Why aren't there more games with heavy Lovecraft themes?

[MonsterCrit]

But You could also count DOn't STarve in the list as well.

That's true. If Maxwell's comments are anything to go by, not only are the true villains of Don't Starve undefeatable, they never even show up, or can be properly challenged/set back in any real way. Even if you die immediately or do everything the game has to offer, you still play into their hands, since they only seem interested in throwing humans into awful situations to see what happens.

Not to mention the whole game's about how you're a measly human struggling to keep sane and survive the twisted horrors of this bizarre world. The creepy-cute aesthetic just softens the blow a bit.

Bingo. Just the simple fact you never win at don't starve. you survive as long as you can and then you eventuyally die. That's the problem with Lovecraft, the characters even the heroes, never really 'win'. They escape and delay but they never overcome anything and are left scared by what they now know.

 

[freaper]

Darkest Dungeon? Not the strongest narrative focus but it has Lovecraft imagery all over the place as well as some of the themes underpinning the gameplay. Its in early access but its the best early access title I've ever seen with a ton of polish.

Ehh in imagery yes, the eldritch stuff is there but there's the point that you can fight it, fight it and win even. I mean yeah you lose countless guys in shitter runs where you send off level 1 guys fresh off the wagon in a dungeon with next to no provisions to get you as many supplies as they can before they all die and that's bleak as hell. But in general, I would say you are winning against whatever eldritch horrors live in Darkest Dungeon. That's definitely bad for a proper hardcore Lovecraft game. You're supposed to not even understand the things, nevermind fight them and definitely nevermind winning against them.

Lovecraft is really hard for games, I mean even in stuff like Amnesia you can still understand what the enemies are. You can look at them and go "yeah that's a shadow thing" or "yeah that's a zombie guy with a fucked up jaw" when Lovecraft is just full of indescribable horrors. Not something that works with a visual medium. I'd love them to succeed with it though, that would probably end up with one of the best horror games ever made.

I'd have mad respect for devs who give us a Lovecraftian game with an unbeatable ending: "There's an eldritch, antediluvian abomination and there's nothing you can do to defeat it. Thank you for your patronage."

 

[CaptainMarvelous]

The core concept of Lovecraft's horror is you lose. Quickly and painfully if you're lucky, slowly and withering under insanity if you're unlucky.

Its not exactly something that lends itself well to the general concept of games that usually involve a potential to win.

This is actually why the Dark Souls thing makes such a good argument for being Lovecraftian because there is no way to 'win', the best you can do is NOT go insane and find a way to keep the world turning for an extra year by the equivalent of throwing yourself into the sun. But that's how the theme is used, you either play with no knowledge of what you're doing or you gain knowledge and resolve to continue if you 'quit' and don't finish the game then your character (in a meta sense) hollows and goes insane.

It's not got Elder Gods in it but it's got the theme down pat.

Also Bloodborne sorta nails it with

Spoiler

just how outclassed you are by the Great Ones but has the even more worrying theme of trying to EMULATE them and find ways to become like a Great One (which, I'm pretty sure explains where the Paleblood came from in the first place). Made perhaps worse that the Great Ones in Bloodborne are actually not that bad, they're 'sympathetic in nature' but the Church and by extension Hunters committed some heinous acts to both man and Great One trying to achieve enlightenment. And that for some reason the dreamworld and human world began to blur and created... well, Yharnam. That was my takeaway anyway, that the whole thing was caused by the Dreamworld leaking into Physical reality.

 

[FalloutJack]

It takes dedication to make a decent homage to Lovecraftism. Some of this stuff is cring-worthy in the bad way and Japan makes an outright mockery of it. It's good to knwo that here are SOME quality works, but sadly not all are that good.