Lovecraft and Video Games

[Zitterberg]

Hey everyone!

I'm currently writing my final thesis paper at university about the influence of H. P. Lovecraft in video games, and I might expand on this concept and write a book about it (you never know).

But in order for me to make a good thesis paper devoted to this subject, I'd need to be aware of what Lovecraftian elements in video games that I haven't played.

Have you ever seen an amorphous, grotesque, multi-tentacled and potentially insanity-inducing monstrosity from Beyond in a video game in which your likeliest odds for survival is running away in fear, cowering in a corner (e.g. SCP, Amnesia: The Dark Descent and the Penumbra series)? Have you every played a video game where godlike creatures or actual gods are described and portrayed as unfathomable and powerful beyond the feeble imagination of your character (e.g. the Daedra and Hermaeus Mora in particular The Elder Scrolls)? Or have you just seen an old (and I mean really old) cosmic force with mysterious and incomprehensible motives cause unimaginable horror and destruction with a cephalopodic design (e.g. the Reapers from the Mass Effect series [pre-Mass Effect 3])? Or have you seen a horror video game with the name of one of Lovecraft's Creations in it (e.g. Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth)?

Note: this does not include games like Cthulhu Saves the World. It should (partially) reflect Lovecraft's philosophy of Cosmicism (I added "partially" because barely any video game has succeeded in doing so, in my opinion) or exhibit similarities and traits with the concept of an amorphous/tentacled otherworldly being.

Well, that's Lovecraft's influence and that's what I plan to write about. So please, write down whatever title comes to mind and briefly explain why you believe it to be Lovecraftian (linking a video from YouTube would be helpful).

Thank you all in advance!

P.S.
Your name will be mentioned in the "thank you" page of my thesis paper and, if I write it, the actual book when it gets published. Do it for good old Grandpa Theobald!

 

[Bucht]

Not sure if this will help, but WoW has a lot of monsters based on Lovecraft's work.

http://www.wowwiki.com/Old_Gods

 

[Zitterberg]

Not sure if this will help, but WoW has a lot of monsters based on Lovecraft's work.

http://www.wowwiki.com/Old_Gods

Ah, yes! I remember these characters. Thank you for reminding me. The Old Gods, the Faceless Ones and the Forgotten Ones are all great examples of Lovecraftian deities and entities in video games.

 

[Lost In The Void]

The new Dragonborn expansion to Skyrim is chocked full of tentacle goodness

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

[DioWallachia]

Why nobody mentioned Eternal Darkness: Sanity Requiem already? i am dissapoint.

Also, Tony Jay...I MEAN, The Elder God and The Wheel Of Fate on Legacy of Kain. A world that cant escape the Novikov Self Consistency Principle and predestination because a baritone tentacle hentai monster that its omnicient and manipulates ALL the events in the world to feed on their souls? yep, fits like a glove.

 

[DioWallachia]

Also, there is this game know as The Void/Turgor/Tension, who has very fucked up designs as an Eldritch Abomination would, but there is one in particular that you dont see but HEAR during the game the more you destroy the realm by absorving color that is so sparce in that world....

"All the easy routes only lead down. Or haven't you understood anything?"
? Master Color

And there is The Scorpio, a Hive Mind composed of various things that appears if/when you do significant damage to a realm. We don't know what it is, and the game never explains, but unlike everything else, it actually seems to hate Color and goes out of it's way to prevent its creation (such as using the stuff as bait for its minions to ambush you).

Here is one The Brothers: Tyrant

 

[DoPo]

You covered Elder Scrolls, I don't want to add to that beyond the Ascended Sleepers

Spoiler: Ascended sleeperthulu

Just...why? The rest of the sixth house looks nothing like Lovecraftian horrors.

There is Tochlight 2, I suppose - some of the enemies in Act 1 include robed cultists along with some "possessed" guy sprouting tentacles from their mouth. In a slightly subversive manner, the tentacles seem to start from their stomach or throat or something, so it's just the ends that peek out their mouths.

At any rate...do you consider tabletop inspired games on here? D&D is a clear contender with the Illithid

Spoiler: Illithidthulu

And there is Vampire: the Masquerade - Bloodlines. There is a news report about a "massive gelatinous creature" that washed dead ashore and could very well be a shout out to shoggoths, at any rate, it's amorphous, grotesque and nobody has ever seen one before. Then there are the Tzimisce creations

Spoiler: Szlachta

Them and the entire horror tape quest seem fitting for Lovecraft. Then there are the Giovanni - not exactly what you're looking for but still Lovecraft related. You're in this family right, so there you are enjoying life until (maybe) you discover the family secret - you come from a family of necromancers. Reminiscent of Rats in the Walls a bit, but also your elders are immortal bloodsucking monsters. Actually, if you look into the World of Darkness itself, you'll find lots of Lovecraft inspired stuff. One of the writers even did his dissertation on the guy.

And Warhammer/Warhammer 40K just reeks of Lovecraft.

 

[Fat Hippo]

Demon's Souls. The entire game is about the "old one" sleeping deep under the earth. Sound familiar?

 

[CAPTCHA]

The first Quake was designed as a dark fantasy game inspired by the Mythos, but later became a futuristic shooter to capitalise on the success of Doom. A lot of the original concept carried over into the games aesthetics however, resulting in many enemies, bosses and level titles to borrow from the Mythos (Shub Nigurath, Formless Spawn, Dimensional Shambler, etc).

Alone in the Dark was inspired by the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game. It has no direct relation from what I can tell, but the 1920s setting, some of the creatures and the general feel of the game is very Cthulhu-ish.

This one's a bit of a stretch for what you need, but the Necrons from 40K have a backstory that seems to draw a parallel to the King in Yellow (specifically the James Blish version, "More Light"). Necrons appear in Dawn of War: Dark Crusade. I've not played the game, but I suspect their back story here isn't important beyond being simple death-bots from ages past.

I'd say that certain JRPGs have the whole Eldritch Abomination thing going on, especially the final bosses (Jenova from FF7, Lavos from Crono Trigger, etc). While their inspiration probably stems more from Godzilla and the like, they themselves could be considered lovcraftian in their own right.

 

[thejackyl]

Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth

Is based on several of Lovecraft's stories, (from what I've heard, I've beat the game, but never read any of his books). The earliest one being "Shadow over Innsmouth"

 

[Old Father Eternity]

My knowledge is a bit sketchy but then again so is the entire fluff really
Well the Necrons from 40k came to be as they are thanks to the deceit of C'Tan, or Star Gods if you prefer. Beings that existed more or less since the first stars sparked into life, drifting through the void and feeding off of them, then the Necrontyr (the then still 'living' Necrons before) advanced technologically to the point where they were on verge of domination of the material universe and managed detect and spark the interest of the C'Tan, who then found out that the life force (or something of the sort) of living beings was much more tasty than the stars. Among the C'Tan was the Deceiver, the one who tricked to Necrontyr into servitude in their new everlasting bodies to harvest life for sustenance for the C'Tan, tricked other C'Tan to devour each other until only a few remained, one of them, the Nightbringer has carved its image as death into the psyche of many of the younger races.

And then of course we have the giant *OOPS* that is the Eldar history and what it resulted in the Warp.
http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Warp#.UMY60eTFWrM
Many of the Chaos minions resembling descriptions of Eldritch minions

 

[Gabanuka]

Dishonored has some VERY strong connection to Lovecraft. You have to look for them but they really are there.

Also the MMO The Secret World goes full on Lovecraft at some points.

 

[LostCrusader]

You could look up the final boss from Borderlands that was inside the vault.

 

[hermes]

Although most games don't reference Lovecraft directly, there are some whose main antagonist is quite reminiscent of Lovecraftian horror.

Examples include Lavos from Chrono Trigger, Sin from Final Fantasy X and Sovereign from Mass Effect. Of course, games like Call of Cthulhu and Persona will refer to them BY name.

 

[Terminate421]

The new Dragonborn expansion to Skyrim is chocked full of tentacle goodness

Spoiler

Spoiler

FUCK! NINJAD!

Yes he is correct. Bethesda did a damned good job making lovecraftian elements in Skyrim. There were a few moments where visual tricks were pretty well done in such a way I won't ever forget.

 

[hoboman29]

Some of the monsters in Devil May Cry have a very "Lovecraft" feel to them with all their grotesque shapes. I feel the bosses are the best example of what I mean (I'm specifically thinking of the second to last boss in the third game)

Good luck with the paper by the way.

 

[Tallim]

anyone mentioned Shadow Of The Comet or Prisoner Of Ice yet?....... hmmmmm can't see them. Directly based on Lovecraft.

 

[rcs619]

The Reapers from the Mass Effect series seemed to draw on a few Lovecraftian themes. They were massive, ultra-intelligent beings from outside the known galaxy, who viewed organic life as little more than insects, and could wipe out whole species as if they were nothing. They could also affect people's minds, which resulted in everything from mentally enslaved sleeper agents, to people just going completely insane. They also looked like massive squid-like creatures, which does kind of invoke some similarities to Cthulhu.

Granted, Bioware does completely ruin it in the third game by explaining exactly what the Reapers are, where they came from, what their entire purpose and goal was, and what their favorite color is too.

 

[DioWallachia]

The Reapers from the Mass Effect series seemed to draw on a few Lovecraftian themes. They were massive, ultra-intelligent beings from outside the known galaxy, who viewed organic life as little more than insects, and could wipe out whole species as if they were nothing. They could also affect people's minds, which resulted in everything from mentally enslaved sleeper agents, to people just going completely insane. They also looked like massive squid-like creatures, which does kind of invoke some similarities to Cthulhu.

Granted, Bioware does completely ruin it in the third game by explaining exactly what the Reapers are, where they came from, what their entire purpose and goal was, and what their favorite color is too.

Just pretend that that only ME1 is cannon and let the OP have this for his research: