Edge of Sanity Review

I sometimes wonder how HP Lovecraft would have felt about his influence on the world. He never made much money during his lifetime, and it wasn’t until 2 decades after his passing that his legacy of describing how a human brain might fracture when faced with it own insignificance would be celebrated.

I would love to find out how he felt about the folk band HP Lovecraft; a weirdo conservative for most of his life, he might have hated them. Similarly, HP Lovecraft was a known racist for a lot of his life (don’t look up the name of his cat) so I would be fascinated to see his reaction to the TV show Lovecraft Country. They took his theme of a ‘white guy freaked out by people who don’t look like him’ and turned it into ‘white people are the monsters in every American tale’. One thing that was clear though, H.P. Lovecraft did not care for games. Which is a shame, because his whole domain has inspired some good, and even great ones. However, some games only dress themselves in the trappings of Lovecraft, shooters that happen to have a bunch of octopus-headed villains, or horror games with the same.

Edge of Sanity makes a good attempt at getting to the spirit of HP’s stories. It is a 2D survival game, with horror elements where it is not enough that the creatures can harm the main character, Carter, physically but also just seeing them is enough to impact his mental wellbeing.

Trapped in the desolate snow wastes of Alaska, Carter finds that the research facility he was sent to resupply is empty. An industrial accident has unravelled and now there are a number of aberrations patrolling. On top of that he is having waking nightmares. Escaping the building he finds a friend and they establish a camp. The objective is then to find a way out, and rescue other survivors. The hand-drawn art does a great job of bringing all of this to life, and the lighting also brings out the best in these depictions by adding effective, brooding darkness.

The gameplay is simple enough, Carter goes to a location and then must traverse through tunnels and go in and out of buildings. In the story-based levels he will progress the events, or encounter someone in need of help. In the resource areas, it is mainly about finding as many things as possible without Carter coming to harm. To help him, he has rocks he can throw to distract prowling monsters (or kill smaller ones), weapons to stab opponents, lanterns to scare off some (and lure others) as well as a myriad other tools. Carter can also sprint, walk, or sneak with different levels of sound generated. Sprinting will get him out of trouble and to places faster, but sneaking will likely mean he can get past some enemies undetected. The logic would be to be in sneak mode all the time, but alongside his health there is also a sanity meter whereby the more time the protagonist is in the dark or simply in the presence of monsters, will cause the meter to fill. When certain parameters are met, levels will become more distorted – sound effects will be added, and images start to appear. As a result, getting through some areas quickly rather than quietly becomes a priority.

All of the action is pretty solid, the melee system works, and the tension of connecting a ranged shot is effective (miss, and the item cannot be picked up to reattempt). That said, the sound range indicator sometimes feels poorly messaged. There is a circle that emanates around Carter as you move. Simple enough, but there were several instances where my sneaking triggered enemies when it appeared they were outside of the range. Given that there was sanity and health on the line, this element needed to be clear and tight, and it wasn’t.

Edge of Sanity also has a camp management element. As other survivors are found in the story modes, they can be set to work repairing the camp. They all have food and water needs that, if not met, will cause their morale to go down; if the morale drops too far the characters will die. They all have distinct personalities and storylines, and it is a solid motivation to get further in the game and keep all of the camp characters alive. Now, I will admit their characters were distinct but not original; the first characters you encounter are the robot-like scientist and the company woman. They were stereotypes that I’d seen before that marred the experience a little too much for my jaded gamer brain.  

I might seem down on Edge of Sanity, there are some interesting intersections with their source inspirations, and it plays okay. It just didn’t feel deep enough to engage me. If my reading on HP Lovecraft is correct, he also would not like this game, but because there wasn’t any racism in it.  

Conclusion

Edge of Sanity has some solid moments in its tributes to HP Lovecraft fiction. It is moodily lit and well designed. There just wasn’t enough to keep me fully committed.