You feel the tug of an unseen hand, pulling you toward something. What that something is, you are unsure. The one thing you do know is that it is immensely powerful—powerful enough to control the creatures of the sea, powerful enough to drive men mad. It calls to you, draws you in, compels you. As the darkness hangs over you and you reflect on the things you have seen, the things you can never unsee, you feel a hollowness inside yourself. You feel empty, as you have always known it would end this way, and you are powerless to stop it.
Hiding behind its 8-bit aesthetic, SKALD: Against the Black Priory from High North Studios AS is a dive into darkness, madness, and Lovecraftian horror. It is a retro-inspired fantasy roleplaying game. In this turn-based game, you start as a simple mercenary on a mission that is dear to you. You venture to the Outer Isles, where you must understand how the isles have been plunged into chaos. After a brief prologue, you wake up on the beach with nothing but a few rags after your ship wrecked, leaving you stranded. The isle of Idra is flush with madmen and mutated creatures who will attempt to rip you to shreds with reckless abandon.
As you navigate the unyielding darkness that surrounds your boat, you make one last effort to grip your sanity and hold off the unstoppable madness breaking through. For you have ventured too far from the safe haven of port, and the night has ensconced you. The lights on your ship have gone dark, you see things that aren’t there, and more terrifying yet, there are things there you cannot see. You race for the safety of Greater Marrow, guided only by the lighthouse, a beacon of sanity, illuminating the sky. You race forward, hoping to arrive with a grain of your sanity remaining, for the light will save you. As you dock your small vessel, you feel the release of the eldritch horrors pulling on the final thread of your mind, you are safe—for now.
DREDGE, by Black Salt Games, may seem like a cozy fishing game on the surface, but very quickly you will learn there is much more to the game. Upon your arrival at Greater Marrow, you are loaned a boat and you must fish to pay off your debt. Once your debt is paid, you continue to fish. When you reel in your first aberrant fish, you begin to feel like something is not right here. The combination of the unsettling tone upon retrieving the fish and the grotesque visuals of the fish itself begin to give you an unsettling feeling. There is more going on here than a simple fishing game.