Cthulhu Mythos in Games

H. P. Lovecraft and the Cthulhu Mythos have had a significant influence on the world of games, including board games, card games, and particularly video games (including visual novels). Some games (notably Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game) attempt to replicate the shared Mythos universe in game form; others contain references or allusions to Lovecraft's fiction.
==Board Games==
*Arkham Horror is a series of board games based in the universe of the Cthulhu Mythos whose first edition was published by Chaosium, with subsequent editions being developed and released by Fantasy Flight Games.
*Carcosa (2017): One Free Elephant's tile-placement board game revolves around Robert W. Chambers' The King in Yellow and the manifestation of his city on Earth.
*Cthulhu: Death May Die (2019) is a cooperative board game produced by CMON.
*Dust 1947 is a sci-fi/horror tactical miniature board game set during an alternate World War II.
*Final Girls (Van Ryder Games, 2021): The Mystery Boxes for Series 1 and Series 2 are Mythos-themed. For Series 1, the Mystery Box is designed to look like the Necronomicon. For Series 2, the Mystery Box is called "The Otherworldly Mirror" and has a Cthulhu-influenced motif around the edge of the frame.
*Smash Up: has an expansion centered around the Cthulhu Mythos.
==Card Games==
*Force of Will: features the Cthulhu as a race of evil creatures in the fictional universe of the game.
*Hecatomb: features Nyarlathotep as the Thing Outside Time and Space.
*Gwent: The Witcher Card Game: features Dagon as a leader card. His ability allows him to create harmful weather effects on the opponent's side of the board.
*Magic: The Gathering (1993) 
**There are cards named Library of Leng and Candles of Leng.
**The mysterious being Marit Lage is depicted similarly to a Lovecraftian being. It is an extremely large, tentacled creature frozen in ice. Players in-game can free it by using mana to thaw the ice.
**The eldrazi are beings from the spaces between the planes of existence (comparable to universes) that are able to warp reality with an unnatural form of magic. The most powerful eldrazi, known as titans, are comparable to Great Old Ones. They appear in the Zendikar and Battle for Zendikar blocks. They also appear in Eldritch Moon in a slightly different form; rather than entirely alien creatures, in this set they are mutated forms of creatures already found on Innistrad, such as humans, werewolves, and angels; this mutation being the work of the eldrazi titan Emrakul.
*Munchkin: has an edition titled "Munchkin Cthulhu" which features many parodies of Lovecraftian lore.
*Twilight of the Gods: features the Elder Gods as one of the pantheons.
*Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Entity Extra Deck monsters are based on the Cthulhu Mythos.
==Role-Playing Games==
*Call of Cthulhu (1991), designed by Sandy Petersen and published by Chaosium, allows players to roleplay as Investigators confronting the horrors of the Cthulhu Mythos, losing Sanity as they gain familiarity with Mythos entities. The game has had considerable impact on the Mythos as a whole.
*Cthulhu Live (1997)
*Dungeons & Dragons (1974): Co-creator Gary Gygax named H. P. Lovecraft as one of the writers who were of "particular inspiration" to the game, along with the Mythos-connected authors August Derleth, Robert E. Howard, and Lord Dunsany.
*Fate of Cthulhu (2020): a stand-alone roleplaying game which takes place in a Cthulhu Mythos setting in which the apocalypse is looming. The game utilises the system-agnostic Fate ruleset, which encourages roleplaying over dice rolling. Various supplements were released, each depicting alternate timelines in which to battle the Old Ones.
*Pathfinder (2009): the fantasy roleplaying game incorporates several elements of the Mythos into the game including, but not limited to, Great Old Ones, servitor races, fictional locations such as the Plateau of Leng, artefacts such as the Necronomicon and even characters such as Abdul Alhazred. These elements are present not only in the base game, but in numerous gaming supplements as well.
*Scion: A game where the players create characters who are the children or chosen envoys of mythological gods. In 2022, Onyx Path published a sourcebook for the second edition of the game, Masks of the Mythos, to include the gods of the Cthulhu Mythos in the game's rules Masks of the Mythos at RPGGeek.
==Video Games== 
*Alan Wake: The plot revolves around an ancient being that uses the stories of poets and authors to claw its way into reality.
*Alone in the Dark (1992; I Motion): is heavily influenced by the Mythos. Several tomes mention Mythos beings and places, and enemies include Nightgaunts, Deep Ones, a Chthonian, and a servant of Shub-Niggurath called "The Vagabond". De Vermis Mysteriis and the Necronomicon appear as books that harm the player upon reading them.
*Amnesia series (Frictional Games): 
**Amnesia: The Dark Descent: The player encounters deep wells containing invisible monsters known as Kaernk, which hop up and down in the shallow water at the bottom; this recalls the deep wells found in the laboratory of "Charles Dexter Ward", which contained barely-visible monstrosities that hopped up and down at the bottom.
**Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs: deals with madness and forbidden knowledge.
**Amnesia: Justine: The final gameplay sequence consists of a series of passages with cryptic messages scrawled in blood, some of which seem to be allusions to elements connected to the Mythos: "The pipers will call for us to dance" (the Court of Azathoth), "the tattered yellow king shall dethrone," "from beyond it comes," amongst others. In addition, Justine Florbelle's family heirloom is a "star shaped soapstone," reminiscent of the star-shaped soapstones found by the expedition team in At the Mountains of Madness.
*Anchorhead (1998): interactive text adventure set in the town of Anchorhead, where the locals have some very odd traditions. Playable here.
*Arcane 2: The Stone Circle: Shub-Niggurath makes an appearance as the main villain.
*Arkham Horror: Mother's Embrace (Fantasy Flight Games)
*The Binding of Isaac (2011, Edmund McMillen): One item of the game is the flesh-bound Necronomicon, visibly based on the version from the Evil Dead 2 movie, with some of its missing pages being other items. They are also present in the Rebirth remake/expansion.
*Bioshock Infinite (2013): Booker Dewitt is from Arkham.
*Blackbay Asylum (TAD Productions AB, 2014): The game is about a fictional mental institution located a few miles off the coast of Innsmouth.
*Bloodborne (2015; From Software): Some cut elements such as "Umbasa" in dialogue directly reference Demon's Soul. 
**The Hunter's Dream and the Nightmares can be linked to Lovecraft's Dream Cycle.
**The world is influenced by Great Ones, which are similar to the Great Old Ones.
** A boss called Ebrietas has a striking resemblance to Cthulhu (or Cthylla, due to it being female).
** Madness strikes when human beings are given insight into the horrors of the universe.
**The Old Hunters DLC has the Fishing Hamlet village for which the lore is in essence a rendition of The Shadow Over Innsmouth.
**"The Moon Presence" was likely inspired by and modeled after Nyarlathotep.
**The Brain of Mensis was inspired by the Shoggoths.
**Rom the vacuous spider, besides her face, looks very similar to how Atlach-Nacha is described.
*Call of Cthulhu (2018; Cyanide): Inspired by the short story and 1981 role-playing game, the story follows private detective Edward Pierce as he investigates the mysterious death of the wealthy Hawkins family on Darkwater Island and encounters a cult that worships Cthulhu himself.
*Call of Cthulhu is also the name of a ROM hack of Super Mario World that is a crossover between the Mario franchise and the Cthulhu Mythos. Features an ending where Mario can kill Cthulhu for good.
*Call of Duty: Black Ops 3: the Zombies map, "Shadows of Evil," is largely based on the works of Lovecraft.
*Call of the Sea (2020; Out of the Blue): an adventure game that explores the more dreamlike aspects of Lovecraftian lore. Set in 1934, the story follows Norah Everhart as she searches for her missing husband on an island in the South Pacific, slowly discovering a connection to Dagon and the Deep Ones.
*The Case of Randolph Carter: an interactive version of "The Statement of Randolph Carter" with alternate endings.
*Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness: the title screen is the Necronomicon.
*Chaos Code (2011; Arc System) Cthylla is playable although she is simply a young girl. She is described in-game as Cthulhu's daughter and the queen of the sea. Her attacks are named "Phantom of Yog-Sothoth", "The Hound of Tindalos", "Wind-Walking Ithaqua Upper", "The Ring of Papaloi", "Tulzscha", 'Interstellar Flight Hastur", "Game of Shoggoth", "Flame of Fire Vampires", "Shadow of the Dagon", "The Black Goat's Sabbath", "Incarnation of Darkness (summons Nyarlathotep)", "The Call of Great Father".
*The Chzo Mythos: indie puzzle/horror games set amongst Ben “Yahtzee” Crowshaw’s Chzo Mythos (connection?).
*Clive Barker’s Jericho (connection?)
*Clive Barker’s Undying: stop a cursed family from releasing the Undying King (connection?).
*Clockwork Empires (connection?)
*Codename S.T.E.A.M. (3DS): Randolph Carter appears as a playable character.
*Conarium: is a sequel to At the Mountains of Madness and explores the Elder Things.
*The Consuming Shadow (connection?)
*Crawl (connection?)
*Cthulhu Saves Christmas (Zeboyd Games): Cthulhu must save Christmas from a horde of villains led by Jack Frost.
*Cthulhu Saves the World (Zeboyd Games): the player plays as Cthulhu himself on a quest to reclaim his power.
*Danganronpa v3: the Necronomicon is featured in one chapter as a motive.
*Darkest Dungeon (2016) (connection?)
*Darkness Within series (connection?)
*Dead by Daylight: The lore is Lovecraftian, notably the "Entity".
*Dead Space (Visceral Games): The Brethren Moons, introduced in Dead Space 3, are planet- or moon-sized extraterrestrial beings capable of telepathy; this trait, along with their tentacled appearance, recalls various Cthulhu mythos entities.
*Deathstate (connection?)
*Demon's Soul (From software): Notably the Old One (connection?).
*Demonbane: a Japanese visual novel series based on the Cthulhu Mythos, also adapted into an anime television series. Among the characters featured are Nyarlathotep as the main antagonist, trying to free its father Azathoth from the Shining Trapezohedron. It has taken on four named forms so far: Nya, an owner of a mysterious bookstore filled with dangerous grimoires; Nyarla, a maid to Augusta Derleth (a nod to author August Derleth); Father Ny, the leader of the Church of Starry Wisdom; and the Tick-Tock Man, technology incarnate. It has also taken on the forms of an unnamed black man "from Egypt," and a talking black rat, among others. Its true form is depicted as burning smile with a three-lobed eye. Herbert West also appears as a guitar-playing lunatic mad scientist.
*Discworld Noir: "Nylonathatep, the laddering horror" appears, a reference to Nyarlathotep.
*Dishonored - The Outsider (connection?)
*Doom: In the megawad Strange Aeons, the Spinner in Darkness (Atlach-Nacha) is revealed to be the primary antagonist, tricking the player character into traveling across the Dreamlands to free it from its prison.
*Dr Floyd's Desktop Games (Micropose) (connection?)
*The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath (1988): a videogame adaptation of the story of the same name for the ZX-Spectrum.
*Dreams in the Witch House is an open-world horror adventure game in which the player guides Walter Gilman as he prepares to face the dreaded May-Eve witch ritual in the legend-haunted city of Arkham.
*The Elder Scrolls series (Bethesda Softworks): 
**Oblivion: 
***The main quest involves battling a creature named Dagon.
***Another quest, "A Shadow over Hackdirt," involves Deep Ones, while the title recalls "The Shadow Over Innsmouth".
**Hermaeus Mora, the Daedric Prince of Knowledge and Fate, is depicted as an amorphous floating mass of eyes and tentacles like common representations of Yog-Sothoth. His sphere, the keeping of forbidden knowledge, is also much in keeping with Lovecraftian themes of there being knowledge about the universe mankind is not meant to know. His minions, the tentacled Seekers and amphibious Lurkers, are remniscent of Cthulhu and the Deep Ones, respectively.
*Eldritch (2013) (connection?)
*Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem (2002) (connection?)
*Euclidean (connection?)
*Eversion: was reportedly inspired by "Sounds—possibly musical—heard in the night from other worlds or realms of being", a quote from H.P. Lovecraft's Commonplace Book-- free version here.
*The Evil Within (connection?)
*Evolve: features two playable monsters, the Kraken and the Elder Kraken, that are based on Cthulhu.
*Fallout series: 
**Fallout 3 (2008): a location is called "The Dunwich Building." It features a mini-story of a man searching for his father, who is in possession of an "old, bloodstained book made of weird leather", a possible reference to the Necronomicon; the man is later found in front of an obelisk under the building, driven insane and turned into a feral ghoul.
***Point Lookout DLC, featured a quest involving a book with a similar purpose as the Necronomicon and an equally strange name, the Krivbeknih, which can be destroyed in the basement of the Dunwich Building.
**Fallout 4 (2015): a location is called "Dunwich Borers". It is a mine owned by "Dunwich Borers LLC", and was used as a site for dark rituals and sacrifices. It also includes a sacrificial blade named "Kremvh's Tooth". The Pickman Gallery. The long quest centered around the Cabot House.
*Fate/Grand Order: Mobile game featuring a character having been possessed by an unknown god proclaiming to be Cthulhu, sharing the name and body of "Katsushika Hokusai". The power and influence of the Outer God that shares the vessel becomes more prominent as their host continues to gain strength.
*Final Fantasy Type-0: Various locations in the Dominion of Rubrum are named in homage to Lovecraft works.
*Forge of Empires: references R'lyeh in at least one (recurring) quest.
*FreeSpace 2: In the Derelict campaign mod, Nyarlathotep is the designation of a Shivan Lucifer class destroyer which was found floating in subspace for centuries.
*Grim Dawn: one sect of enemies are "Chthonian", worshipping a dead god buried beneath the ground, and practicing human sacrifice in its name.
*Grand Theft Auto V: A mask shop on the beach sells masks modeled after Cthulhu.
*Half-Life (connection?)
*Haunted Hotel 4: an adaptation of "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward".
*The Hound of Shadow: An interactive fiction game based on the works of H. P. Lovecraft. Available free online here
*Identity V: The characters Dream Witch and The Feaster are heavily based on the Gods Yidhra and Hastur. The Priestess, Fiona Gilman worships Yog-Sothoth and possibly Hastur as well. The Shadow/"Ivy"'s character directly draws inspiration from the story "The Shadow out of Time:. The character Luchino Diruse/Evil Reptilian/Professor is deeply connected to Dream Witch. Nightwatch's name, Ithaqua, is likely taken from the same named Mythos character. Priestess/Fiona Gilman's story is possibly inspired by "The Dreams in the Witch House" as her and the main character share a last name and parallels can be drawn. One of the map locations (Lakeside Village) in the game is likely inspired in part by the fictional village of Innsmouth.
*I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream: The Necronomicon features in a collection of grimoires in the castle.
*iLovecraft (iClassics Collection): interactive digital versions of "Dagon", "The Hound" and "The Window" ("Fungi from Yuggoth"). Part 2 contains "The Colour Out of Space".
*Innsmouth no Yakata, The Mansion of Innsmouth (1995): a 3D first-person shooter game for the Virtual Boy, released in Japan based on Chiaki J. Konaka's 1992 television series Insmus wo Oou Kage.
*The Last Case of Benedict Fox (2023): Metroidvania-style game with Lovecraftian elements. The title character is a private eye bonded to a demon resembling Cthulhu.
*League of Legends:
**The champion Cho'Gath is named after a Shoggoth.
**An item called the Morellonomicon is a portmanteau of Necronomicon and a Rioter known as Morello.
**A quote from a champion named Karthus: "I'm putting your name in my little black Necronomicon."
*Limbo of the Lost: The Simon Necronomicon sigil by Khem Caigan is used in the introduction.
*Lovecraft's Untold Stories (Blini Games, 2019)
*The Lurking Horror (1987): an interactive story in which the player investigates weird happenings at G.U.E. University. Free here.
*Magrunner: Dark Pulse (connection?)
*Mass Effect series (Bioware):
** The main antagonists of the series, the Reapers, are gigantic cephalopod-like machines whose very presence induces mental disturbances in organic beings, in much the same way that many Cthulhu Mythos entities induce insanity in human victims. The Reapers repeatedly describe themselves as being "beyond the comprehension" of mortal beings. They are also known as "The Old Machines," recalling the titles of "Old Ones" and "Elder Things" in the mythos.
**A recording made by a scientist on a derelict Reaper describes the hulk as "a dead god that still dreams," echoing the phrase, "in his house at R'lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming."
**Their creators, the enigmatic Leviathans, are similarly Cthulhu-esque in that they resemble squids, and can control or destroy the minds of lesser beings.
*The Moaning Words (connection?)
*Monria (connection?)
*Mystery Stories: Mountains of Madness: a hidden object puzzle game based on At the Mountains of Madness.
*Necronomicon (1994)
*Necronomicon (Kongregate)
*Necronomicon: Book of Dead Names
*Night in the Woods: An entity known as the "Black Goat" plagues the dreams of the main character, who later encounters a cult dedicated to it and the supposed bottomless pit that it resides in.
*Nightmare on Azathoth: Survival horror in which the player is stranded on a planet named after the Blind Idiot God.
*Penumbra: Black Plague (connection?)
*Penumbra: Overture (connection?)
*Persona series: Nyarlathotep, as a god symbolic of the destructive potential of Carl Jung's collective unconscious, appears as Takahisa Kandori's Persona in the first game, and the main antagonist in both parts of the second game. Shoggoths, Wilbur Whateley, Byakhees, Shub Niggurath, Yog Sothoth, and Umr-At-Tawil all appear as enemies in Persona 2, while Nodens and Hastur can be obtained as Personae. Tatsuya's scenario features Randolph Carter (as Chandraputra) and a cat from Ulthar as characters, as well as the Silver Key and Trapezohedrons as plot points. Persona 5 Royal features Hastur and Byakhee as enemies/Personae, and Azathoth as the main antagonist's Persona.
*Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy: features "Aura Beasts" that are seen using one of the psychic powers the main protagonist develops called "Aura View". This ability parallels the effects Crawford Tillinghast's device has on the characters in "From Beyond", who perceive creatures from another dimension as a result of using the device.
*Quake: boasts many kinds of connections, including
**Shub-Niggurath as the final boss.
**Levels titled the Vaults of Zin and The Nameless City.
**Sandy Peterson, one of Call of Cthulhu's lead designers, was a level designer.
**The formless spawn appear as adversaries.
*Payday 2: has an infamous mask named "Cthulhu", based on the Great Old One.
*Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: The city of New Arcadia is a pastiche of Arkham.
*The Rapture Is Here And You Will Be Forcibly Removed From Your Home (connection?)
*Rapurasu no Ma (connection?)
*Resident Evil 4 (connection?)
*Reveal the Deep (connection?)
*Robert D. Anderson and the Legacy of Cthulhu
*Sam and Max series (Telltale Games): Nyarlathotep's name and epithet of The Crawling Chaos are mentioned in "Ice Station Santa."
*Scribblenauts series: features Cthulhu, the Star Vampire, "The Shambler from the Stars", and Shoggoth.
*The Secret World: features the town of Kingsmouth and the Black Goat Woods.
*Shadow Hearts series: features a number of references, including
**The Necronomicon.
**Lord Dunsany as a playable character.
**The Codex of R'yleh.
** A visit to the fictional Arkham University, based in Boston, Massachusetts, where H. P. Lovecraft himself appears as a professor, conjuring up demons for the heroes to fight on request.
**Shub-Niggurath as a boss in Shadow Hearts 2, though its name is mistranslated as Jeb Niglas.
*Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened (2006; Frogwares): the third game in Frogwares' Sherlock Holmes series (connection?).
*Shin Megami Tensei: features enemies such as Dagon (in I); Cthulhu, Nyarlathotep and Elder Things (in II and If...); and Cthuga, Ithaqua and Azathoth (in Giten Megami Tensei).
*Shrouded in Sanity (connection?)
*The Sinking City (2019; Frogwares): Action-adventure game heavily inspired by the works of Lovecraft. The story follows private eye Charles Reed as he searches for the source of his nightmarish visions and a major flood in the city of Oakmont, Massachusetts, encountering other creatures from the Mythos along the way.
*South Park: The Fractured but Whole (2017): features Shub-Niggurath as one of the end-of-level boss fights.
*Smite: features a god named Ah Muzen Cab with an alternative skin resembling Cthulhu. In 2020 they added Cthulhu as a playable god in the game.
*Sons of Uruzime (connection?)
*Splatterhouse (2010): Features several different references, including;
**Taking place in a zombie-infested mansion in Arkham, Massachusetts, owned by a "Dr. Henry West" who seems to be based on Herbert West.
**Several pieces of Cthulhu graffiti and a poster for Hollywood Cthulhu: A Live Cthulhu Musical appear.
**The achievement "Lovecraft Baby" is an obvious reference to the author, as is one of Dr. West's false names, Howard Phillips West.
**A large creature similar to Cthulhu is seen inside a glass tank.
**Jennifer mentions a festival called "Shadow Over Arkham".
**Dr. West recites a chant including the names Cthulhu and Shub-Niggurath.
**Dr. West uses a hypodermic needle filled with a glowing green liquid similar to the re-agent in Re-Animator; also, the achievement "Flesh Re-Animated" is a reference to the short story/film.
*Sucker for Love: First Date: Lovecraftian dating visual novel in which the main character pursues various Elder Things in a romantic adventure to smooch them, with an increasing psychological horror aspect over the course of the game; 
**One of the main love interests introduced in Chapter One is Ln’eta, heavily based off Cthulhu in appearance and relation as well as behavior. Various homages to the character such as not being able to see her true form without going insane and her awakening ending reality as well as her progression being made by reading through her Necronomicon.
** The second love interest introduced in Chapter Two as the rival sister to Ln'eta is Estir, a play on Hastur and the King in Yellow. In a similar vein Estir takes after many of the traits of the God she is based on in homage, such as being both a planet and person at the same time, stealing followers of other Gods and her progression being made on reading the play in a direct homage, "The King in Yellow."
**The final and secret love interest in Chapter Three is found via finding a secret in Chapters One and Two, after finding these secrets you gain this ending in which you have face Nyarlathotep and must either surrender or fight the elder God using various counterspells given to you by another God to earn your freedom.
**Various other allusions are also made to other Elder Gods and unspeakable horrors as well as to stories in the Cthulhu mythos and other homages to the Lovecraftian sphere.
*Sunless Sea (connection?)
*System Shock 2 (connection?)
*Tales from the Void (connection?)
*Team Fortress 2: A magic book called the Bombinomicon is a nod to the Necronomicon.
*Terraria: Many of the bosses in the game are named after some part of Cthulhu's anatomy, e.g. "Eye of Cthulhu", "Brain of Cthulhu"; while the game's final boss, Moon Lord, is stated by the game's designer to be Cthulhu's brother.
*The Terrible Old Man (Cloak and Dagger Games): was released as a short point and click adventure game for Windows and Android in 2015.
*They Bleed Pixels (connection?)
*Urban Dead: includes two suburbs named Old Arkham and New Arkham. Some players have even started to refer to a specific area as Miskatonic University.
*The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (connection?)
*Wait – Extended (connection?)
*War in Heaven (connection?)
*The Witcher Series:
**The Witcher (2007): The boss monster Dagon is an underwater being worshiped by both the "vodyanoi" (likely based on the Deep Ones) and a small sect of humans as a god.
**The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (2015): A copy of the Necronomicon can be found at the main hall of Kaer Morhen. Occasionally the book can be seen in in-game stores.
*World of Horror (2020): A rogue-like adventure game which reuses imagery from both Junji Ito's works and the Cthulhu Mythos such as the Simon Necronomicon sigil by Khem Caigan, the King in Yellow symbol and a statuette of Cthulhu. On their website, the developers referred to the game as a "love letter to the works of Jun Ito and HP. Lovecraft" World of Horror official website.
*World of Warcraft: features beings known as the "Old Gods," evil immortals who corrupted the world of Azeroth in ancient times.
*The Worry of Newport (connection?)
*Worshippers of Cthulhu, developed by Crazy Goat Games, published by Crytivo
*Sucker for love/ Sucker for Love: epilogue: Darling (you) acquires a dating version of the Necronomicon, summoning a female version of Cthulhu known as Ln'eta for the end of the world, and a kiss.
*X-COM: Terror from the Deep: The extraterrestrial vessel T’leth try to awaken the Great Dreamer. free here.
==References==
Category:In Popular Culture