Chronicle of Innsmouth: Mountains of Madness

Chronicle of Innsmouth: Mountains of Madness
68
Metacritic
72
Steam
52.2
xDR
Our rating is calculated based on the reviews and popularity of the game.
Price
$19.99
Release date
23 March 2021
Developers
Publishers
Steam reviews score
Total
72 (74 votes)

After an encounter with a dreadful horror, detective Lone Carter’s investigation leads him to fateful places as Innsmouth, Arkham and the Antarctic, investigating a series of deaths and mysteries. Play also as Abdul Alhazred and H.P. Lovecraft himself in this Lovecraftian point’n’click adventure.

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Chronicle of Innsmouth: Mountains of Madness system requirements

Minimum:

  • OS: Windows XP or higher
  • Processor: Intel or AMD CPU
  • Memory: 1 GB RAM
  • Graphics: 640x480, 32 bit colour
  • DirectX: Version 9.0c
  • Storage: 2 GB available space
  • Sound Card: All DirectX-compatible sound cards
Updated
App type
Steam APP ID
962700
Platforms
Windows PC
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blizzardmetal
blizzardmetal

I generally don't give reviews after 20 minutes, but here we are...

Graphical/UI issues that have been prevalent for certain users for years are still here. Within the first 20 minutes I had to ctr/alt/tab to get out of the game when it just went to a black background with the music still going. Also, my PC mouse cursor is still in the middle of the screen and can't be moved when the game starts, and is replaced by the game cursor. HUGELY distracting. The robotic voice acting was a major turn off as well. These issues are really disappointing based on how good the first game was in the series. Maybe in the future if these issues are fixed I'll re-purchase the game. As of now, I'm waiting for a refund. (Glad I submitted it within Steam's ridiculous 14 day refund policy)

farglefarfle
farglefarfle

Played the first game and was great, this one seems buggy, getting a black screen at cut scenes and can't progress. Unfortunately does not seem to be a fix for this yet. Want to like the game but can't give good review until I can play it to see.

Poppo
Poppo

Sequel to Chronicles of Innsmouth, it renews the graphics but keeps the classic adventure mechanics unchanged as well as the very good quality. Another compelling adventure into the world of H.P. Lovecraft from PsychoDev

AfternoonTeaWithMrB
AfternoonTeaWithMrB

I would love to give this game a better review, but it is not playable as it is. There are certain sections of the game that seem to transfer to a more drawn picture rather than pixel bit, however on my computer all I get is a black screen. Looking at the community hub for the game there has been calls for this to be addressed for YEARS and the devs have done nothing. I cannot play a game where I cannot see half the content.

Its a real pity

Mögbär
Mögbär

Great art and atmosphere, engaging story and interesting characters. I'd say it's still a little weaker than its predecessor because the gameplay and puzzles are limited and simplified with the game literally turning into a movie for whole parts. Still, it was fun and I welcome trying to do things differently, but know I have given games the thumb down for similar issues. The other qualities save this one from that fate. Speaking of being saved from one's fate ... will you be able to escape yours? Find out in this game!

Robrecht
Robrecht

The game has a bug that causes a black screen instead of the scene that is supposed to load past the introduction scene at certain aspect ratios and resolutions.

This is a bug with the outdated version of AGS (the engine) the game runs on and can therefore not be fixed without an update from the developers. And that doesn't seem likely to happen since this issue showed up shortly after release and they didn't address it then, they're not likely to address it now.

I would avoid buying this. If you have a computer that's too new, you're likely not going to be able to play this at all.

Tube Alloy
Tube Alloy

As much as I want to like this game and the previous Chronicle of Innsmouth I find the puzzles and the interface are too obtuse to get any enjoyment out of it. For example in the early part of the story there's an interactive cabinet from which you retrieve an object. At no point does the game train you that there may be more than one thing in a location and that things like cabinets can have multiple hotspots. After 30 minutes of trying everything I could think of I eventually looked up a solution which told me to search the top of the cabinet for the missing item.

Add in the poor voice acting and I just can't recommend this game. I played the first game and had to also give up on that with some other obtuse and annoying things but had hoped they had cracked the code in the sequel. Sadly, they have not

AdrianCypher
AdrianCypher

This graphic adventure is a prequel to "Chronicle of Innsmouth", from the same software house, and focuses on one of its minor characters, bringing him under the spotlight.

The changes since the previous games are mostly improvements.
The game interface is very simplified and, rather than having the usual nine actions, only two mouse buttons are used: right-click to examine, left-click to talk/push/pull/open/close/get/use/whatever. The istant deaths are also greatly reduced and are actually so few that there is a special achievement for getting them all. Likewise, there are fewer skill games and the only real annoying one can be skipped.

Is it a perfect game? Nope. The plot is too "railroaded" and most problems are solved just clicking everywhere one the screen and with "try to use everything with everything". Furthermore one has the impression that a few subplot had to be "cut" during the development and many secondary characters serve no purpose at all. Most annoying of all during replays is the inability to skip cutscenes (hitting "Esc" won't do), some of which are a few MINUTES long.

Graphics, musics and voices are decent but nothing more.

In the end, you should only choose this game if you are a hardcore H.P. fan and if it's in offer; otherwise it's just an overpriced and forgettable graphic adventure.

popslooch
popslooch

third person and no timed puzzles!Recommended to adventure lovers!

Barholt
Barholt

Overall, I would say this story need to be rewritten from scratch to work. It fails as adaptation of the original work hard. No build up to the city, fascinating discoveries of the unknown having created all life and our place in the universe, no chase from the monster, no penguins. And only about 20% takes place in antarctic.
As for on its own legs, it is also really fails on its own. The Lucasarts charm from the first one is blasted straight off this one, barely any fun in it, characters aren't great, so why care if they die? For plot reasons the main character is also invincible and will fucking murder anything that threatens him, which makes it so it is never scary. The puzzles are sub-par, there is a lot of nonsense with secret societies that totally undermines the lovecraft themes of these things being out of our control, main character is bland and there is very little to enjoy in this one. Stick to the first one, this is like a 4/10. I hope Psychodev makes a better project next time. This feels like the start to some kinda "Lovecraft Game Universe", apparently forgetting that Lovecraft already kinda made his stories like that.

Galahad
Galahad

Masterpiece? Nah. It's a good adventure game, though. The artwork is really good, the voice acting is not so good. Everyone pronounces everything differently and it really started to get annoying by the end of the game. It's like they gave the voice actors scripts without any pronunciation notes and they all recorded independently.

The storytelling was good, solid Lovecraft fare.

Took me about 4 hours to finish. The price point might be asking too much for the content that's there. Wait for a sale unless you're a die-hard Lovecraft fan.

Northern Soul
Northern Soul

It was fun to play, I liked the artwork in the cutscenes (even though the main character's moustache seemed to change from scene to scene... sometimes it is a full on moustache, other times he has the thick chin strap), and it progressed quickly enough to remain interesting (with the exception of the archives lady... really?).
I understood most of the puzzles with the exception of the pressure plates in the forest (I still don't get it, I had to look up the answer).
There were a few "adventure game moments" where you knew what to do but couldn't until you triggered it. This led to a bit of the walk around and talk to everyone again, click on everything again, and combine everything again, but it wasn't overly time consuming.
Overall, it is a great new adventure game that is worth the time if you like the subject matter and the previous instalment. I wouldn't say it is a scary or atmospheric game, but it is definitely an adventure/mystery hybrid. I kinda missed "THE DOG CAN DO A BETTER JOB!" guy, but maybe he will be in a future game. Lastly, thank goodness there were no quicktime events... Adventure games and quicktime don't mix!
Thanks for the fun game.

Mene
Mene

Beautiful adventure oozing Lovecraftness. Very cool characters and fully voiced. Excuse me, i have to go on playing now, Armitage was waiting for me 33 days ;)

Rivereyes
Rivereyes

Lo-fi, made with spit, prayers and a profound understanding of what made Lovecraft's work unforgettable.

Normtrooper43
Normtrooper43

While somewhat pricey, I can tell a lot of care went into making this game. With eldritch horror, there are generally two sorts of approaches. The first involves trying to explain everything and the second explains little, leaving the player only able to guess at what is happening around them. This game falls more squarely in the former camp, providing a lot of details from the background lore and also presenting the narrative in a way that lessens the horror and instead impacts drama and action.

It's overall an enjoyable experience and one I would recommend, although some of the puzzles did need some additional signage in my opinion.

Skiah
Skiah

While it can be rough in places (voice acting being the most egregious), I thoroughly enjoyed the journey. The P&C gameplay was perfectly serviceable, and I personally really liked the comic style art and cutscenes. Its obviously made by a very small team but the fact that its also a labor of love is just as obvious. Its also a huge step forward from the previous game, which I also liked but Mountains of Madness is so much better in just about every way.

It also takes a great deal more liberty with the events of various stories than its predecessor, making for a unique work of fiction set in the same Lovecraftian universe rather than a straightforward retelling of At the Mountains of Madness.

Its a perfectly good game, and I'm sure anyone with a passing interest could enjoy it. However this is where I have to go off the rails a little and say that as someone very invested in cosmic horror and R'lyehean lore, almost every detail from names, to locations, to key items is 100% deliberate. You don't need to catch every reference to enjoy this game for what it is, but its something I found absolutely delightful. It stands alone as a narrative but is also an endless basket of Easter eggs.

You can tell this was made by someone who really knows and understands the reference material, and I give it an enthusiastic 8 out of... ten...

tacles.

I'll see myself out now.

Thelgor
Thelgor

The developers have come a long way from their Chronicles of Innsmouth adventure game. From what I've seen so far, the graphics have been greatly improved in both cut scenes and regular gameplay with a few truly incredible landscapes. The voice acting seems better as well. The puzzles, for the most part, seem logical though there are a couple that had me looking to the internet to figure out; WTF Graveyard church altar.

The story has so far been good though the narrative technique doesn't seem cohesive. This one is a little hard for me to explain fully but it seems like the developers weren't sold on a particular story telling technique or weren't sure how to transition from one narrative technique to another. Maybe I'm missing something but there were a few moments that interrupted the flow in an abrasive way for me.

Overall, I'm really happy with my purchase. It's a good adventure in the old LucasArts "Day of the Tentacle", "Monkey Island" style of point-and-click games with a strong Cthulhu Mythos background. They really improved their skills in development and it shows.

Jim
Jim

Short review: Buy this game if you are a fan of HP Lovecraft and adventure games, and if this game is on sale.
Less Short Review:
I truly wanted to give a good review to this game, because Psychodev are obviously a small team with love for the Cthulhu mythos, but the underlying adventure game is just too rough around the edges.
Pros: - You get to play as several interesting characters, including the classic down-on-his luck PI, HP Lovecraft himself, and Abdul Alhazred, original author of the necronomicon.
- For fans of the mythos, many characters, stories and concepts are played upon quite well.
Cons: - The underlying adventure game has a few good puzzles, but a lot are not satisfying to solve and a few are frustrating, tedious, and require a lot of back and forth.
- Average voice acting
- In my case, two game breaking bugs that made me lose all progress from the last manual save (and the autosave never actually saved my game...)
So in summary: if you want your Cthulhu fix, go check out Reign of the Old Ones, and for good puzzles try out The Room.

icko
icko

I was drawn to this game by its visuals and retro charm. I expected an intriguing detective story with supernatural elements.

However, the game is pretty much a complete letdown. The story is dull, as are the characters and the dialogue. I didn't grow to care about any of the characters, and sometimes they would yammer on for what seemed like ages.

The scenes, although beautifully drawn, are desolate with very little to do. Plenty of objects can be clicked on, giving only boring responses in the vein of 'I can't do that.'. Such wasted potential.

This is, at best, an amateurish effort. I'm sure a certain amount of time and effort went into making it and I don't want to diminish that, but to be honest, I would only be somewhat impressed by the game if this were a free title. If you can manage to get it in a sale for a couple of euros, and you are drawn to Lovecraftian themes, then sure, try it. Yikes.

Anonymous
Anonymous

In a nutshell: Too slow. Too much wasted time. Too many conversations/cutscenes/mini-games that don't add a lot.
It looks nice, very much like an old-fashioned point and click adventure, but it could have been so much better.
Also, forcing me to sit though the credits for several minutes BEFORE starting the game for the first time is the best way for the developers/publishers to never get a penny from me again.

fire_varan
fire_varan

Very good written story and really nice graphics and music. Recommend for anyone who loves point and click quests.

DieVirulenz
DieVirulenz

A charming adventure.

Its definitely a labor of love and I was well entertained.

*****
*****

Pretty, nice graphics, good story, good music. Only one or two puzzles that I needed a guide for (the crypt lock and the altar lock). A little masculine? There were only two female characters, and neither of them had any role other than to sit behind a desk.

sylviakotulla
sylviakotulla

After having played the first game 'Chonicle of Innsmouth', I couldn' t wait to play the 'Mountains of Madness' - and it was really an even better experience!

The Cthulhu theme is interpreted in an entertaining and believable manner - so many games stress it, but here it is done very successfully.

Puzzles are even trickier than in the first game, at first sight, but at second, you get the means to solving them in the game.

I loved every minute and hope, a next sequel will come and set forth this story - no doubt, I highly recommend it!

Petr Stránský
Petr Stránský

Awesome sequel to the first game, with significantly improved graphics and much more detailed animations. The control scheme is simplified and it's so much better. The atmosphere rocks. But even after finishing the game twice I'm still confused about the story. I guess everything doesn't have to make sense in a lovecraftian story.

But please, next time get a new game engine and let AGS finally die. That prehistoric engine can't even handle alt-tabbing, it crashed several times and often got stuck in fullscreen, forcing me to restart the whole machine.

USS Midway veteran
USS Midway veteran

Do not pay full price for this game. Too much nonsense required to play. Paying more than $5 is a waste of your time and money.

Slosharoo
Slosharoo

This and the prequel were excellent games, I thought the point and click gameplay would be off-putting but as fans of the genre know, there's not much the protagonist can do except follow the story, and what a story it was. Tastefully combining several lovecraft classics into a way that made sense for this type of game was fun and definitely recommend to other fans of lovecraft.

Cresù Gisto
Cresù Gisto

"Mountains of Madness" is an atmospheric, compact and overall polished point and click adventure, who gives its own due homage to the source material and its gameplay-wise inspirations (Lucas Arts adventure games, especially "Fate of Atlantis"), while keeping its own strong autonomy and dignity.

PLOT AND CHARACTERS
The setting is surprisingly immersive and mind-blowing, the plot is good with its own sparks, even if rarely shines: some narrative solutions felt forced and other underused, left wanting for more. But I experienced worse, FAR worse in my gaming career.

The main character, Lone Carter, albeit the cliché-y hard-boiled detective, is a surprisingly strong and well written one from start to end, unfortunately the supporting cast doesn’t fly at the same height, but I've never felt them to be a burden.

GAMEPLAY
The puzzles are the true gem of this piece of work: well designed, logical and craftly balanced, and even with some (inevitable) hiccups here and there, they are perfectly embedded with the storyline and almost never seem arbitrary or requires “moon logic” to be solved. We hit “top-notch” ground here!

GRAPHICS AND SOUND
On the tech side, MoM has good quality graphics (gotta love that pixel-art, motion comics interludes and hand drawn backgrounds), good animations, great original music (some themes will give you a chill or two, and the end credits theme is awesome) and a well-polished interface.

FINAL THOUGHTS
If you are into Lovecraft “weird tales” and old school graphic adventures, you’ll hardly find something better, so don’t miss it. If not, consider to buy it on sale, worst case scenario you’ll lose just a few bucks.

scotty649
scotty649

Hell Yes...What a great game. Story, art and puzzles were all perfect. Please make a sequel

40GallonTophat
40GallonTophat

I hate to say it, but I did not enjoy this. I'm a fairly diehard Lovecraft fan, and even then I was pretty bored. Story was meh, puzzles were meh to infuriating (with one taking ~40 nearly identical phone calls to complete), the art was on the low end of good, voice acting with ok to poor. About half way through the game it switches gears into really exposition heavy text scrawls that shatter the show-don't-tell rule and kind of abandons the whole purpose of playing a game.

It's not a "bad game" per se, but I just didn't enjoy it at all.

CrazyPyro69
CrazyPyro69

BottomLine at the Top:

One of the better attempts at brining the world of Lovecraft to P&C gaming. Excellent graphics but can feel light on gameplay and relies heavily on exposition at times.

Intro:

I think I'll start by asking a philosophical question to you my dear reader: can any idea be brought to all forms of media? We know that some can. Star Wars for instance has pretty much all of 'em: movies, tv, books, games, painting, sculpture, music, etc. I'm sure you can think of more than a few other franchises yourself. But my original question is can any ? The reason I ask is that the Cthulhu mythos seems to do best in the world of literature but most attempts at bringing a true representation to any other contemporary media has faced difficulty. At best, bits and pieces of its themes and ideas have certainly been used in various movies/tv shows/video games. I have played pretty much all of the big Cthulhu mythos P&C games (including this developers original title Chronicle of Innsmouth which was great), spanning some 30+ years. This is one of the better ones, however at the end of the day I think a true title that really hits the nail on the squid-faced monsters head still eludes us.

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Pros:

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-Impressive mastery of retro P&C style. Excellent artwork and backgrounds. Sprite design is mostly fantastic.
-Also has some nicely drawn comic book style cutscenes.
-Fully Voiced
-Good background music with original score. (Credit sequence has a rockin’ metal ending!)
-Interactivity highlight function
-Has some 90 odd save slots, greatly appreciated and nice to see for once in a 21st century P&C game!
-Tutorial for those new to the genre.

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Meh...:

-------------------------------------
-Nice to see an option for a classic text style, however the scaling is too large and it takes up too much of the screen during long dialogues.
-Voice audio could use some volume balancing. Recording quality varies slightly at times.
-Voice acting itself is also mostly good but can be hit or miss at times as well.
-Double click scene exit sometimes works, sometimes doesn't.
-Near ending elevator puzzle brought back memories of Star Trek: Final Unity. If you've played that game and have fond memories of doing so but also remember the puzzle I am referring too here, then you know why this is in the Meh category.
-Dialogue is stiff at times. Couldn't tell if this was to emulate early 20th century speaking prose or was due to a once over by a rigid proofreader.
-After reaching the ending in about 4.5 hours I only got about 66% of the Steam achievements. I'm not a big achievement guy so I most likely won't be going back for full completion. For some this might be tedious issue.

-------------------------------------

Cons:

-------------------------------------
-So my main con can be summed up with a question: is this a game or an audiobook? This game feels like one exposition dump after another, starting with a rather long intro. To me, this is a no-no in making a good P&C game. Good P&C's should feel immersive and require constant interaction between the game and the player. Every time a game pauses for an overly long cutscene or dialogue sequence, forcing the player to just sit back and listen, breaks that immersion. You'll notice in my question I said game or audiobook. If you have these long expositional transitions but there is still some action going on screen (i.e. actual animation) then it turns into something more like watching a movie or an interactive fiction game. But if you literally are just reading text that is being displayed on screen with a black background, now your just an audiobook. Like most modern P&C's from independent studios this is a Kickstarter game which means limited budget. I still don't give it a pass on this faux pas, but I at least understand why they went that route (assuming it was due to budgetary constraints). At the end of the day they did release a finished game which is more than a lot of Kickstarters can say.
-I've said it before and I'll say it again, I understand that I as a P&C afficionado owe a debt of gratitude to the Adventure Game System (AGS) game engine. It basically is responsible for the modern P&C renaissance. But WHY OH GOD WHY after 20+ years do we still have this AGS setup screen at the beginning of some games that use it?!?! I don't know and don't care about the various scaling options, which MIDI source, or how large a sprite cache to pick. Do I want to activate the setting to use a 60hz CRT monitor? NO! How about language selection, do I want "English" or perhaps "English2" (this is an actual setting choice btw). I barely know one English (just look at my writing) and I've been speaking it my whole damn life. Just. Start. The. Game. It is 2021, there is no retro pixel P&C game in existence that will bog down even the lamest new computers out there. This is an unnecessary thing to have and every time I see it, it irks me.
-I'm now exhausted from that last heading so I will make this one brief but I could easily go into a pointless diatribe about it as well. Save features should always be available at any point during any game, full stop. What if I gotta go see what the dogs barking at? Or I want something to eat? Or my boss is looking over my shoulder? Or I gotta take a S***? Now I have to exit and then re-play something I already did. Granted in this game that would only be at most a few minutes of replay in most cases, but life is short. Just have save always available plz thanks.

Final Thoughts:

Rereading the above I feel that I am being tough on this game. I want to reiterate that it will def hit the spot for the P&C aficionado and Lovecraft enthusiast. If you want to support a developer that was passionate about their project and you have the financial means to do so, buy it at full price. This game as of writing is rarely on sale but I did manage to catch it for a 10% discount. I'm not mad at the price I paid for this, but I'd have been happier if some of the issues I listed were delt with.


For more point & click goodness, check out our P&C fan Steam group, The Coalition of Point & Clickers!:

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Dark Shaman
Dark Shaman

Love it. Just as good as the first game for me.

Art is Mad
Art is Mad

One of the best modern PnC games and a great Lovecraft tale to boot.

Dog 🍉
Dog 🍉

meh.
Okayish artwork, okayish puzzles, somewhat sub-par story arc, really bad mechanics at times (like chasing scenes on a map, not being able to skip cutscenes for achievement hunting/replay, minor graphic glitches) - at this price tag really disappointing to be honest.

Jackdaw Mask
Jackdaw Mask

Pretty decent point and click adventure game, always fun to see more of Cthulhu Mythos adventure games. Some awkward voice acting and writing moments included yeah, such as two separate situations where a character suddenly snaps at another and is incredibly rude. Hard to tell if that is writing/translation problem or voice acting problem

Anonymous
Anonymous

Sometimes in order to get a good Lovecraftian game you need to make it yourself. This is what this is.

Majidah
Majidah

I loved the previous one, one of the better lovecraft games out there. But I can't recommend anyone to play this one. The voice acting is stale, they mix bad looking vector art in for the cutscenes, the dialogs overexplain everything to the point it becomes tiresome, the plot doesn't really go anywhere interesting and then it suddenly ends, the puzzles are few and terrible, and a lot of the second part is walking from npc a to npc b to unlock new places to examine in the most boring area where every npc looks the same. Not worth getting even on sale, I literally had to force myself to finish this because I was far in too deep already and it bugged me leaving it unfinished but I had to take breaks because of how boring it is. Oh, and worst part? They literally shove a narrator in who just reads text at you telling you what's going on instead of it actually happening... show don't tell has to be the most basic guideline for a game to follow but this game doesn't even manage that.

levelworm
levelworm

Overall I'd say this is a good game. But the designers seemed to try to cover too much ground in the game. There are a lot of sub-plots that did not get explained very well and IMHO they could be expanded into chapters.