5 Lovecraftian Games with Archaeology
The Collector in Dredge (2023).
Video games have been taking cues from the tales of H.P. Lovecraft for a long time, and that trend does not seem to be slowing down anytime soon. Given the appeal and interaction of Lovecraft & Archaeology, there are also a number of games in which there is a clear link between Archaeology and Lovecraft. For this list, I have chosen to highlight five.
Spoiler Warning for: The Sinking City, Conarium, Dredge, Sherlock Homes: The Awakened, and Amnesia: The Dark Descent
The Sinking City
A hand reaching out toward a small Cthulhu statue in The Sinking City.
The Sinking City met with mixed but generally positive reviews when it came out in 2019. The game follows Charles Reed, an investigator who has come to Oakmont to find help for the hallucinations and visions he has been having. The plot begins with Robert Throgmorton hiring Reed to investigate what happened to a missing research expedition.
This research expedition is the main crux of where archaeology meets the Lovecraftian Horror. When the Research Expedition is found, Reed finds that they have also found an ancient artifact, the Seal, which has driven the surviving members of the expedition to insanity and which can be used to open the gate for a Cosmic Horror and end the world. This is a fairly typical trope that concerns Archaeological adventures, ancient artifacts, and Cosmic Horror.
Conarium
The mysterious device in Conarium.
Conarium is directly based on At the Mountains of Madness, which is one of Lovecraft’s longer novellas and is one of the most direct links to archaeology Lovecraft himself made. Conarium, 2017, plays directly into this but pulls the story into the future by a few years from the original. In it, four scientists have built a base in the Antarctic in order to conduct their own research excavation.
The main character, Frank Gilman, is one of the researchers and is also an Anthropologist, which in the US is the field archaeology falls under, and, throughout the game, players find the journals of the expedition members, showing that they found proto-humans, ancient artifacts, and even an ancient city. In true Lovecraftian form, the main object in question drove them all to madness with strange visions.
Dredge
Dredge, 2023, is a cozy horror game in which the player will mostly be doing a lot of fishing. At first glance, it is neither very spooky nor very archaeological, but the islands the player explores become more and more steeped in mystery as the game goes on. There’s a hint at hidden secrets from the beginning, and the townspeople are suspicious of the fisherman but eager for extra help.
Archaeologically, the main plot revolves around the Collector, who asks the player to find several missing artifacts that might be able to change things. This involves a lot of dredging the sea floor, something real-life archaeologists and also Treasure Hunters do to find shipwrecks. The game has the right balance of cozy fishing, artifact collecting, and spooky shenanigans.
Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened
Sherlock inspecting human remains in Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened.
Another 2023 title, this game follows the iconic Watson and Holmes very early on before they became famous and just as their friendship is beginning. While Sherlock is an investigator, not a named Archaeologist, the two fields share a lot in common as they both use physical objects to find answers to what happened in the past. Moreover, as early as some of the first missions there are small hints of actual named archaeology.
This includes a book titled, Cryptology in Egypt, found in a library, and the game grows more and more Lovecraftian as time goes on. There are other hints as well, and Sherlock’s investigation culminates in yet another cult seeking to unleash an ancient god. This game does a good job of intermixing all of these ideas and letting them flourish.
Amnesia: The Dark Descent
The launch trailer for the Amnesia collection.
All of the games in the Amnesia franchise, particularly the main two games in the series (The Dark Descent & Rebirth) are very clear-cut examples of how Lovecraftian horror and Archaeology interact. The original game remains a cultural landmark in gaming, and the themes are very explicitly linked and are comparable to the connections in movie franchises like The Mummy.
In Amnesia, an archaeological investigation into Egypt uncovers an ancient artifact that the main character Daniel finds himself in possession of, while the rest of the expedition members go missing or are found dead, much like the rumors surrounding the “Curse of the Pharaohs” in real life. This even plays into other Pseudoarchaeological tropes such as Ancient aliens, as the main antagonist, Alexander, is attempting to return home to a planet elsewhere.
All of these games represent the unmistakable ties between Lovecraft, Archaeology, and ancient artifacts. This is sometimes very explicit and sometimes implied but evident nonetheless. There’s a lot to be said for how prominent this trope is, which I’ve attempted to give a brief overview on in the article on Lovecraft & Archaeology. However, I will likely continue to cover some of these ideas outside of that article as I come across more and more examples.
