The Shore: Enhanced Edition

Sometimes it’s best to leave that scary, deserted island unexplored. That’s certainly the message I’m getting with The Shore, a Lovecraftian horror game from Ares Dragonis. Originally released back in 2021 on PC and then turned into a VR experience one year later, this bite-sized scarefest has finally made its way to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. Prepare for a descent into madness when I review The Shore: Enhanced Edition.

This is the all-too-brief story of Andrew, a father and fisherman who recently washed up on a mysterious island. He’s not the first, and based on the number of bones and boats that adorn the shore, he won’t be the last. However, it’s not survival that motivates our hero, but rather the safety of his daughter. Over the next hour and a half, Andrew will be put through a series of tests to find out just how far he’s willing to go to save Ellie.

From the moment we start exploring the shore, it’s obvious that something terrible has happened here. There’s talk about seemingly normal people going crazy and sailors who have cut off their own legs to appease the island. Even Andrew is starting to feel the effects of the island through visions and a strange voice in his head. He doesn’t know what any of it means just yet, but he hopes that it will bring him one step closer to seeing his missing daughter.

I don’t think I’m spoiling anything by saying that The Shore is a game heavily inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft. From giant monsters to a man slowly losing grip with sanity, you’re going to recognize all of the hallmarks. And the game does a good job of getting right to the mind-bending terror that you came for, wasting no time giving us cool (and horrifying) visuals that hint at something even scarier.

For the first half of the game, The Shore is mostly a first-person adventure game, where the goal is to read letters left from other survivors and solve a series of fairly simple puzzles. You’re mainly just exploring the island and discovering its many weird secrets. However, there’s a shift mid-way through, where suddenly the game becomes more about action and survival. We’re given a weapon of sorts that shoots a powerful laser beam, something that doubles as both a weapon and a way to open doors.

That first half is genuinely captivating. It plays into a lot of what this game gets right, especially when it comes to the mystery and the presentation. The island is gorgeous to look at, full of tiny details that help make it feel like a real location and not just a level in a video game. The voice acting, both with Andrew and the voice in his head, is also really well done. I felt our lead’s despair and wanted (no, needed) to help him find his daughter. No matter what it took.

Unfortunately, the game started to lose me in the second half. This is where it became more about the action and running away from unkillable monsters. Instead of exploring an open area, we were trapped in cavernous mazes and small areas that were completely enclosed. What we get in the back half are a series of moments that have us speed running through a bunch of story beats. Suddenly, the game is in a big hurry to wrap up. By the time I completed the game, I was conflicted. There were a lot of cool looking moments, but what it all added up to felt like a waste of time.

But let’s not just gloss over how cool those moments are. If you’re a fan of Lovecraftian horror and its many creatures, then you won’t be disappointed with this game. The game makes these monsters both massive and scary. And the game finds a way to get under your skin with its disturbing locations. They use faces in a way that is genuinely unnerving, and I have a hunch that some of the imagery towards the end of the game will haunt your nightmares.

Unfortunately, it’s over far too quickly. This is the kind of game that won’t take more than a couple hours to beat. We get right into the mystery and then we essentially speed run through the second half. The whole thing wraps up with what I can only assume will be an extremely polarizing ending that that left me a little cold. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing here that veers too far away from its Lovecraftian roots, but I don’t feel like the developers fully pulled off the emotional punch they were going for.

The Shore also has its share of annoying technical problems. It’s not the big stuff; the performance was fine, for the most part. However, there are weird glitches in the settings menu that left me scratching my head. For example, you can’t change the camera from normal to inverted. Oh sure, the option for it is there, but the game doesn’t allow you to touch it. You just jump right over it, as if it wasn’t even there. No matter what I tried, I could never get it to work. I also couldn’t turn off the subtitles. The good news is that you can actually toggle the subtitles on or off, but they are always on, no matter what you select. I started to wonder if this was Cthulhu messing with me right from the jump, but I don’t want to give the game that much credit.

As a small, bite-sized horror game, The Shore is pretty good. It has a number of big moments that will stick with you and the general mystery is definitely compelling, even if it doesn’t fully stick the landing. I think fans of Lovecraftian fiction will enjoy the game, though they may be left wanting more. The Shore has its problems, but if you like what you see, then you’ll probably enjoy it for the 90 or so minutes it lasts.