The concept of insanity in games is nothing new. Recent games like Far Cry 3 dabble with it, but few games make it a core mechanic to the experience. Classic games like Call of C'Thulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth or Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem are built around not only the idea of insanity, but the C'Thulhu/H.P. Lovecraft mythos. Zombies? Please, that's so last gen. We want next gen (PS4/etc.) to focus on Lovecraftian creatures, insanity, and giant tentacle monsters.
A central theme to H.P. Lovecraft's work (and most any game featuring C'Thulhu and other creatures like him) is insanity, how the human mind is incapable of comprehending such a thing. A serious C'Thulhu game would hardly feature the beast (see Call of C'Thulhu) but feature his presence throughout. The nature of Lovecraft's monsters is insanity - pure evil and their existence drives most people insane. We don't want insanity by way of just fear, we want this theoretical game to include insanity in the truest sense - the type that drives the character to the farthest reaches of what our minds can handle. Can someone truly escape from that, or would they be lost forever? It's not something we can ever say for sure, but it makes for an interesting story, at least.
It's easy to craft a story revolving around cultists trying to resurrect an Elder God or ancient power, but the gameplay is what could be really interesting. If insanity was featured as a major mechanic, the implications are incredible. The game Eternal Darkness is most remembered for its insanity moments, so why not take those to the next level? Include the old standards of tricking the player into thinking their saved data is deleted, enemies and items that aren't really there, and maybe even go as far as to send them fake messages via PSN/Xbox Live. Sure, it's creepy and unnerving, but it would be a horror game, right?
More than anything else, we would love to see a true, HD Lovecraft game that uses these sorts of things. We still love zombies (they really are a perfect video game enemy), but we wouldn't mind something new. Nearly every zombie archetype could be covered in cultists, mutations and other monsters, and it would include an incredibly memorable story. C'Thulhu and the other creatures in the mythos are fascinating to us because they represent pure evil, and a notion of the incredible unknown. Games make it easy to make a guided experience, and having players doubt their actions and eyes isn't too difficult, it's making it convincing and memorable that's tough. Zombies have had their day, let's embrace the cold, dark abyss that is C'Thulhu and his friends in the coming years.
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