While it's easy to appreciate the relative safety of picking up the latest hot new triple-A title to hit the market due to the wide array of coverage they receive and the industry's reliance on convention for its mainstream output making it clear exactly what you'll be getting ahead of time, there's something to be said for taking a risk on that interesting looking downloadable obscurity hidden away on the Xbox/PSN store or the double-A budget release sitting in the bargain bin of your local go-to for electronics to satisfy your gaming needs. Yeah, there's a higher chance you could end up wasting your money on something crappy, but you'd be surprised just how often you're likely to stumble upon an unexpected gem you'll love instead. I've lost track of how many personal favorites I've come across over the years by doing this, and I'm happy to say that I can count Mother's Embrace among them.

I wouldn't have even known about this were it not for my love of all things Lovecraftian fiction. Set in the Cthulhu mythos, what starts off as a rather simple looking murder mystery quickly evolves into a massive, potentially apocalyptic cosmic conspiracy involving the occult and disturbing otherworldly monstrosities. Whereas most games based on this universe take a survival-horror approach, Arkham Horror's tone, while still dark, is more lighthearted, quirky, and even a little goofy due to things like the presence of an outside narrator-esque third party constantly observing and talking to your characters even though they can't hear them, on top of their own at times quirky commentary. It's never clear why the story is told this way, but it certainly gives the experience a unique personality. The writing is actually pretty impressive in its depth, requiring and rewarding you for prior knowledge of the greater lore here by never spelling stuff out for you like which "outer god" is behind all this and blatantly handing you the whole scope of what's going on. Something I'm sure hardcore enthusiasts will appreciate.

Gameplay-wise, it plays a lot like a version of XCOM that treats you with the kid gloves. At the start of each chapter after selecting and equipping your party you'll be thrown into a semi-open environment you'll interact with Telltale-style to find clues and items, while engaging in strategical turn-based battles against enemies. The accessibility of it all is a bit of a double-edged sword. Essentially it's great for the inexperienced such as myself, but will prove too easy for those typically drawn to the genre as tactical thinking isn't necessary when you can just shoot your way through everything without any challenge when you amass a decent collection of firearms. The saving grace though might be how it handles sanity. As you progress you'll naturally encounter things that will test your characters' mental fortitude and cause them to develop detrimental traumas should they slip too far into madness, which can only be dealt with by leaving them behind on the next stage to recover. This means you won't have access to their helpful personality traits that can give you hints on what the best course of action is whenever you're presented with a choice of how to investigate an object. Picking the wrong one of which will fill up the "Mythos Clock" and draw the attention of the Great Old Ones who will screw with you in harmful ways. In suitably Lovecraftian fashion these aspects are inevitabilities rather than something you can avoid, adding a constant element of dread and tension to the proceedings otherwise missing from the simplistic combat.

That lack of an unforgiving, punishing amount of difficulty most people flock to this genre for, alongside its digital-only nature, have unfortunately limited this to a niche level of appeal at best. A fate all too common for these types of smaller projects. This is perfect example however of the kind of originality and distinctiveness I tend to seek out this quality of game for, as you can't typically get it from their more highly publicized peers designed for mass consumption. It didn't win me over solely because of my appreciation for the world it takes place in alone, but also for the novelty of playing something so charmingly atypical from the norm. As a result I was able to look past it's questionable, or perhaps even objectionable for some, eccentricities and enjoy it for the oddball diamond in the rough it is. Reminding me of why I will always recommend that my fellow gamers step outside of the box from time to time, and give that intriguing unknown they've never heard of a shot before going straight back to the whatever big name is currently grabbing the headlines. It might not always pack the same value, but can still prove quite rewarding if you do.

8/10