You wake in an unsettlingly familiar yet unrecognisable landscape. Creatures, some familiar, others previously unimaginable, roam the wilds around you. This is the underworld of the Dreamlands. The Great Abyss. Can you escape it with your body and mind intact?
What is Cyclopean: The Great Abyss?
Cyclopean: The Great Abyss is a love letter to both the CRPGs of the early home computers and the works of the patron saint of cosmic horror, H. P. Lovecraft.
Created by Michael Schmidt at Schmidt Workshops, at its core, it is a survival horror CRPG with elements of random generation and permadeath.
Cyclopean pays homage to the games that inspired it, including the CRPG classic Ultima and the more recent Path of Achra. Use your wits, cunning and/or brute strength to navigate the top-down 2D overworld to find your way into 3D dungeons – all the while doing your best to stay sane in the face of the Lovecraftian horrors you encounter.
Gameplay Horror
The game itself is a retro blast from the past, but with modern sensibilities underpinning it. The game uses very simple controls; you can manage the whole thing with just WASD and Spacebar, plus Q and R when you enter the dungeons, although there are hotkeys for many of the skills and actions.
When you start the game, you will be provided a randomly generated character; this character’s stats, skills and allegiances will shape how you proceed in the game. So, take note.
Once you have selected your character, you will find yourself exploring the top-down 2D overworld. The overworld is not procedurally generated when it comes to the terrain. However, the monsters you will encounter and the items they carry are randomised each time you visit the overworld.
The overworld is crawling with strange creatures pulled straight from Lovecraft’s Dreamlands mythos, some hostile, some friendly. How you deal with these encounters is up to you (and in no small way, the character created at the start of the game).
Turn-based terror
The encounters themselves are a turn-based affair. Select the type of action, attack, dialogue or stealth and then see the results. Pretty standard stuff, at least on the surface. But this provides a surprising diversity in how you can approach gameplay.
Whilst roaming the overworld, you will have the opportunity to enter and explore the crumbling ruins dotted across the foreboding landscape. For me, this is where the game really comes alive.
These dungeons plunge you into a claustrophobic 3D environment, filled with traps and potential horrors around each corner. These dungeons and their arcane denizens are rendered with an obvious love of the source material. Aside from navigation in the 3D environment, the way that encounters play out is mechanically the same as it is in the overworld.
The hidden depths of the Great Abyss
The gameplay loop may seem simple at first, but as you progress further into the game, it reveals its more subtle and intricate mechanics. One of the ways you will see this come into play is through the ally system.
Having different combinations of allies in your party will unlock skills that you didn’t even know were available. I don’t want to spoil these here for you, as a huge part of the fun of playing Cyclopean: The Great Abyss is discovering these hidden mechanics and how they affect your playthrough.
Retro style and old school influences
The presentation of Cyclopean was one of the big draws for me – alongside the Lovecraftian theme. Its monochromatic retro visuals are a real treat if you are into that kind of thing.
The overworld part can, at times, feel a little cluttered, but is crafted with great care and love. I found it to be a nostalgic experience, as it reminded me of my earliest gaming experiences on my old Commodore 64. I found that even in this element, there were hidden details to discover I didn’t notice at first, such as hidden passages discovered through an accidental key touch.
However, when it comes to presentation, it is the dungeons where Cyclopean: The Great Abyss really excites me. The environments are beautifully rendered and evoke a sense of otherworldly dread. The creatures are expertly realised using pixel art. Some of these creatures are genuinely unsettling when encountered, while others brought a huge smile to my face. If you are a fan of gothic art, I recommend this game for dungeon visuals alone.
I found that everything, from the UI to encounter art, felt in service of a distinct vision. On that, I feel Schmidt Workshops achieved a great success.
The Lovecraftian Legacy
It is certainly nothing new to see a game based around the great H. P. Lovecraft’s work. However, Cyclopean is a little different. Where most Lovecraft-related titles draw on his most well-known works, the Cthulhu Cycle, Cyclopean: The Great Abyss is based in the Dreamlands.
The Dreamlands are a part of Lovecraft’s work that I always enjoyed and feel has been greatly overshadowed by the Cthulhu Mythos in modern pop culture, especially in video game culture. I was excited to find myself in the less-explored landscape of the Dreamlands.
The Vibe Check
So, this is a pretty punishing game when it comes down to it, especially with the permadeath elements. But this just makes it even more rewarding as you begin to find success.
Its retro stylings may not be for everyone, but for those of us who grew up with the types of games that inspired Cyclopean, there is a heady nostalgia that will draw you in.
I feel confident in saying that fans of Lovecraft, classic CRPGs or retro gaming will have a lot of fun with this title. I give it an indescribably non-Euclidean architecture out of 5.
Just remember that if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.
Cyclopean: The Great Abyss is out now on PC (Win). I played the game via access kindly provided by the developer.
