Conarium is a walking simulator with the occasional puzzles thrown in. Most puzzles are very easy and require only clicking around till it works. I was expecting something more puzzle heavy for some reason (a lot of games that look like this often are) but was actually a bit relieved this wasnt. Most 'Maps/areas' are actually fairly straight forward and simple to nav through, consisting of tunnels and stalwart or course-like environments. This game is a sequel to the book by H P Lovecraft "At The Mountains Of Madness" and takes place in the same place, setting and more or less builds off of that story abit to do its own thing. It takes place some 20 years afterwards and suggests humans have done their research on the strange discoveries Detailed in the source material.

This game does not feature combat, but there are a few 'chase' type encounters, just a few that more or less take the form of light puzzles. This is not really a "jump-scare" game (it's not a game specifically built around jump scares). But It is genuinely creepy at times (mostly due to the audio tracks which will mix in lots of weird out of place footsteps and bump in the night type effects) and I did have a few startling moments playing it. Not outright scary. (I dont personlaly find lovecraft the epitome of horror though and actualyl find some things hokey)

This game features lots of secret areas and collectibles that the game will track. Overall these are not hard to find if you explore things due to the map (but I did not find them all regardless) You are rewarded with rotating viewable 'fallout 4 examine menu' type objects, books, alien artifacts and stuff like that.

this game has a pretty neat engine that can let you do some interseting things with light. The ambient light can flow on pages as you read them and i wish this were an effect used to a further degree in the game because its freaking awesome. whats a better and more apt visual effect that some weird lightning effects on the pages you turn as you go slowly insane?

In similiar fashion, the flashlight can be used to scan over notes that one might read as well as rotate it and cast a beam when one when they look at it in the examine menu. these are minor things but they do add some immersion factor and are cool details I had not seen done in a game thus far. I felt that this game however, very much underplayed them. I also wish that rather than have a side by side easy-to-read translation of documents and books you come across, the game opted for something that was just a bit larger and easier to read.

however this engine also has a few problems. there is too much bloom and its distracting with the light effects. other times the bloom looks nice. i found i still wanted to play with the bloom to look at things. (FWIW bloom, blur and OOF type effects are simply not to my preference. ) I generally disable bloom in games but one glance at a screenshot and a few things in the beginning i just decided to leave it on.)

as a walking sim you are indeed walking, and looking around. if you had read the source material you are in a similiar role of sorts and feel like an archaelogist, so the genre lends itself quite WELL to Conarium. Most of the game is straight forward and you simply have a few routes to take so it is not cryptic or too wandery. partly because of this it tends to be a short game easily done in under 5-6 hours tops.

the story is neat and i liked it. there are a lot of questions it makes me ask though and i wish it were a bit more fleshed out though. I thought it had a perfect and satisfying ending, though people who dont 'get it' wont appreciate it. Therse a lot of nice and subtle details too. (If you are a fan of weird stuff like cryptozoology or pseudoscience this might indeed get some things going through your mind, as it touches base on a lot of things like that.)

I found many aspects of the game to make me recall Prometheus. Similar to Prometheus we had some strange stuff go down a while back and its time for round 2... And the weirdeness gets a bit weirder as man gets a bit bolder and digs deeper, the whole time of course you know it probably wont end well for those involved.

worth considering if you like lovecraft or the settings of prometheus or even The Thing (at least the movie, If you want a thing game this is not it). this isnt as ingenius as stanley parable, but i found it worthwhile.

But, beware of some things:

The game is short
It's not 'scary'
It is a wlaking simulator, not an FPS not a grand puzzle nor a very 'open game'
because of this, It borders very close to the 'experience' threshold as opposed to the 'game' threshold '
While it doesnt require familiary with Lovecraft/cthulhu mythos it does help to know a few things (this should bring you up to snuff, and is reccomended) to max out your enjoyment.
the story leaves some things open and i wish it were a bit longer.
the story tends to flip around a lot while connecting events.
some things could have been taken further/done better I particularly wish that the running away from the shoggoth scene was more intense instead of ending the goofy way it does

Overall i had fun playing it and its a decently designed exploration into something. The game itself though feels a little lacking as a 'game'. It also has some annoyances like when you realize it is totally a walking sim and you are basiclaly immortal and can't die, so lets just run as fast as we can into the next room without consequence it somewhat spoils the fun of something like this. is appropriate for the setting and the excursion into Antarctica and flows at a nice pace. Another thing that would irk me is the interactable objects and the ones you can take as well as the way you use items in the game is very haphazard. some things you can use and some you cant and some you can pick up and some you cant and there is no rhyme or reason to which is which and collectable trophies are no different that items really they just go in their own item page for some reason. Were the game worked a little and iron these kinds of things out as well as iron out some bits of the story and connect some of the events shoggoth scene i'm talking about you in a more plasuible manner this could be a great game. While it is nice what is here what would make it a GREAT walking Sim would be you can explore a TON of stuff at your own rate instead of just what it spoonfeeds you. It very much feels like a mere glance of things.

There are not that many good lovecraft games i've played (there are more decent lovecraft inspired ones) but this is pretty decent. Its also cool to see a game made from a book, in the way the route this goes not as a direct adapation or a rip off but a kind of continuation (similiar to blade runner actually, i'd like to see something like this in a clive barker game!)