Some knowledge cannot be unknown
Reeling from the loss of his family, game tester Bobby Walmore is contracted to work his way through an augmented reality park. The headset reveals a virtual world inspired by the horror works of H.P. Lovecraft.
The game rapidly turns into more than a paycheck--it's an addiction Bobby cannot turn away from.
Every clue he uncovers and every mystery he solves leads him deeper the twisted lore of forces lurking in the shadows.
And Cthulhu World holds darker secrets than Bobby was ever prepared for ...
My Opinion: 197 pages, $4.99, Available on Kindle Unlimited
This is a Augmented Reality LitRPG horror story based on a Lovecraft lore.
Bobby has been hired by a game company to test their Lovecraft theme park. Instead of using fully immersive VR, the park uses augmented reality (AR) goggles to add game elements to this theme park. This includes a user interface that has character stats, game powers, and items. Players can feel the items as long as they have the goggles on and can even feel pain.
The game mechanics in the story are pretty basic but consistent. The main character (MC), Bobby, gains stats from interacting with the game world and performing actions. Not that the stats actually seem to do anything. Like most Lovecraft game designs, when the MC sees strange or horrible things he loses Sanity points.
The use of AR in the story is different from other LitRPG. It’s a nice attempt at overlaying game stuff over our normal reality. Unfortunately, this idea is ruined a bit because the MC constantly takes off the goggles to assure himself that what he’s seeing isn’t real. So the reader gets a description of a lot of empty dark rooms. I understand it’s a way to try increase tension but it breaks the immersion in the game/story when it happens.
The story, especially early on relies heavily on the Lovecraft name to try and establish a semblance of atmosphere. There’s a lot of , ‘woah, this is so Lovecraft’ and ‘that’s just like the Lovecraft novel’. Honestly, it’s kind of boring, how much effort is put into saying the setting is like a Lovecraft story and not showing it.
The MC is pretty hard to root for. He was so broody and maudlin I almost wanted to see him lose.
Overall, the story lags in the horror department and while there are a few thrill moments, the story was kind of boring.
Score: 5 out of 10
Logout of Cthulhu: A Lovecraftian LitRPG novel (Cthulhu World Book 1)