1. Bloodborne
The undisputed king of Lovecraftian video games
Yes.
We're putting Bloodborne at number one.
And before somebody starts sharpening a Saw Cleaver in the comments, hear us out.
Bloodborne isn't officially a Cthulhu Mythos game.
There is no Cthulhu.
No Arkham.
No Innsmouth.
No Necronomicon sitting on a shelf with a convenient "DO NOT READ" sticker.
And yet Bloodborne may capture the spirit of Lovecraftian horror better than almost any game ever made.
You begin with gothic horror.
Werewolves.
Blood.
Victorian architecture.
Creepy streets.
Very unpleasant citizens.
Then things start getting weird.
And then they get really weird.
And then you realize the werewolves weren't actually the problem.
That's Bloodborne's masterstroke.
It begins as a relatively recognizable gothic nightmare before gradually revealing a much larger cosmic horror lurking behind everything.
The game introduces concepts such as the Great Ones, the Healing Church, cosmic entities and the mysterious relationship between humanity and forces beyond its comprehension.
The deeper you go, the more the nature of reality itself becomes questionable.
You begin the game thinking:
"I'm hunting monsters."
Eventually you realize:
"Oh God. The monsters were just the tutorial."
That is Lovecraftian horror.
Bloodborne also understands the importance of forbidden knowledge.
The more you learn, the more you see.
Literally.
Your perception changes.
The universe becomes stranger.
Things that were invisible suddenly become visible.
And suddenly that completely ordinary-looking building isn't ordinary anymore.
Congratulations.
You have acquired cosmic awareness.
You have also acquired several new reasons to be terrified.
Bloodborne is widely regarded as one of the defining Lovecraftian-inspired games despite not being directly based on Lovecraft's Mythos.
Why it's Lovecraftian: Cosmic entities, forbidden knowledge, madness, transformation, unknowable gods, humanity's insignificance and the terrifying realization that reality is much stranger than we thought.
