The cosmic abyss is deep, dark and almost perfect

Within the first few minutes of Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss, I noticed a reference to Miskatonic University. Immediately, I warmed to what I thought would be a classic Lovecraftian horror piece: cults, water where it shouldn't be, non-Euclidean impossibilities, and all the good things spread throughout the moody early 1900s setting. But soon after this initial discovery, it was revealed that the year was 2056 and that I had an AI implanted in my skull. The relief evaporated into intrigue.

The Cosmic Abyss is aptly named, and this strange contrast at the beginning of the game – a conversation about an AI-augmented brain taking place in a rowboat at night – is an experience in microcosm. It misleads you from the start and does so with confident purpose.

Lovecraft in the Algorithm Age

In Cthulhu The Cosmic Abyss, underwater anchors are highlighted with sonar.

As an outspoken Lovecraftian horror devotee of all things circuit-related, I was prepared to simply tolerate The Cosmic Abyss' sci-fi scaffolding. But I was really moved by it. Advanced technologies such as underwater mining stations, neural interfaces, and almost magical diving techniques sharpen the Lovecraftian atmosphere without diluting it. Ancient blood rituals become even more difficult when planned on a laptop. When the person who encountered the bizarre creature read the digital incident report from 10 minutes ago, the creature became even more uneasy. I want more sci-fi Lovecraft now.

The game's true beginnings take place in a glowing, wrecked deep-sea mining facility, which inevitably turns out to be a cult operation led by a man studying a particular type of billionaire messianism. He will remind you of some deplorable people, and it is a fantastic study of 'modern cultism'. In that facility, The Cosmic Abyss unfolds with sunken cities and impossible geometries. All of this is expressed through dripping atmosphere and a willingness to go somewhere completely strange.

key to the abyss

A screenshot of the Vault menu with many stars from Cthulhu The Cosmic Abyss.

The most unexpected delight of The Cosmic Abyss is the AI itself, named Key. In the prologue, it is a new installation that speaks in a precise, monotonous tone and in a robotic, banal style. In Chapter 2, six months later, she has become her own character and has been trained to have a warmer personality. In other words, he's casual, curious, and present, always giving his opinion and sounding genuinely scared when the main character, Noah, is in danger.

The transitions were so fluid that I forgot she ever spoke in a monotone during my first playthrough. She's totally the deuteragonist of the game. The question of whether Noah should treat her as a human being was quickly raised and then quietly dropped. This feels like a deliberate commentary on the dangers of that concept in our reality. In an age when the questions don't feel theoretical, they are treated with a lightness that serves them better than any rigorous thesis.

Mechanically, the key is the heart of the investigation. Her sonar abilities allow her to find listed items or materials, from broad categories like 'minerals' to very specific ones like the slime of a wounded Deep One, and puzzles built around finding the right combination of frequencies are some of the most satisfying in the game. One of the interactive menus, Her Vault, provides a detailed mental map of the current chapter, useful for orienting yourself and the kind of engaging, evenly built connective tissue explanation.

A corridor of non-Euclidean geometry in Cthulhu The Cosmic Abyss.

Corruption is another unique mechanic in the game. Throughout the entire experience, the system tracks Noah's exposure to unknown Lovecraftian horrors that ultimately drive him mad. What this leads to is a thrilling version of the moral system. Most major puzzles offer two solutions. One is to alleviate corruption and the other is to deepen corruption. Corrupt options are usually more immediately accessible. That means it's faster, easier, and a choice for those who stop thinking about the long term.

It is a quiet, perfect expression of the Lovecraftian principle that a cult cannot be broken by opposition under the weight of what it has already committed to. The temptation to go dark is real, and the game knows it. Imagine how horrified I was when I discovered a low-corruption solution to the puzzle that outperformed the creature that would have rendered it harmless when I had already killed that poor creature.

Cthulhu stands in the center of a room filled with floating stars representing the constellations of The Cosmic Abyss.

The overall puzzles are well-constructed and satisfyingly difficult, but do nothing to prepare you for the final puzzle. I'm not going to completely dismantle it. It's worth landing as intended, but it involves an alien cult, a constellation system that doesn't belong in the human skies, and the thrilling threat of Cthulhu himself. I laughed out loud when the full scope of the task I was asked to do became clear. The scope is ridiculous, the mechanics are frustrating, and unraveling them piece by piece for what felt like ages is just brilliant. One of the best puzzles I've encountered in a game.

One caveat: the mechanism for avoiding the corrupt solution in the finale is almost insultingly simple. It's so simple that I thought it was just a built-in requirement to solve the puzzle, but in retrospect I realize it may have been there to allow players to power up corruption at the last minute and unlock the bad ending. It doesn't ruin anything, but it sits oddly compared to the elegance of everything around it.

slight ending spoiler

As you might expect, as the corruption system is tied to the ending, the 'good' ending is boring and somewhat disappointing. Bad endings are the endings that have impressive set pieces and the most spectacular results. On my first playthrough, I didn't see a single glimpse of the big tentacle boy.

rough depth

A machine being inspected underwater in Cthulhu The Cosmic Abyss.

Unforgivable technical issues resulted in several late-game crashes, and combined with these crashes I experienced a handful of autosave bugs that cost up to an hour of progress time on three separate occasions. There was significant lag when graphics settings were left on auto by default. Cosmic Abyss appears to have overestimated what some machines can comfortably handle. These issues can be addressed before or shortly after launch, and we hope so. Because it interrupted an exciting experience in the most difficult way.

What's also ultimately worth marking as a genre statement rather than a flaw is that The Cosmic Abyss has no health gauge and very little penalty for death. What initially suggests survival horror turns out to be mystery horror. We are more interested in moving through our fears than in surviving them. The vibe remains the same, but if you arrive expecting to feel truly at risk, temper those expectations accordingly.

A shadowy figure staring at the player against an ominous red background in Cthulhu The Cosmic Abyss.

Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss is a great game, conflicts and caveats aside. The key is victory, the puzzles are imaginative, and the final chapter gets everything it asks of you. I spent about 12 hours on it and found myself wanting to talk about it with everyone who shared my interest in Lovecraft. This is a cosmic horror that combines classic tropes with futuristic costumes and implements them well. What's not to like?