Two red dots loom out at me through the inky green ocean depths. Playing the Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss free Steam Next Fest demo, I've just pushed through an undersea rocky tunnel that was so cramped it made me anxious, only to find, emerging, that the opposite is so much worse. I shudder at the wide, low-visibility expanse, alone in just a diving suit with only an AI assistant voice for company.
I swim forward, continuing to follow the pipes that have been my guide towards the abandoned underwater research facility I've been sent to investigate. Soon, those red dots reveal themselves to not be some monstrous behemoth, simply two lights on the base. My sigh of relief is short-lived, there's always the sense there might be something lurking just out of sight in the palpable Lovecraftian atmosphere developer Big Bad Wolf Studio have crafted for their take on the mythos. If you're interested in trying this opening for yourself, you can learn more about the demo festivities in our Steam Next Fest guide.
Rolling in the deep
So far, everything I've played of Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss has centered around detective-style investigation. Playing as Noah, a member of a mysterious agency who investigates the paranormal, means getting my hands dirty. In first-person, there's a tactility to interacting with this world, picking up clues, rotating them, scanning them, organizing clues on an evidence board, and sometimes putting objects back down again.
Sonar is an interesting system for cutting through a density of space.
Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss' introduction chapter takes place slightly above sea level, picking through a disappeared contact's half-flooded house. Set in the near-future, climate change continues to run rampant, making the encroaching sea an ever-present threat. In the watery basement, a strange altar. To activate it, the correct rocks need to be placed on plinths, but I can narrow them down thanks to my sonar technology. Scanning one rock allows me to set 'mineral' as a flag, so I can see matching objectives as temporary markers around me. From there, I scan documents for clues about which of the rocks I find are the correct ones.
It's an interesting system for cutting through a density of space that helps me feel like an active participant in an investigation. Back to the research base at the bottom of the sea, this allows me to scan for which opaque fuel canisters actually have hydrogen in them to switch power back on. When thrust into the watery depths once again, I can then use it on the missing diving team's copper hooks to identify the rope path they left behind as it twists and turns through a labyrinth of geometrically impossible tunnels.
I can also scan, erm, human blood. I'm sure that particular sonar data will come in handy in the future, but I'm not sure I'm going to like what it leads to. Poking around this area's strange twists and turns I begin to once again flip back to feeling a bit claustrophobic. Prompted to return to the base to determine how the expedition before me made it through the non-Euclidian maze, the demo ends in dramatic fashion. I wish I could have spent a bit more time exploring and investigating, but leaving me with an itch to return is rarely a bad thing.
I've been looking forward to Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss since before it was even announced. Big Bad Wolf Studio also developed terrific narrative RPGs with the underrated The Council and Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong. This approach is a lot more freeform, but I'm already intrigued at how detailed the investigation mechanics are, and eager to unravel the mystery. The game promises to have multiple ways to solve puzzles, some of which will be easier to do at the cost of corrupting your brain with the cosmic influence. I can't wait to try that for myself, and hopefully manage to survive with at least some of Noah intact. Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss releases on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X on April 16, 2026.
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