Fairy Tale Spotlight: The Shore [Video Game Review]

"The Shore" is a video game created by a Greek developer called Ares Dragonis and was released in February of 2021. It's story is seated well within the world of Cthulhu created by H.P. Lovecraft. Despite this game getting very mediocre reviews, I think this may end up being the best Lovecraftian game I have ever played.

I don't think a lot of people have heard of this game. It doesn't seem to get a lot of press. The reviews for it have not been very good. When I first played it, I actually did not even know it was a Lovecraft game. I really just liked the cover art for it. It was this depiction of an old and warn lighthouse. For some reason, it just got my attention, and I sprung for it.

So now that we understand that "The Shore" takes place within the "Call of Cthulhu" universe, what type of game is it? This is actually the forth game of this story-type that I have played. The first one was a shooter, then there was an adventure game, and then I had a platformer puzzle styled game. So what is this?

"The Shore" begins as just a walking simulator. All you do is walk around and explore. There's not much to do but to listen to the narration and look at stuff. Then small puzzle elements begin to surface. And then it turns into a "run away from the monster" game. And soon after the latter is introduced, actual combat becomes the mainstay of the game. So, I guess it ended up being a lot of things.

The atmosphere of this game is the best it has to offer. Everything looks amazing, and the music is spot on. I was seriously drawn into its terrifying, moody environments as I was lead straight into the dark corridors of madness. I loved every moment of the experience.

The gameplay itself is fine. It worked well enough for what it was. I was occasionally stumped over some puzzles, but it did not bother me too much. Still, I'd say there would be room to improve. Most games hold your hand a bit to help lead your eyes to things you need to do. This game flatly does not. It's like I was actually there, and if I was actually there, I'd be walking around endlessly wondering what thing I am suppose to shove into some other thing to make a third thing start working.

There were occasional oddities that I think were unintended. A polygon in an object was missing here and there. A floating rock. A hovering seagull. It wasn't much, but they did slightly break the immersion.

The game does an amazing job representing the elder gods and the monsters of Cthulhu lore. Many of them are present, and you have to deal with them. Dagon, in particular, was a fascinating encounter. There were some, such as the Monolith, that I was not as familiar with, but their inclusion was fascinating even without knowing the original source material.

The further you play into this game, the worse the madness gets, but understand that this is not a game of choice. It is a very linier story that will always end the same way. And the ending of this one was... okay. It was satisfactory but not altogether the best thing I ever experience from these games. Nevertheless, I still consider "The Shore" to be my favorite game set in this particular universe.

Have you ever heard of "The Shore" yourself? Why not go check out the trailers for it. They are quite good, and they do a fine job selling the game. I wouldn't pay too much attention to the rather cruel reviews. A lot of them focused too much on the little mishaps from the developers and can make the game seem worse than it really is. Also they may have been for an earlier version of the game which really might have been worse than it is today.

I recommend "The Shore" to all Cthulhu lovers. This is a wonderful gem than should be played if you can. Dive into the madness!

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