The world of Lovecraft we have crossed paths with him over and over over the years, both in the world of movies and TV series, and in the videogame one, and of course this does not surprise us. The reality is that like the distressing, fascinating and overwhelming atmospheres painted by Lovecraft there is very little, it is an imaginary that will hardly be stale over time. The interest of the community, in fact, always remains open, ardent, eager to meet new stories capable of interpreting the author’s ideas. The Shore, as you will read in our review, try to do just that: in a world steeped in oblivion and mystery, tells us his “version”, his particular point of view on the dream mixed with horror and, why not, also obscene.
The small development team Ares Dragonis he decided to test himself, creating his own story, small but really full of elements. The first thought we had, once we started The Shore, it was that meeting the requirements of such a project, for such a small team (given that we are talking about less than 20 people), would have been really complicated. Deciding to create an indie gaming experience, capable of transmit even minimally the complexity and beauty of these myths, is objectively a very dangerous challenge, and for this very reason extremely interesting.
You will be surprised to know that, while not a masterpiece of its kind, this video game he really knew how to make our skin crawl, how to squeeze us in the grip of fear that a Lovecraftian really has everything (as well as Call of Cthulhu had managed to do). But let’s start from the beginning: from one secluded beach and from ours protagonist Andrew, perhaps shipwrecked on those shores by chance, or perhaps dragged by the force of the waves towards a world of blasphemy.
The anguish of a world wrapped in the Lovecraftian atmosphere
Our unfortunate protagonist is a desperate fisherman, looking for his daughter. We don’t know why it is right there, but it is evident, from its first steps, that something is wrong around us, that darkness swarms and calls us, draws us mercilessly. Second by second we realize how cursed that land and waters are: the gameplay is pretty simple and, for the first half of the title, it consists of filming, venture, to find clues that they tell us what happened to those who passed on that beach before us, and above all discover the creatures that speak to us and observe us.
Beyond this we will not tell you anything since much of the video game it consists precisely in living the experience, discovering as many details as possible and fighting creatures from the world of Lovecraft.
Instead, let’s talk about how this title was made, its pros and cons, in a critical but also rather pleased way because – we must say it – The Shore really has much to give. Even with its technical and narrative limitations, the few hours at our disposal have really terrified us: and that’s not all the setting is truly distressing, from the leaden sky to the dark and fearsome volcanic rocks all around us, but also the audio compartment and the soundtrack have really been able to kidnap us, make us feel trapped, surrounded by evil.
We must confess that playing it in the evening, in the darkness of your room, has really had the worst effect. Obviously there is also a side we do not want to talk too much about, the less real and more dreamlike one, dispersed in places far from any earthly conception. Also from this point of view, the team did a great job.
With the small budget available, designing that part of the work in an efficient – and feasible – way was a really complex job, and although it was a tad tacky and too loaded, it still managed to convince us to a large extent. In short, in the name of puzzles, escapes and exploration, the game has been able to entertain us.
So what works less than the rest? Of the side dedicated to puzzles, we must say that there are extremely simple solutions, which does not guarantee a real challenge. As for the second part of the game, the dynamics of the artifact, which almost turns it into an FPS, we didn’t like it very much. Chasing out entities with that tool – and that only – worked less well than we would have expected, and was very unrewarding.
A great job for a small team
In conclusion, it is worth living the experience proposed by The Shore. we are not talking about a product with an innovative gameplay, on the contrary it tends to be repetitive and too simplistic in many moments, but for everything else we would like to recommend the purchase. We can assure you that living the terror and anguish of being small, in a world of entities ready to take you, it is not easy to find (not only among indie games but precisely in gaming in general. The team has done a good job, bearing in mind that it is an independent project and – returning objectives – deserves a good pass, in complex world of horror title.
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