REVIEW - Dagon: Complete Edition is a brief, but worthy, journey into cosmic horror

Ever since reading “History of the Necronomicon” years ago, I have been fascinated with H.P. Lovecraft’s stories, even though I don’t like horror. Dagon: Complete Edition is a brief glimpse at those stories, with four very short tales presented with almost null interaction, but with great voice acting and an art direction that conveys greatly the vision of this prolific New England writer.

In Dagon: Complete Edition, you experience the stories in a visual novel format, where each scenario is told by different narrators, with great voice acting fitting for each tale, and you advance by interacting with an element in the stage.

Beside that interaction, you can also look for hidden trivia in some stages. I found each one of them to be interesting, shining a light on Lovecraft’s life or on some fact related to elements of each story. The research and work behind them show how passionate the team behind this game is and how much they wanted the readers to learn about the writer and his life.

The same passion could be seen in how well the art of the game brings to life the vision that Lovecraft had in his stories. The cosmic horror, the desolation, the uncertainty and the despair depicted can be felt within the tales, with graphics that take you to a separate plane of perception, and all with a great use of HD rumble and music. All of these aspects lead you to experience his world like never before.

At this point, there is very little to add to this review because the experience lasts for less than an hour, even when stopping to scan the environment for hidden trivia. Each story is different and the game is pretty well done, but you have to be aware of how little interaction there is on this forty-minute ride.

Dagon: Complete Edition is both a great introduction to Lovecraft’s works and a nice celebration for fans who can find a new way to enjoy some of his stories. It feels almost like watching a stand-alone episode of a show, with a very nice execution, especially in atmosphere and voice acting, but with an extremely short runtime.