The Dark Rites of Arkham Review – A warm blanket of nostalgia and madness

My first encounter with the work of Postmodern Adventures, aka José María Meléndez, occurred just last year, when, driven by a sudden desire to try something nostalgic, pixelated, and decidedly horror-themed, I finally got around to playing one of the Spanish solo developer’s earlier projects, Nightmare Frames. An adventure game with enjoyable puzzles, snappy writing and a plot that paid homage to 70s/80s horror tropes while taking one crazy turn after another, it put the developer on my mental map, solidifying it as one of the modern masters of the genre.

Naturally, you can imagine my excitement upon finding out that Meléndez’s latest project would tap into the illustrious oeuvre of H.P. Lovecraft, the great grandfather of cosmic horror whose works I hold in rather high regard.

Just another night in Arkham

Taking place in the fictional town of Arkham during the final days of the Prohibition era, The Dark Rites of Arkham stars detective Jack Foster and his new partner Harvey Whitman as they investigate a bizarre case of ritualistic murders, exploring the darkest, seediest and most bone-chilling corners of the city in the process. While filled to the brim with unmistakable allusions to the Cthulhu Mythos and various other works of Lovecraft, the game manages to hit a sweet spot between over-indulgent reference-fest and standalone adventure, making its inspirations fairly obvious, but not to the point where they would be the cause of irritated eye rolls from the player. From Obed Marsh to Innsmouth, from Cthulhu to Yog-Sothoth, from Herbert West to The Whisperer in Darkness, the game manages to invoke several ideas, concepts and characters from the famed author’s works, but it also never forgets that it’s essentially a detective mystery at its core. Regardless, those looking for a truly Lovecraftian experience wrapped up as a point & click adventure will have much to enjoy over the course of the roughly eight or so hours it takes to complete it.

From an audiovisual perspective, The Dark Rites of Arkham is like a warm blanket of nostalgia and madness, presented with pixel gore, jazzy tunes and enough retro charm to make you forget it’s 2026 and not 1996. Its writing – the occasional typo aside – is entertaining as well: Harvey’s sheepish adherence to police protocol clashes with Jack’s cynical, no-nonsense attitude and willingness to bend the rules, creating a somewhat clichéd, yet nonetheless entertaining dynamic between the two that persists throughout most of the adventure. As a side note, the game is completely devoid of voice acting, which may or may not bother you – I personally didn’t find it to be an issue at all, but it’s something to keep in mind regardless.

The puzzles felt like they were roughly on the same level as Postmodern Adventures’ prior offerings, though admittedly I only have Nightmare Frames to use as a solid point of reference, having not experienced much of An English Haunting beyond its brief demo version. Regardless, what I found is that the game prefers brain-teasers that generally make sense in the context of the narrative, and steers clear of the type of moon logic that would have you combine a toothpick with an onion to disarm a bomb. And while I did admittedly get stuck once or twice, it never lasted for long. It’s also worth noting that there is no handy-dandy feature that would conveniently highlight all interactable objects (hotspots) for the player, so the game does absolutely expect you to look at all its pixelated nooks and crannies. I personally appreciated this, as I didn’t want the training wheels to stay on, so to speak – and besides, the optional bits of “filler” dialogue you get from combing through every single thing in a room make up half the fun of adventure games, in my opinion.

A tale as old as the old gods

The only aspect of the game I can find fault with is probably the pacing of its story, particularly its rushed finale – as well as how exasperatingly safe it opts to play things. The Dark Rites of Arkham is about as straightforward and by-the-book as you can get with a story about cosmic beings and cultists worshipping them, and deep down, I was perhaps hoping for a bit more of a curveball from the narrative as a whole. Instead, I watched the credits roll and my first thought was a genuinely surprised “oh, that’s it?”. So, I guess what I’m saying is that I would’ve liked if the game had spent a bit more time on certain other things. Innsmouth and the Marshes, Harvey’s entire backstory, the strange dimension of the Mi-Go, the mysterious “agents” in black suits – these are all fascinating elements that are introduced, then unceremoniously wrapped up as the story moves on to the next thing, preventing the player from stopping to smell the cosmic roses. I also felt like I got abruptly shoved into the game’s finale at a point when I thought I still had several hours of adventuring left; the climax itself is similarly wrapped up in a matter of minutes, making my victory feel somewhat unearned, in a sense.

Curiously enough, I spent roughly the same amount of time with Arkham as I did with Nightmare Frames, but somehow, the latter felt like it managed to cram a lot more stuff into its short eight hours, with proper buildup, development and closure. I’m not entirely sure I got that here with the former.

Heed the call

So, do I prefer Nightmare Frames over this? Yes, I do. Is The Dark Rites of Arkham still a fun and wholly satisfying point & click experience despite that? Absolutely. Granted, it doesn’t reinvent the wheel, nor does it subvert expectations in any major way, but it’s dripping with personality, atmosphere and charm, and is backed up by a generous amount of Lovecraftian concepts and references that end up being used in fun and inventive ways, even if I personally would’ve liked to see the game really push the envelope and experiment a bit when it comes to making use of HPL’s source material. All in all, though, I had a good time with it, so if you’ve already played every other game by Postmodern Adventures, there’s really no reason to miss out on this one, either.