Cosmic Fear: Mid Walk
While I’ve played a few great games that could be classified as “walking simulators,” the vast majority of these types of games aren’t great. Sometimes it's the indulgence in the surreal, or the lack of meaningful progression or meaningful impetus to see what’s behind the next door, et that kills it. Cosmic Fear isn’t the best of the genre, but it’s a rare example of a game that sits in the middle ground. It doesn’t fall victim to the worst of the overused tropes that a lot of first person psychological horror games submit to, but it doesn’t rise above, either.
First of all, Cosmic Fear isn’t a great name for a game featuring Cosmic Horror. I know it’s a bit petty to go for the game’s name right off the bat, but it feels particularly lazy in this case. While naming it “Lovecraft Mythos Game #3” would be a little bit on the nose, it would have been at least a bit more novel. I guess solo developer Alesandro Guzzo really asked, “what happens when someone is exposed to cosmic horror?” and answered in the most literal way you could imagine. (The answer is: Cosmic Fear.)
But that’s probably because Allesandro was too damn busy making detailed environments to worry about trifling matters such as what to name his latest game in his Lovecraft inspired walking simulator trilogy. I can tell you this: I’ve only played Cosmic Fear and I don’t feel like I missed out when it comes to story and context, as it’s all pretty self contained.
Most of what you will do in Cosmic Fear is explore the (again, beautiful) environments and either search for where to go next or where to use that item you just found. It’s a niche type of gameplay you really have to be into to appreciate fully. There are some hooks that can keep you searching for your next clue–and sometimes you’ll be told exactly what to do, and even then it might not seem obvious. There isn’t much hand holding (no scent trails ala Wolverine) but there were enough clues that I usually wasn’t stumped for any significant amount of time.
While Cosmic Fear is definitely a psychological horror game I didn’t find it very scary. Sure, scary is subjective, and I tend to find cosmic horror more fascinating than scary. But even the detailed levels and immersive atmosphere couldn’t garner even a tiny bit of “spooked” out of me.
While Cosmic Fear is more about exploration and being engrossed in the Lovecraft vibe it does have some light puzzle solving. These puzzles are usually in the form of lock and key type interactions: find the item that you need to remove whatever barrier to progress. And while there is a way to put items into an inventory, you’re never juggling inventory items to find the right one for any given situation. At least, that’s not a situation I ever found myself in.
Cosmic Fear at least leans into the “cosmic” aspect of the cosmic horror. Far too often Lovecraft inspired turns into tentacles, strange writing and strange artifacts. Don’t get me wrong, Cosmic Fear has these things, but it also has some damn cosmic elements, too. I don’t want to spoil too much, since the game is mostly its story.
Unfortunately, for a game that relies heavily on being narrative driven it has uneven pacing. That’s a given for a game that requires players to discover exactly how to move the story forward, but the open nature without extensive handholding exacerbates this problem. There are no waypoints showing you where to go, and only little white dots that appear over an item to indicate that you can interact with it.
I don’t think Cosmic Fear is a good game, and I don’t recommend it. However, it does have some promise, and while solo developer Allesandro Guzzo is great at creating environment, there is work that needs to be done in almost every other aspect–including writing. But for a solo developer it's impressive, and if you absolutely have to play this Lovecraft inspired game you’re not in for any surprises–or fear.
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