Conarium Reviews
All in all, Conarium does a fantastic job on the atmosphere and giving players those fearful moments of panic where you are holding your breath at every turn.
It’s certainly not the ideal game for those expecting sweat-inducing horror or adrenaline-pumping action, but for those who like to explore eerie environments and unravel a good story, there’s a good evening’s worth of entertainment.
Conarium overall captures the mood of Lovecraft, if not the more extreme bizarreness present in his stranger stories. If you want a game that plays like a Lovecraft story, Conarium is probably the most accurate, accessible option available.
Conarium is a well-crafted slow-paced adventure to dark corners of the Earth. True declaration of love for a legacy of H.P. Loveсraft.
Review in Russian | Read full review
A true "lovecraftian" game short in length and interactivity. The plot is a bit messy to. Just for lovers of the the Providence's writer.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Conarium is a solid Lovecraft-inspired title that will please fans of his work despite some design and production flaws
Conarium's fascinating world is closely based on a Lovecraft story, taking players through ancient tombs abandoned for eons. The adventure puzzles are a bit too simple and its rough edges needed smoothing, but it is still a faithful adaption.
Conarium leans too heavily on Lovecraftian mythos without bringing anything new to the table. Complete lack of peril in the game robs it of any meaningful stakes. Most puzzles in the game are simplistic, and the most difficult ones were not particularly challenging. The storyline is a muddled mess that relies too much on style and not enough on substance.
When looking back at my time with the game, I don't feel horror at its revelations. I feel disappointment in light of what it could have been concealing, and simply wasn't.
I never truly felt scared or even at unease while playing Conarium. That’s perhaps the biggest disappointment that coloured my rather negative review of the game: It never succeeded at making me feel anything. The Literature inside the game somewhat does the source material justice, but it’s a short experience with its ~3 hours runtime that left me wondering what could have been.
Conarium is a game with a lot of potential. Those early hours spent with it will prove to be difficult to walk away from. However, it is too willing to toss away its fairly slow and tense pace to thrust forward the reveal of the truth behind its mysteries. With those questions gone, all that remains is a standard adventure experience of some puzzles and brainteasers on the way to the end of the story. The ending does its best to redeem the weak middle section, but it is not quite strong enough to lift the whole thing back up to those suspenseful and tension-filled first couple of hours.
Conarium is a short game which will only take you a few hours to complete. You can go back if your a completionist but there’s just not enough to make me want to play through it again.
Remarkably then, even through disappointing attempts at horror and puzzling, Conarium is just about compelling enough to warrant seeing through to the end. It’s not particularly mind-blowing from a narrative perspective, but it is engrossing and satisfying. If only it pushed harder for a sense of dread and terror, or even simply provided more of a challenge, then we’d be talking about something that truly stands out as a thoughtful, engaging horror game.
The exploration of one's gradual slip into insanity and the experience of otherworldly isolation is palpable and well-executed, but anyone who isn't a fan of the source material will likely grow tired of Conarium's lack of anything new and innovative to the horror genre.
Conarium manages to remain faithful to the legendary worldview of H. P. Lovecraft, although it shares the same problems and weaknesses in transferring the original material.
Review in Greek | Read full review