I’ve probably mentioned Lovecraft fatigue so often that it’s now evolved into a second Lovecraft fatigue. It’s not the same as a Lovecraft refresher, no matter how much I’d like to return to the days before elderly Cthulhu stuffed animals and children’s books terrorized the internet en masse. There’s not enough information out there about the “story generator” simulator Marry a Deep One: Innsmouth Simulator for me to say with any certainty that it’ll beat my exhaustion with anything tentacled and terrifyingly gill-like. But it’s seductiveright? There are tons of little gadgets and details in there that remind me of everything from Sid Meier’s Pirates to classic adventure games, and maybe even a little Rimworld? It’s an intoxicating soup, though I wouldn’t recommend drinking it, considering where the water comes from.
“Marry a Deep One is a story generator based on social mechanisms,” we read in shop page“You play as a sinister cult leader with considerable control over a small community. However, you must also meet the demands of the Deep Ones, or they will punish the village.”
Here’s a list of functions. Probably don’t recite it out deafening. And if you do, make sure you check your neck in the mirror afterward.
STORY: The game does not follow a set script or sequence, but instead includes many random story elements that can connect to a larger narrative. Your actions – and even the actions of NPCs – significantly affect the outcome.
MAGIC: Devise artistic ways to manipulate the villagers even further to the point of breaking the game. Study documents to learn sigils, which you combine into spells.
POWER: Your grimoire gives you the power to monitor the feelings, relationships, actions, and motivations of all the villagers. You even have the right to choose villagers as offerings to the gods of the Depths.
CUSTOMIZATION: Name yourself, your cat, your grimoire, your cult, your village, your spells, and your children. Try out different hairstyles, glasses, and hats. Build, upgrade, and customize your village buildings to your liking.
CATS: You can pet them.
This one is due out this year. Is this finally the game that will wash the utterly mediocre taste of Dredge from my mouth? Am I going to go on and on about calling Dredge utterly mediocre? No! If in the meantime you’re missing Lovecraft, the creators of the visual novel Dagon recently announced that they had raised over $50,000 for humanitarian relief efforts in Ukraine – despite their game being free-to-play.
