. Like how an author puts their own fears into their work, the town of Silent Hill manifests monsters from a person’s memories and guilt. Though it’s led to the creation of iconic creatures like Pyramid Head, the biggest and most eldritch of the roster has to be the town itself.
Best shown during the events ofSilent Hill 2, the entire town feels like it’s out to punish the cast of characters who have guilt on their minds. In the case of James Sunderland, the town does everything in its power to remind him of his wife and the pain he went through. However, is Silent Hill truly evil for punishing a man with a guilty soul? Sometimes the scariest tales shouldn’t have straight answers.
3Amnesia: The Dark Descent
Helpless Against the Horror
Amnesia: The Dark Descent
The thing that ruins horror games for most players is the combat. It’s hard being scared if the threat can be taken down with a shotgun or knife. One of the most notable themes about Lovecraft’s stories was how helpless the characters were against the terror.
No horror game has more perfectly captured this thanAmnesia: The Dark Descent. In this first-person survival horror, the player is utterly helpless against the monsters, only capable of running and hiding while trapped in a castle. You have no weapons to rely on, just a lamp. Yet the physical monsters are the least of the player’s worries. The castle is haunted by an otherworldly entity known as the Shadow, the overarching threat of the Amnesia games.
2Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem
Lovecraft Does What Nintendon’t
Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem
It’s hard to believe that a Nintendo exclusive could be a contender for one of the best horror games imaginable. InEternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem, you follow not one, but twelve characters over several centuries as an ancient evil grows in power.
Featuring a clever spell crafting system, the game also utilizes a sanity system, where the more horrors the player experiences, the more unusual events will occur. The story itself feels like binging a horror series, with each chapter focusing on a different character and time period, slowly bridging a story about godlike entities trying to destroy the world. The only thing scarier than Eternal Darkness, however, is the fact that it has yet to be given a proper remaster or remake.
Honorable Mention:Alan Wake features plenty of Lovecraftian vibes, mixed with elements found in Stephen King novels.
“Make Us Whole”
Dead Space (2023)
Out of every horror series to come out, the one that deserves the award for serving as the pinnacle of Lovecraftian gaming would beDead Space. Every detail, from the story right down to the gameplay, makes it the best of cosmic horror.
When first announced, players thought they were getting Resident Evil in space. What they got instead was some of themost terrifying creatures in body horror. The enemies of Dead Space, the Necromorphs, can’t be defeated with conventional weaponry. It requires power tools and precise aiming to dismember the monsters until they stop moving. Because Necromorphs never die — you just render the host immobile. If that comforting thought wasn’t enough, the story involving the mysterious Markers and the insanity centered around them only adds to the terrifying worldbuilding of this series. If you count yourself as a Lovecraft fan, this is the one for you.
