REVIEW : The Innsmouth Case (PC)
“Within me, a weird longing has grown to speak about my horrible hours spent in that port city overshadowed by evil voices and evil shadows, that metropolis afflicted with death and blasphemous deformities. Even talking about it helps me re-establish my abilities. mental, to comfort me that I was not the only one who had fallen victim to a contagious hallucinatory nightmare “. As so, the protagonist of The Shadow over Innsmouth began the harrowing narrative of his wanderings along the coastlines of a secluded coastal hamlet in New England, Massachusetts. Howard Phillips Lovecraft’s keen pen, capable of bringing life to an image that has grown inextricably iconic over time, forged the recollections of this unhappy young man.
The horror universe built by the American novelist has been experiencing an age of enviable prosperity for some years, with a piercing and chameleon-like pervasiveness. The writer’s shadow has crept with notable decisions into the game sector, from Bloodborne to Call of Cthulhu, and most recently, Call of the Sea.Even the modest indie studio of RobotPumkin Games has chosen to contribute, debuting on the scene with The Innsmouth Case, a reimagining of Innsmouth that seeks to meld humour and restlessness in a mix of book and video games.
A detective in Innsmouth
German developers bring the spooky Lovecraftian seaside hamlet into the twenty-first century, with innovative forges situated in Cologne. The horrors hiding beneath Innsmouth’s beaches do not appear to have changed with time. Our protagonist, an anonymous detective, will understand this very fast in keeping with the most classic of hard-boiled traditions. The impoverished individual neglected, and preoccupied with booze, will become embroiled in a risky investigation commissioned – needless to say – by a fascinating and mysterious femme fatale.
The disappearance of her daughter Tabitha Marsh has led her to our studio. The tiny child appears to have vanished into thin air, and the lady has decided to hire a private detective to find her. However, it is clear from the start that something peculiar is behind this request: Mrs Marsh does not appear to know anything about the small girl’s routines and has a somewhat unusual appearance. We’ll also discover very shortly that Tabitha is far from the only person to vanish into thin air within the bounds of Innsmouth.
A narrative adventure emerges, littered with crossroads and arranged in the style of a virtual book, based on these unoriginal concepts… The player’s decisions can lead to 27 alternative epilogues across a volume of over 160,000 words. As one might expect, certain endings are simply accessible, but others take more tortuous paths to be unlocked. A laudable variety that provides a range of options with an intriguing degree of distinction.
This narrative extension is unquestionably the production’s main strength. After reaching almost all of the possible epilogues, we realise how the authors of The Innsmouth Case were able to construct a narrative construct characterised by good internal coherence. Even the most innocuous choices were made as private detective can have long-term consequences on our path. Interacting or not with the town’s 30 characters will lead us down different pathways, as will walking towards the harbour, a church, or a lonely lighthouse, which will disclose other elements of the frightening mysteries that surround Innsmouth.
A single excursion through The Innsmouth Case cannot thus provide a complete image of the digital cosmos available in this gamebook in the guise of a video game, with the narrative branch envisioned by its creators exposed only after a long search for different endings.
It, in our opinion, has several flaws, the most noticeable of which are the tones utilised for narration. The German team’s stated goal is to skillfully integrate humour and Lovecraftian horror to create an engaging storey. Unfortunately, this balance has not been attained for the writer’s sensitivity, with a spirit that is not especially effective and inadequately dosed, which dilutes any tension. Internal to the storey. Even though the title alluded to the most notable characteristics of HP Lovecraft’s imagination, the player never feels the claustrophobia or restlessness that pervade the literary universe of HP Lovecraft while reading the chapters that comprise The Innsmouth Case. At the same time, the comedy provided by pop culture references, improbable reflections of the protagonist, or references to 2000s current events has rarely been able to elicit more than a small smile. Although comedy is a highly subjective feature, we would want to stress, if nothing else, a distinct lack of balance in the production’s atmosphere design.
While branching, a plot tends to move its steps in a reasonably quick manner, between the search for Tabitha and, much more, continuous obstacles to our detective’s existence, contributes to the composition of a not incredibly passionate image. The protagonist’s enormous freedom of action, which includes the ability to choose to neglect the mission handed to him, does not correspond to an overly pronounced level of an in-depth examination of the events.
Many phases will resolve too fast, resulting in an experience favouring variety in epilogues over a compelling narrative arc. To back this up, consider that a single run of The Innsmouth Case can be completed in less than an hour, depending on the path followed and the level of uncertainty in front of the particular crossroads.
Given the nature of the RobotPumpkin Games title, we should note that it is only available in English – which we chose for our Nintendo Switch test – and German, with no support for Italian.
On the formal front of the storey, The Innsmouth Case is a generally enjoyable experience, with a functional style to the report, never overly complex but distinguished by an excellent lexical variety. Intermediate understanding of English is more than sufficient to proceed with calm, especially when considering the potential of devoting oneself to searching for any unfamiliar terminology without haste or pressure.
Between book and video game
The Innsmouth Case, as previously stated, evokes the most fundamental formula of the gamebook popular between the 1980s and 1990s, transposing it from paper to screen. The playful experience is thus comprised of fundamental dynamics: the player’s pace of progression between pages is entirely at their disposal, the alternatives accessible for each fork are never more than four, and saving is not free but occurs automatically after each chapter. If you make a mistake in your selection or are unsure about a fact you have just read, you can return to the branch you are reading at any time.
When the adventure is finished, you have the option of restarting from the beginning with a fresh run or returning to previously visited locations. While beneficial for exploring different paths without having to relive the entire experience, the capability does not allow you to go directly to specific narrative crossroads. This, paired with the decision not to include a flowchart depicting the plot’s possible evolutions, makes exploring different paths time-consuming and tedious in the long term.
Although, as previously stated, the assembly of the complete Innsmouth puzzle represents the most successful component of the game, the activity sadly becomes overly repetitious at a certain point. Finally, the creators of The Innsmouth Case’s decision not to fully exploit the videogame medium to provide a more engaging experience appears odd.
