The gibbous moon seems to be sneering at you. You hear howls far ahead — who knows what kind of foul creature lurks in the darkness. Panting, you fumble in your pockets looking for cartridges, your back pressed against the door as if this simple sheet of wood were enough to keep the horror at bay. You try to put yourself together. Since you found that accursed book, you always knew it would come to this. The voices in your head told you so. You can't really stop the Old Ones, not for good. In the end, someday, they will enter this world and everything will be lost. You pump your shotgun, kick the door open and charge howling, firing at the cultists, who die invoking their evil masters' names. Death and madness await you, but maybe you can delay the inevitable...

Lovecraft’s Untold Stories is an action RPG with rogue-like elements. You explore randomly generated levels based in H.P. Lovecraft stories, fighting cultists and all kinds of monsters from the Myths, improving your skills, weapons, and gear, looking for clues and information about the Old Ones and the Outer Gods, and solving puzzles and challenges. You have to find a way to foil the Old Ones’ plans – but the path is yours to choose, and brute force may not always be the best solution. Will you search for clues and information to stop the cultists before they summon the Outer Gods, or will you just kill everything on your way, until there’s no one left to invoke the cosmic horrors to our world?

Welcome, investigators. Today we want to share with you some information that has come to our hands about some of the foul aberrations that we’re facing. Please be careful with it – we understand that knowledge is vital if we want a chance against these creatures, but it could drive to madness weaker minds than yours.

MI-GO, THE FUNGI FROM YUGGOTH

The Mi-Go were discovered to humanity by H.P. Lovecraft in his novella The Shadow out of Time. They are fungus-based lifeforms, apparently native from Yuggoth, a mysterious planet at the very edge of our Solar System that some scholars identify with Pluto. When you face the Mi-Go, take into account that they can fly – and they move really, really fast. Their weapons are unknown to us, alien technology so advanced that our scientific knowledge cannot even grasp its working. Their heinous appearance is too horrific to be put into words, and they are said to be impossible to film or photograph, because ordinary film cannot capture the otherworldly matter that forms their bodies. However, we have managed to film them nevertheless, so you know beforehand what you are facing.

STAR SPAWN, THE OFFSPRING OF MIGHTY CTHULHU

The Star Spawn are the offspring and servants of the Great Old One Cthulhu, who lies dreaming in the sunken city of R’Lyeh. They waged wars eons ago against the Elder Things, and perished or went into slumber along with their lord Cthulhu when R’Lyeh sunk. But some of them still roam the Earth or are brought back by the dark sorcery of mad cultists. They are strong, bulky creatures who favor close combat, but they can also wield powerful magic if need be. They are octopus-like creatures, just like Mighty Cthulhu, but of less stature and sheer power than their god-king.

INTRODUCING A NEW SHOOTING MECHANIC

Up until now, and following the lead of other classic games in the genre, Lovecraft’s Untold Stories featured a 2 axis shooting mechanic. That meant that you could shoot up, down, left, and right, but not diagonally – as you can see in our free demo available here. After lots of testing and careful consideration, we have decided to implement a 4 axis shooting mechanic. Thus, you will be able to shoot diagonally too – facing the Old Ones and Outer Gods is difficult enough to not shooting them as they come!

INTRODUCING MOLOTOV COCKTAILS

The cosmic horrors and their Earthling cultists are tough, and sometimes a bullet (or, well, a lot of bullets) is not enough to stop them. Bringing a knife to a gunfight is never a good idea – but bringing explosives, on the other hand…

The Detective, one of the characters of Lovecraft’s Untold Stories, can use explosives in combat against the creatures of the Myths. Until now he could only throw them dynamite sticks; today we introduce Molotov cocktails. As you know, a Molotov cocktail is a half-improvised weapon: a bottle full of an inflammable liquid (usually some kind of alcohol) with a piece of cloth which acts as a fuse. When thrown they explode on impact, setting everyone in the area of effect on fire.

Weapons consisting of a recipient full of an explosive or inflammable liquid are older than that, but Molotov cocktails got their name in the Winter War, when the USRR invaded Finland in 1939. These improvised weapons, used mostly by partisans in guerrilla warfare or street resistance, were named sarcastically after Soviet politician Viacheslav Mólotov, who in his radio propaganda said that the USRR planes were dropping food and supplies, and not bombs, over the civilian population. With dry sarcasm, the Finnish started calling Soviet bombs “Mólotov’s baskets,” and their Army countered Mólotov’s propaganda announcing that “if Mólotov puts food in the table, we will take care of the cocktails.” The name stuck, and the rest is (quite bloody) history.

We are aware that they are a bit of an anachronism: Lovecraft’s stories are based years before the invention of Molotov cocktails. But, well, the Old Ones have strange effects over time itself. Who knows, what other oddities our heroes may face on their way?

Lovecraft's Untold Stories will be released on Steam Early Access on June 22 for $12.99 / €12,99 / £10.29. 

Key Features:

• Fight more than 50 different monsters from the Myths of Cthulhu in this intense action RPG
• Explore Lovecraft’s stories in 12 different randomly generated levels and face the Old Ones in 5 special levels
• Choose your own path: will you look for clues and information to uncover the truth, or just fight your way out?
• Pick your hero between 5 different characters, each with their own stats and skills, including the detective, the thief, the professor, the witch, and the ghoul
• Improve your stats to become more powerful, but be careful: madness awaits for those who learn too much!
• Collect and improve more than 30 weapons and hundreds of items and artifacts
• Look for clues and special items to unlock more stories