Shadows Over Loathing
Review
Co(s)mic Horror
by Camrin Santchi
reviewed on PC
From Beyond
This reviewer put a lot of time into Assymetric's West of Loathing when it released in 2017 - so it was a very pleasant surprise to suddenly find a sequel had seemingly crawled out from the aether this November - Shadows Over Loathing.
The Loathing games began back in 2003 with Kingdom of Loathing- a browser based multiplayer RPG that still receives updates as of this year, with West of Loathing and Shadows Over Loathing being single player experiences that keep the same RPG system, comically crude art style, and nonstop humour. Whilst West of Loathing took place in a twisted version of the Wild West with demonic clowns, evil cows from Hell, and more (details can be found in my coworker's review here if you're intrigued), Shadows Over Loathing takes place in the 1920s, with Prohibition and jazz music in full swing.
Oh, and Eldritch horrors beyond mortal comprehension. See, the late 1920s are when HP Lovecraft's works really got going, The Call of Cthulhu, At the Mountain of Madness, and the most important due to naming conventions: The Shadow Over Innsmouth. With the promise of HP Lovecraft inspiration Shadows Over Loathing is set to be even darker than its predecessor - which involved everything from demons to disgusting spittoons. An impressive feat while keeping humour at the forefront for sure!
The Nameless (Ocean) City
Players take the reins of a rather customizable protagonist in Shadows Over Loathing, who is on their way to a place called Ocean City thanks to a mysterious letter from their Uncle Murray, who ran a curio shop. Your character soon learns from his assistant Jessica that the shop was merely a cover for finding mysterious cursed artifacts, touched by mysterious powers beyond this reality, and removing the curses from them - and that your uncle has vanished. The story of the game is set up in specific chapters - each one revolving around a new cursed object that must be retrieved. While it is encouraged to uncurse the object, the game doesn't force you to, allowing for an interesting flavour for evil playthroughs as the cursed objects have different effects than their purified states. For example, a fedora that gives you black speech as dialogue options while cursed, but once purified will raise one of your base stats (Muscle, Moxie, and Mysticality)- and will also raise your max HP for combat when the curse is dealt with inside the de-cursing machine at the curio shop.
Players can choose a class that alters what skills they will learn in combat, each one reliant on a specific stat. Pig Skinners make use of Muscle, Cheese Wizards wield Mysticality, and Jazz Agents are professionals with their Moxie. Certain classes, stat levels, and even backstories (You get a random buff dependant on your vague references to your backstory in the prologue) offer different dialogue options that could lead to either avoiding a fight or causing one - or in several cases, starting a running gag where your character convinces the narrator that you used to work seemingly everywhere in and around Ocean City. This gag is further compounded by actually finding employee records in places that you convince the narrator you worked at - whether this is part of your vague backstory or you somehow willed it into being is left up in the air and is part of what makes Shadows Over Loathing such a delight.
At the Mountains of Madness
There are tragically some issues to be had during your adventures in Ocean City that this reviewer noticed - Shadows Over Loathing isn't quite as funny as West, but as that's a subjective point, I'll move on to more objective discussions - namely that the style of the Loathing series isn't for everyone - especially those that live and die by graphics in video games. Another flaw is the audio mixing - particularly if you're either playing as a Jazz Agent or playing around with shoes. Jazz Agents can add extra instruments to the battle music that have effects such as healing allies or damaging foes, but these added instruments can overpower any other battle sound effects. Shoes meanwhile take the place of 'Silly Walking' from West of Loathing and allow for wacky ways of manoeuvring through the game. However, their sound effects aren't mixed properly and as such can wear pretty heavily on the ears. These complaints are minor and certainly don't get in the way of enjoying the game though!
In all, Shadows Over Loathing is a treat to play and is incredibly witty - the simple designs and graphics add to the game's charm rather than do damage to it, and with the exception of audio mixing the game is very well built. For anyone that likes rather wacky RPGs- the Roaring 20s and its hoards of jazz, hobos, and fishermen are waiting in Shadows Over Loathing.
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8.7
fun score
Pros
Surprisingly strong story, humour, and replayability
Cons
Potentially too simple and crude, Audio mixing
