Arkham Horror: Mother’s Embrace
Calling Cthulhu and realising it’s coming from inside the house
The year is 1926 and a professor of Astronomy has been found murdered in her own home. As you assemble your team of investigators, the stars may well have aligned – just not for you. Based on the board game of the same name, itself an offshoot of the tabletop RPG Call Of Cthulhu, this is another title that gleefully ransacks the writing of HP Lovecraft.
While we are increasingly wishing spooky games drew from literally any other 20th-century pulp horror author, this one features an all-new story by the official writers of Fantasy Flight Interactive, the company behind the board game. Formerly known as Mansions Of Madness, it invites you to dive deep into a murder mystery where all is not as it seems.
’TEC SUPPORT
Before you head to the scene of the crime, you’re presented with a line up of 12 investigators to choose from. Each one is a protagonist from the board game’s history and boasts their own special skills. As you’re going to encounter more than dusty books and secret passageways, these unique talents come in handy.
Gathering clues will take you through the professor’s mansion and beyond as you try to piece together what happened over the course of nine chapters. But tight-lipped witnesses aren’t the only thing that could bring your investigation to a halt; the mystery grows to involve a mysterious cult and nightmares made real. The game features turnbased combat with ranged, melee, and magical attacks, and you’re going to have to fight for the truth.
These bust-ups can take a serious toll on your investigative team, affecting them both physically and mentally. In typical RPG fashion, the choices you make throughout the story can affect the overall course of your investigation, as can the psychic and bodily scars your team incur during fisticuffs with the terrifying Unknown.
IMPRESSIONS
Who doesn’t love a murder mystery? Given its blend of brain bending and combat, we’re keen to investigate.