“We live in a world of placid ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far.” – H.P Lovecraft in The Call of Cthulhu
H.P Lovecraft is a monolith of cosmic horror, birthing ideas of the unknowable terror of what may lay just beyond the sights of humanity.
His last publication was 1936’s The Shadow Out of Time.
Since then, plenty of creative minds have taken to twisting the author’s creations and ideas into their own productions.
But the most effective in recent years, for my money, has been Black Salt Studios’ 2023 video game Dredge.
The experience opens with a fisherman awakening in a small coastal town, no memory of how he got there or, come to think of it, who he actually is.
All he knows is how to fish.
So, with a loan from the mayor, he sets off in a new boat working towards paying off his new debts.
But something lurks under the water…
It’s various sea creatures, each of unique design, that’s not a shocker for this cosmic horror fishing game, but they’re not the real monsters here.
See, Lovecraft believed that these horrors were only as such because the human mind could not fully understand and comprehend them and that was fundamentally terrifying.
But Dredge takes these ideas and turns into something that, after decades of poor Lovecraft adaptations and knockoffs, is only anywhere near as terrifying once you know what it is.
Over your time fishing, you’ll uncover some mysterious artifacts that you can’t sell to local collectors, but instead can take to a mysterious figure on a remote island to be appraised.
Your reward? The kinds of cosmic abilities that would terrify a Lovecraft protagonist.
Because the lead playable character, our fisherman, is not the game’s hero.
I’ll let you play the game for yourself and find out for yourself because it’s well worth the price of admission, with satisfying gameplay and gorgeous art direction there’s plenty to get out of this absolute gem.
Discounting the main game’s story to avoid ruining it all for you, dear reader, I’d like to focus your attention on its recently released DLC: The Iron Rig.
This sees an oil rig placed on the periphery of the game’s map, an iron stain on the area’s stunning natural skyline, where an ominous organisation wants to drill into the ground for ill-gotten gains.
A set-up you’ve likely seen before, but one which thrives off Dredge’s twisting of Lovecraft’s ideas.
A rift opens below the rig and oil spills out into nearby areas, your fisherman is tasked with gathering samples from these areas and bringing them back for further research.
This research prompts further drilling which angers the Lovecraftian creatures as each further plunge of the drill sends more waste into other areas.
The rig’s staff notice the awful ramifications of their actions and stop, not before a higher up from the company demands they drill further, which they oblige.
As this continues, you, as the fisherman, continue to bring samples and upgrade the rig until it’s been bolstered completely, even capable of defending itself from the ‘monsters’.
These creatures will not leave the rig alone, not because they want it for reasons beyond our understanding, but because they’re trying to fight the real monster here…you.
Back in 2007, Bioshock introduced criticism of gamers by employing a plot point where the player character was mind controlled to do whatsoever another character asked, this commented on the agency of video game players and their real engagement with the morality of the story.
Dredge doesn’t even bother with saying it out loud, it just lets you flat out ruin the ocean.
Watch the drill ruin the ocean, do the dirty work and start again.
All until there’s nothing left.
And so, in the 21st century, the most terrifying use of Lovecraft imagery asks us not to look outwards to the cosmos, but inward, to ourselves.
Ask what we see happens, what we enable and continue to support, in action or silence, as we become the monsters.
Because when we find ourselves “in a world of placid ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity”, we have only one species to blame.
