PC Critic Reviews

Even in this initial release, even after a dozen hours of review play, I don't feel bored with Eldritch.

Part Minecraft, part Lovecraft, all cry in the corner-craft. Bring clean underwear. [Feb 2014, p.78]

Eldritch is brutally tough until you learn it, and then settles down to be pleasantly challenging, It’s a big random first-person dungeon crawl dripping with atmosphere, evil and fun in equal measure, and as a bonus you get to be a librarian reigning in the power of dark tomes of terrible knowledge.

Eldritch is almost two games for the price of one. Initially it could be said that it’s a comedy. The difficulty is un-obstructing and many of the enemy designs and animations are actually quite cute for nightmarish abominations. It welcomes you in and builds up your confidence, only to tear you back down again in New Game +, where Eldritch reveals its true colors as a first-person Spelunky with a horror slant.

No matter what powers, weapons or gear you end up with, Eldritch challenges you to learn its systems. You can't memorize the level layout, so you'll have to take into careful consideration your surroundings, what you're capable of, and how you can put your abilities to proper use.

Unlike Spelunky, most players will see the end before their hundredth death. Onwards! There are cute monsters to kill.

For all its borrowings and influences, all its sleights and feints, Eldritch's dark alchemy ultimately lies with the way it uses a blocky, cheerily primitive art style, silly sound effects and a surprisingly forgiving level of challenge to summon the kind of creeping dread that H.P. himself would be delighted with.

Eldritch is a punishing difficult game that tests a player’s ability to survive in a Lovecraft-inspired world.

This game has surely glimpsed the Necronomicon, and while the blood-curdling rituals may not bewitch you for years to come, it's a delightful cantrip to enchant you for a fortnight or so.

Eldritch's various components tend to work quite well on their own, and create most of a great Roguelike. But the speed and arbitrary nature of death means that the crazy desperate stories of near-death (or death) that make other games in the genre so memorable are unlikely to occur.