Ben 'Yahtzee' Croshaw develops new survival horror game

Prolific video game critic Ben Croshaw, better known around the Internet as Yahtzee of Zero Punctuation fame, has developed a new game. Dubbed The Consuming Shadow, it is a procedurally-generated roguelike, and is inspired by the works of horror writer HP Lovecraft. Its gameplay is inspired by sci-fi themed roguelike FTL: Faster Than Light. Other cited inspirations are Eternal Darkness and the board game Arkham Horror.

The game is currently in beta and is available for free on Windows on his website. In its plot, the country has been plunged into a mysterious darkness from which hideous creatures are spawning and spreading chaos. These events, however, are simply the herald for the arrival of a Lovecraftian eldritch god, due to appear at Stonehenge in 72 hours.

Can't wait to see how he reviews this

Players have to travel from town to town, exploring dungeons and exterminating minions of the shadow in order to gather the four components of the Banishment Ritual, a four-rune mantra which, when cast at the Stonehenge, will stop the ancient god from entering our realm.

It is a sidescrolling game which mixes exploration with combat. Much of the exploration will revolve around deduction-based puzzle gameplay. Owing to its roguelike nature, there will be random events and dungeons. This ensures that every playthrough is different. Keeping with the current trend of horror games, there will also be a sanity mechanic.

Croshaw has quite a bit of experience in making horror games, as evident form his series of point-and-click adventures in the Chzo series. Of the old series, Trilby’s Notes is deemed the best game, with most of the plot revolving around making sense of the other games in the series.