Skip to content
Home » Conarium Review – Does it Do Justice to the Works of H.P. Lovecraft?

Conarium Review – Does it Do Justice to the Works of H.P. Lovecraft?

Conarium
Zoetrope Interactive

H.P. Lovecraft is one of the first weird fiction authors that I read as a kid. Other luminary authors within the venerable and mostly forgotten genre include Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, M.R. James, and Edgar Allen Poe, to name a few. Weird fiction (since hardly anyone has heard of it) is a genre that blended several other genres into its fold, and includes shades of horror, fantasy, and science fiction. This was before horror became known strictly as horror and from there got divided up into lots of cutesy little subgenres, such as slasher, psychological, and so on.

With this in mind, I’ve been in a state of bafflement after reading many of the reviews on Zoetrope Interactive’s new game, Conarium. In an age where everyone is running around recording videos of themselves getting freaked out by cheap jump scare games, and then uploading them to YouTube in order to see how many hits they can get (complete with the typical goofy faced thumbnails on said videos), game reviewers seem equally baffled by this title. But let’s talk about the game first…

Conarium is an attempt to capture the essence of H.P. Lovecraft’s fertile imagination, and to that end it largely succeeds. Instead of starting off with some hackneyed plane crash, mass murder scene, or some other such loud and noisy gimmick, Conarium sets off subtly, and gradually escalates with a slow burn.

Conarium is the sequel to one of Lovecraft’s most famous works, At The Mountains of Madness. For those who are unfamiliar with the source material, it tells the tale of a team of scientists who took an expeditionary trip to the frigid wastes of Antarctica in order to perform research. It is alluded to that the team, led by Dr. William Dyer, encounter some form of malevolent forces there which are so terrible that he ordered his team to seal off the area, and attempted to erase any evidence of the team even being there. In other words: They covered their tracks so that whatever horrors they discovered would remain hidden from humanity.

Of course, years later a group of intrepid researchers decide to track down the mysteriously vanished research expedition in order to discern what happened to them. The games starts off with you stepping into the shoes of Frank Gilman, one of the men who was part of the search team. You wake up dazed and confused, and lacking any memories as to what has transpired. You quickly discover that you are in Upuaut, which is a sprawling underground research base located in the Antarctic.

You also soon realize that something has gone horribly wrong, and that you may not be alone. One of the things that I initially noticed about playing Conarium is that it really evokes the creepy atmosphere of Lovecraft’s novels—strange things stir in the darkness just out of sight, bizarre sounds can be heard just barely above the hum of machinery. The developers completely nailed the sense of impending doom that Lovecraft’s stories are known for.

From your mysterious entry point, you must guide Frank throughout the Antarctic base, uncovering various clues in order to discover what exactly happened there, as well as finding out the murky secrets that the original research team tried so hard to cover up.

Only by exploring the Antarctic base, finding clues and gathering snippets of information, can you then find out the secrets that the original exploration team tried so hard to keep hidden away. There are also many puzzles present in the game that need to be solved in order to advance to different areas of the research base. Although most of the puzzles are logically implemented into the environments, sometimes I did run up against a wall or two. You have various items that you collect during your travels, such as handles, keys, and the like, but at certain points I didn’t know where I could utilize them.

This in turn resulted in what happens with many frustrating adventure/puzzle games that I have played in the past, in which I had to try and use everything within my inventory with every environment that I came across. Needless to say, this can normally become quite tedious, but fortunately for Conarium, these instances were pretty rare. Most of the times, the puzzles make sense and/or were relatively easy to figure out.

The game’s story is primarily told through the numerous audio logs that Frank comes across. While the voice acting contained within these logs is pretty good overall, Frank’s own voice acting sort of falls flat in places. But since the atmosphere present in the game is so spooky and immersive, this never really became an issue for me.

As stated previously, the works of H.P. Lovecraft are considered weird fiction, a precursor to horror, which many people don’t seem to be aware of for whatever reasons. Therefore, it doesn’t play like your typical YouTube jump scare fare, but rather is more in line with adventure or thriller games. However, there are plenty of horror aspects to it, but they are more of the disturbing and mysterious variety rather than being gory and trite.

Conarium’s graphics are well suited for what the game is trying to convey—a creepy, fear-inducing mood modeled after the works of Mr. Lovecraft. Too a large extent, they accomplish this quite well, and there were many times when I was hesitant to open certain doors or peek around certain dark corners. The sound department also really nailed it. They give you a sense that all is not normal within the research base. You’ll hear strange creeks and groans from time to time, or some odd sounds emitted behind certain doors, for instance. They really creeped me out.

Conarium is a no-brainer for fans of Lovecraft’s work, but I also think that it’ll appeal to gamers who love a good adventure or thriller experience as well. It’s well thought-out, decently paced, morbid in tone, and makes you think about it long after you’ve played it. I would definitely recommend giving this one a try.

SCORE: 84%

Conarium features graphics that are more than good enough to wow your friends with. However, you want to have a pretty beefy gaming PC or gaming laptop in order to play it at a decent framerate. So, you may just want to invest in a decent gaming rig:

Visit CyberpowerPC’s website to check out all of the other great deals as well!

 

91 thoughts on “Conarium Review – Does it Do Justice to the Works of H.P. Lovecraft?”

  1. A fantastic blogpost, I just given this onto a student who was doing a little analysis on that. And he in fact bought me breakfast because I discovered it for him. :).. So let me reword that: Thanks for the treat! But yeah Thanks for taking the time to discuss this, I feel strongly about it and enjoy learning more on this topic. If possible, as you gain expertise, would you mind updating your blog with more details? It is very helpful for me. Big thumb up for this post!
    ecco shoes store http://www.hsfashion.co.uk

  2. What i do not understood is actually how you are not actually much more well-liked than you might be now. You are so intelligent. You realize therefore considerably relating to this subject, produced me personally consider it from so many varied angles. Its like women and men arent fascinated unless it’s one thing to do with Lady gaga! Your own stuffs great. Always maintain it up!
    Mountain Hardwear jackets store http://www.mountainhardwearstore.cc

  3. Hello there! My identify is john I am a 20 many years previous pupil. I love to examine. I dont have a lot of time. This can be why I discovered speed reading courses, I Believe that in the event you examine a great deal of books and megazines youve to understand the skill of speed reading. Just so that you can study far better and quicker. anyway, I hope you will carry on to sustain this web page. this is a wonderful place and Im certain Ill be back in the close to long term once more.
    ugg outlet online store http://ugg.websila.us

  4. I feel like you could probably teach a class on how to make a great blog. This is fantastic! I have to say, what really got me was your design. You certainly know how to make your blog more than just a rant about an issue. Youve made it possible for people to connect. Good for you, because not that many people know what theyre doing.
    jimmy choo flats sale http://jimmychoo.hawksportsind.com

  5. Im obtaining a browser error, is anyone else? When are you going to post again? You actually inform many people! Cheers for this article, it was great to see. Thank you for the efforts you have made on paper this post. Im hoping the same best work of your stuff later on as well. In fact your creative writing abilities has inspired me to start my very own BlogEngine blog now. Truly the blogging is spreading its wings rapidly. Your article is a fine illustration of it.
    lafuma聽backpacks http://www.lafumasale.cc

  6. Zecco Review Opening a Zecco Trading brokerage account is quite straightforward. The application process can be done entirely online without involving any paperwork. At the beginning of the application, you will have a chance to select what type of account you want to have, including Individual Account, Joint Account, and IRA Accounts.
    vibram five fingers outlet online http://vibramfivefingers.unilorites.com

  7. Thank you for the smart critique. Me & my neighbour were preparing to do some research about that. We got a superior book on that matter from our local library and most books where not as influensive as your details. Im quite glad to see these data which I was searching for a long time.
    nfl sports stores near me http://nfl.unilorites.com

  8. Hello! Interesting blog post! I have been a regular website visitor (a bit more like addict :P) on your website although I had a challenge. I am not necessarily quite certain if it is the right place to ask, but there are no spam comments. I get comments exactly like watch movies online everyday. Possibly can you help me? Thanks for your insight.
    cheap birkenstock style sandals http://www.birkenstockstore.cc

  9. Took me time for you to check out all the notes, but I truly enjoyed the article. It proved to be in truth helpful to me and I’m sure to all of the commenters right here! It’s usually great when you can not just be informed, but additionally engaged! I’m certain you had enjoyable writing this write-up.
    keen outlet store http://keen.angigreene.com

  10. Thanks for the sensible critique. Me & my neighbour were making ready to do a little analysis about that. We obtained a good e book on that matter from our local library and most books where not as influensive as your information. Im very glad to see such information which I was searching for a long time.This made very glad! Anyway, in my language, there usually are not much good source like this.
    merrell sandals outlet http://merrell.angigreene.com

  11. The web site editorial writer includes a certain effortless skill to describe definitely good topics. Reads the web publication content is unquestionably huge and you’ll stumble on without doubt many conventional site visitors. No wonder, while using high-quality writing. In any circumstance, it was a delight to commit time on your site and study the out of the ordinary content.
    emu boots cheap http://emu.hawksportsind.com

  12. f many great things about your life and a choice which is usually a lot of times hard to obtain. When considering some factors, we might underrate it, postpone or proactively pursuing it. Anything at all it is, if we want a lot of progress, we need to develop a so called exclusive advanced development and growth set up.
    balmain jeans replica http://www.laberty.co.uk

  13. This is some useful material. It took me a while to unearth this site but it was worth the time. I noticed this website was buried in bing and not the number one spot. This weblog has a lot of decent stuff and it doesnt deserve to be burried in the searches like that. By the way I am going to save this weblog to my list of favorites.
    mont blanc prices http://www.asosso.co.uk

  14. Hi. I needed to drop you a quick note to impart my thanks. I’ve been watching your webpage for a month or so and have picked up a heap of sound information as well as enjoyed the way you’ve structured your article. I am setting about to run my own webpage however I think its too general and I would like to focus more on smaller topics.
    barbour where to buy http://barbour.hawksportsind.com

Leave a Reply