Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss Review – The Deep Ocean Holds Few Surprises

As a younger man, the mere sight of the word 'Cthulhu' in a game's title was enough to make me reach for something safer. 2018's Call of Cthulhu was, without any exaggeration, one of the scariest games I had ever played, and the thought of revisiting that particular brand of enormous dread was simply not something I was willing to go through again. However, as the years go by, things change, and I must admit that horror games and movies no longer carry that same power over me. Whether that is a blessing or a curse, I couldn't tell, but it did make me far more willing to dive, quite literally, into Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss.

The result? Well, let's just say the deep ocean holds fewer surprises than you might hope.

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The strange substance covering the walls of Mei's basement; the discovery that sets the entire mystery in motion.

Story

If there is one thing Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss absolutely nails, it is its story, and frankly, it is the strongest suit this game has to offer. You play as Noah, an investigator dispatched to look into a lost signal from his colleague, Mei. Together with another colleague, Elsa, Noah arrives at Mei's home, only to find it deserted. A strange, unsettling substance coating the walls of the basement is the only clue left behind. That single discovery sets the wheels in motion for what becomes a genuinely gripping mystery.

Before long, Noah and Elsa are pulled through a portal into a strange, otherworldly dimension, where they find Mei, except she is not herself. She attacks them without warning, and in the chaos, Noah loses three fingers, while Elsa is left trapped in that dimension entirely. It is a brutal and effective opening, one that raises far more questions than it answers.

Back in the real world, Noah is recovering and begins to connect the dots between these events and the Ocean-I company and their deep ocean exploration programme. He volunteers for their mission, not fully understanding what awaits him: a horrific religious cult, unspeakable things lurking in the depths of the ocean, and a conspiracy far darker than anything he could have imagined.

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Elsa, one of Noah's colleagues, delivering one of the game's more unsettling lines of dialogue. The face models are among the highlights of the game's visual presentation.

The story is, without a doubt, the main reason to play Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss, and the developers clearly knew that. The mystery is layered and intelligent, and it will keep you on your toes from beginning to end. Just when you think you've figured something out, the game pulls the rug from under your feet, and that feeling of constant uncertainty is something that will occupy your attention entirely. If you are the type of player who enjoys a well-written story above all else, this game will reward your patience handsomely.

Gameplay

Where the story impresses, the gameplay tells a rather different tale. Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss is a first-person experience built almost entirely around investigation, gathering clues, analysing evidence, and solving mysteries. There is no combat to speak of. Instead, Noah has a sort of energy resource tied to his suit, which depletes as he analyses clues and interacts with the environment. To replenish it, you'll need to collect special fungi scattered throughout the game's locations. It is a simple and very unobtrusive system, and it serves its purpose, but sadly, no more than that.

You'll also meet a robust clue-gathering interface, which is supposed to facilitate your investigations, but I must admit, to the very end of the game, I never fully understood it.

A crucial part of Noah's toolkit is an AI integrated directly into his suit, named Key. Key assists Noah throughout his investigations, offering guidance and commentary as you piece things together. There are some instances where Key will offer her help if she considers that something might be too difficult to solve. It is worth mentioning that those options can be switched off entirely in the difficulty settings; unfortunately, Key cannot be turned off.

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The investigation UI in full swing: clues, distances, and items to examine scattered across a single room. A taste of what awaits less patient players.

Having Key as an assistant is a clever idea on paper, but in practice, it significantly undermines the very atmosphere the game is trying to build. Horror, at its most effective, thrives on isolation and helplessness, and having a friendly, capable AI companion constantly by your side simply robs the game of that essential sense of dread. The horrors of the deep ocean should feel overwhelming and unknowable, but with Key chatting in your ear, you never truly feel alone, and that is a problem this game never manages to overcome.

The lack of a map is this game's another big issue. Navigating the hallways and ocean depths without any navigational aid is an exercise in patience that most players will not appreciate. Getting lost is not an occasional inconvenience here; it is a frequent reality, and unlike the deliberate disorientation of the best survival horror games, this feels less like a design choice and more like an oversight.

The game also demands an enormous amount of reading. To resolve even the most minor of cases or mysteries, you will find yourself wading through considerable amounts of text, reports, notes, logs, and all manner of written material. If reading in video games is not your cup of tea, let me save you the trouble: Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss is simply not the game for you, and no amount of curiosity about its story will change that.

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Even a minor clue demands thorough reading. Reports, articles, and transcriptions pile up quickly.

And then there is the horror itself, which is perhaps the most disappointing element of all, given the source material. The game makes its attempts, largely through atmosphere rather than outright scares, but it never quite commits enough to make a lasting impression. The sense of creeping unease that the setting absolutely should generate is somehow undermined, and by the time the game reaches for a real fear, you will likely have made your peace with the fact that it simply cannot deliver.

Graphics and sound

From the visual point of view, Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss is something of a mixed bag. It is not a spectacular-looking game by any means, but it does have its moments. The reflections are handled particularly well, lending the underwater environments a certain quiet beauty, and the face models deserve a mention. Realistic and expressive, they do a great deal to make Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss even more emotional than it actually is.

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The ocean floor around the PIT station is one of the game's more atmospheric and visually competent moments.

Unfortunately, those highlights do not extend to the performance, at least on the PlayStation 5, where I played the game. Regardless of whether you choose the performance or fidelity mode, the game struggles to surpass 30 FPS in either, and occasional stutters emerge every time a new area is loaded or after the use of sonar. It is the sort of technical roughness that breaks immersion at exactly the wrong moments, and in a game that relies so heavily on atmosphere, it is a particularly costly flaw. To add to this, the textures on certain in-game texts and images can be remarkably poor, a strange and jarring contrast against the otherwise passable visual quality.

The sound design follows a similar pattern of modest, unremarkable work. In a horror game, audio is everything. A well-placed creak, a distant rumble, a silence that feels too deliberate, but Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss never really profits from those feats. The music is forgettable, rarely building the tension it so clearly aspires to. The one area where the audio does hold its own is in the voice acting, which is decent enough to keep you engaged during the game's stronger narrative moments, even if it never quite rises to anything memorable.

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A cult ritual scene deep in the ocean depths. Moments like this hint at the horror the game aspires to but rarely achieves.

Conclusion

Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss is a game of strong ideas and modest execution. The story is genuinely gripping: a well-constructed mystery that earns its twists and holds your attention far better than the gameplay surrounding it. But a minimalistic and sometimes frustrating gameplay loop, a horror atmosphere that never fully delivers, and a technical performance that leaves plenty to be desired collectively ensure that this game falls well short of its obvious ambitions.

If you can find it in yourself to prioritise story above everything else, there is something here worth experiencing. But if you are looking for a horror game that will genuinely unsettle you, the deep ocean may be a disappointment. You will not lose sleep over Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss, and for a game of this name, that might be its greatest failing of all.