For those of you who enjoy a bit of indie storytelling, here’s one: Blood on the Thames is a “murder puzzle game with visual novel elements in Lovecraft’s gothic world.” In this game, your detective must solve a supernatural murder in Victorian London, still struggling with the Jack the Ripper murders.
You play as Minerva “Mini” Ernest, whose husband died in a freak accident with a spiral cutting his leg. With the police unable to solve the mystery, they pursue the case throughout Victorian London, “from the alabaster mansions of the upper classes, through the coal-stained factories of the Industrial Revolution, to the watery depths of the canals beneath the city.”
The occult subtext of the story quickly takes on a cosmic feel, overtly introducing an influence of Lovecraftian cosmic horror and a gothic milieu that I found quite conceptually compelling. First of all, there’s the strange, gritty, black-and-white aesthetic of the entire game, and there’s a lot of weirdness in it – lots of handwritten or strangely written notes and weird little statues and interface elements that seem more like the world you’re in. we are inside than in a video game. It’s a cold thing.
I’ll be straightforward, some time since the demo, Blood on the Thames is a little abrasive around the edges, but I think it has an admirable quality. The imperfect writing accompanies the strange feel of the overall aesthetic, giving the film a found-footage feel that I suspect many other people will enjoy for what it is.
I suspect many of these people will also be fans of this strange game that pits Sherlock Holmes against Cthulhu.
You will find a demo for Blood on the Thames on Steamwhere it will be released this month.
