Narratively strung together with an otherworldly mystery, the game focuses on a handful of intricate puzzles that offer multiple independent solutions and force you to solve increasingly difficult questions, largely without holding your hand. Ultimately, The Cosmic Abyss, like its titular character, uses its overtly ominous presentation to hide even more secrets to discover underneath.

"Where The Cosmic Abyss differs from many of its counterparts, though, is in its lack of combat."

The Cosmic Abyss puts you into the shoes of Noah, an ocean investigator looking into the mysterious disappearance of a group of miners on a deep-sea expedition. Because of the nature of the investigation, you are sent alone with only your AI companion, Key, to track the miners and quickly find yourself sent through a portal to another world and set out on a mission to both understand the mysterious and unsettling world you’ve found yourself in and ultimately find your way back home.

Though it might be inexplicable to send someone alone on this type of mission, it properly sets the tone for the ominous and secluded experience you have through Noah, and naturally, as a Lovecraftian horror game, you begin to come across signs of other races with intelligence far beyond humans and terrifying supernatural beings.

Where The Cosmic Abyss differs from many of its counterparts, though, is in its lack of combat. While it’s possible to die at the hands of a monster on a couple occasions, this is a linear puzzle game wrapped in an atmospheric horror shell, as most of its 7 main chapters consist of one complex self-contained puzzle. These puzzles strike a delicate balance between forcing you to explore each area thoroughly and learn the rules of the game without becoming overly obtuse.

This is where you can clearly tell the influences from immersive sims like System Shock in the way you explore each area and are forced to largely handle things on your own. One highlight puzzle, for example, sees you having to open a portal on the other side of an uncrossable body of water. To do this, you have to learn the steps to complete a sacrificial ritual by translating the ritual’s steps, locate a number of crowns throughout blood-red waters, and manipulate the crowns in the right ways to trigger the ritual. Structurally, many of the puzzles, including this one, are familiar, but they each have a distinct eerie atmosphere with strikingly beautiful visuals and largely intuitive level design that propels you to always be finding new clues, even in areas you thought you’d already explored completely.

One of the key ways this is done is through your Sonar ping, which allows you to match frequencies with certain objects and locate other objects in the area with the same material. This means that the game doesn’t highlight every key item needed to progress. Those crowns, for example, are made from Bones, and you can only search for the other crowns made of the same material once you’ve found the first.

"On top of this, there are options to ask for more help from your AI companion in the form of three additional clues in certain situations."

This is a clever way to keep pushing you to experiment if you get stuck, even if this is where the game’s creativity can give way to opaqueness when you don’t quite know if you even have the material you’re searching for. As you work through each chapter, the puzzles increase in variety and difficulty. Another puzzle has you finding a way to either destroy or get around a massive otherworldly monster by finding its weaknesses, and later game puzzles require you to truly come to grips with the world you’ve entered and the characters within it.

When you put it all together, these puzzles can get very challenging very quickly, but fortunately, the game offers a bevy of accessibility options that help you solve them. Each discovery is placed on the game’s Mental Map, which allows you to sort clues, color code information, and often pose a deduction question that, when paired with the correct clue, gives you further information to help answer a question.

This system can be finnicky, especially when you’ve solved a question yourself but the correct clue for the deduction isn’t clear, but for puzzles with this much background and this many disparate clues, the Mental Map is an incredibly helpful way to sort and organize information, especially if you’re coming off multiple play sessions or just want to avoid having to backtrack just to read an old tablet.

On top of this, there are options to ask for more help from your AI companion in the form of three additional clues in certain situations. Some of these are direct answers to the puzzle, while others are less clear and more directional, but having these as optional additional help is a refreshing way to give the player a bit more of a hand when they need it without being overly invasive.

This is the type of game where knowing the solution to puzzles will ultimately hamper replay value, but to counteract it here, most puzzles have two independent solutions that connect with an in-game feature called Corruption that reflects how much you’ve given in throughout the game. Where puzzles have multiple solutions, one is typically slightly easier or more transparent but increases Noah’s Corruption, while the other is more difficult or complex but either reduces or has no impact on his Corruption level.

For example, the puzzle involving the sacrificial ritual, when completed, increases Noah’s Corruption by going through with a human sacrifice to open that portal, but there is an alternative path to open the portal through an underground electric system. Though they’re both solutions to the same problem, they hardly overlap, and this approach offers a ton of flexibility in how you approach each chapter.

 The Cosmic Abyss incorporates these choices on a narrative level by making Corruption an evolution of the moral slider. Chapters are interlaced with cutscenes that pull you further into this mysterious world as you follow the paths of the miners and have further revelations about yourself. There are immediate questions about the motivation of the miners to come to this place that subtly touch on the theme of corporate greed and power, but the overall narrative becomes more of a milquetoast Lovecraftian ride that hits many of the same plot points that you’d expect from this setting.

"There’s enough variety to make the runtime never feel overly long, and the optionality within each chapter provides a significant amount of replay value."

The performances are passable if a little stiff, but the writing often leaves something to be desired with the way it conveys information. It doesn’t always seem to know its expectations of the audience’s awareness of the lore, so characters can flip between overly explaining a revelation to having full conversations about it without introduction.

This sometimes clunky dialogue makes it feel like an exercise in getting from one visually interesting place to the next where the appeal is often more in the visual variety than in any major narrative reveals. Your corruption level directly impacts the final act, with multiple endings based on how much you’ve given in throughout the game. Combined with the opportunity to solve different puzzles, these different pieces of content offer an intriguing reason to come back for another 10-to-12 hour run through the campaign.

On the technical level is where the game flounders, at least at launch. Environments are beautiful and highly populated with dozens of clues and other interactable items, but this often comes at the expense of performance. Much of my experience was plagued with an apparent memory leak bug that caused the game to slow down over time and ultimately crash, particularly when looking through the text-heavy Mental Map. It’s a shame because when it runs well, this game is incredibly smooth with almost instantaneous loading, and while it saves frequently enough that it didn’t end up costing any significant time, it’s still an immersion-breaking experience.

Though familiar in its setting, The Cosmic Abyss uses the known Lovecraftian environment to enable the creative and intricate puzzles at the center of the experience. The constantly unsettling atmosphere provides an appropriate backdrop for you to explore each area and answer the increasingly complex questions the game throws your way, and there’s a satisfying sense of progression as you continuously unlock new clues and solve deductions.

The Cosmic Abyss is clever, varied, and propulsive, and while it doesn’t break new ground narratively, The Cosmic Abyss brings enough new to the table with its puzzle design to warrant revisiting a well-trodden influence.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.

The trailer provides a brief rundown on the story setup for Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss. The narrative revolves around a submarine station in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, which had been shut down by the powerful mining corporation Ocean Eye. While the official statement was that it had simply been decommissioned, intercepted transmissions have indicated that there is more going on than the megacorp would want to admit.

The crew had started reporting hearing strange whispers in the dark, as well as the discovery of an underwater city resting on the ocean floor. The player takes on the role of an investigator working for a group known as Ansel with one simple mission: figure out what happened to the crew and figure out what they might have discovered. As the trailer notes, this isn’t a rescue operation. Rather, it is a “containment assessment,” and the player is only to “observe and report.”

To aid the player in their efforts, they have access to two distinct tools – an on-board AI assistant named KEY, and the SONAR, which can be used by the player to track down clues, which in turn can then be analyzed in the Vault. Game director Tommaso Sergi had outlined some of the gameplay and story elements of Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss earlier this month, noting that the studio wanted players to have “eureka moments” like they would in titles like Outer Wilds and The Forgotten City.

“From the start, our goal was to create a narrative detective where knowledge is the key,” he explained. “We wanted you to experience the same genuine ‘eureka’ moment that we all had in titles like Outer Wilds or The Forgotten City, when everything finally clicks, and the path forward seems clearer than ever.”

The horror game has been released to divisive reviews, with its aggregate score on Metacritic sitting at 70 based on ratings by 12 critics. While some have praised its polish and narrative, others have noted that it suffers from slow pacing that can potentially leave the player feeling frustrated.

Earlier this week, the studio had also released another trailer, this time around focusing on how the investigative horror game makes use of the PS5’s features. This includes haptic feedback and adaptive triggers from the DualSense controller, as well as support for 5.1 surround sound and Dolby Atmos through the console’s 3D audio capabilities.

Players who might be uncertain about whether or not they would enjoy the game can check out its free demo on Steam. Along with this, the studio had also released a trailer showcasing the opening minutes of Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss back in February. And if you’re looking for more Lovecraftian horror, ACE Team is working on the co-op title The Mound: Omen of Cthulhu, details of which you can check out here.

For those who haven’t been keeping up with this one, it puts you in control of Noah, an occultist looking into the mysterious disappearance of miners on a rig in the Pacific Ocean. Your investigation is going to take you to some dark places, and Cthulhu seemingly lurks at the end of your road, ready to tear your mind apart if you let its influence overtake your senses.

The PS5 version immerses you in this frightening world with the DualSense’s haptics and adaptive triggers coming into play at key moments. Dolby Atmos support will have you right in the middle of it all if you’ve got a compatible set of speakers. We’re wondering if we’re brave enough for it under those circumstances, but immersive experiences like this are always a welcome sight.

If you’re planning on diving into the depths on PS5, Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss launches on April 16th for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC.

“From the start, our goal was to create a narrative detective where knowledge is the key,” explains Sergi in the trailer. “We wanted you to experience the same genuine ‘eureka’ moment that we all had in titles like Outer Wilds or The Forgotten City, when everything finally clicks, and the path forward seems clearer than ever.”

Sergi also showcases some of the fancy tools that players will have access to throughout their time in the game, like the SONAR and the vault. These tools can be used alongside each other to give the player a clearer idea of what kind of mysteries they might be dealing with. When it comes to the main setting of the game, Sergi confirms that players will get to explore areas that range from the submerged forest of New England to the city of R’lyeh.

Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss is being developed for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. Its story revolves around occult investigator Noah, who is looking into the mysterious disappearances of miners at an underwater facility in the Pacific Ocean.

The game got a trailer back in February that gave us a look at its opening moments. It helped establish the general atmosphere of the upcoming game quite quickly, and also provided a clear look at the kinds of threats players will have to deal with during their investigations.

Another trailer was released last month, providing an overview of the gameplay in Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss. This includes things like underwater exploration and how analysing clues works. The protagonist’s companion—an AI assistant named KEY—was also shown off in the trailer.

Interestingly, Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss isn’t the only Lovecraft-themed game published by Nacon. ACE Team’s The Mound: Omen of Cthulhu was unveiled back in November 2025 and offers a different take on the Cthulhu mythos by focusing on co-op gameplay rather than a single-player experience.

The title involves teams of four players setting off to a mysterious island that is seemingly filled with treasures (and strange horrors). While players have the simple goal of getting their hands on as much treasure as possible and escaping from the island, things start getting complicated when strange creatures appear. Players can also start suffering from hallucinations, which can range from simply being jump scares to larger-scale ones that can convince you to kill your allies. It’s out on July 15th.

As for Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss, it’s coming to PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S on April 16th. A free demo is available now on PC.

The sale of Spiders would mark the end of an over six-year-long partnership between it and Nacon. The publisher had originally acquired the studio back in 2019, shortly after the release of the original GreedFall. Interestingly, the report also indicates that another project was in development at Spiders, codenamed Dark, which was ultimately cancelled in June 2025. No details about this project have been revealed; however, aside from the fact that it was going to be a licensed game.

In the meantime, Spiders has reportedly already started pre-production work on a brand new project after having released the 1.0 update for GreedFall: The Dying World. This project has been described as providing extra potential leverage for a potential sale. However, there is an internal feeling at Nacon that this project was largely to keep Spiders’ employees busy in light of an upcoming sale.

There have also been attempts made to reassure the studio that it would not shut down. However, a developer described this attempt by management as not quite working well. “It feels like they’ve already given up,” they said.

The publication has also confirmed through a statement by Nacon that, along with Spiders, its Nacon Tech subsidiary is also involved in the sale.

In light of Nacon’s recent financial troubles, French video game union Syndicat des Travailleureuses du Jeu Video has criticized the company, saying that its leadership has a disdain for game development, leading it to “actively sabotage” its studios with their “incompetence.”

“Years of mismanagement and strategic nothingness, both at the group and company levels, have blocked studios from modernizing, organizing and developing themselves,” said the union. “Today, even after completely emptying its studios’ coffers – dozens of millions of euros which should have ensured studio stability and safe jobs! – Nacon comes out with a deficit.”

“Makeshift solutions like canceling all recruitments and raises for more than a year, or snake oil solutions like ‘AI,’ which Nacon is gradually forcing on its studios without even knowing what for, will not save money and clean up the company accounts. The deterioration of working conditions in the last years, and the creation of new studios with the barely hidden goal of sabotaging existing ones, were already convoluted ways of reducing headcount, and they only made matters worse.”

The union has called for the removal of Nacon’s executive team and has demanded better working conditions, updates to development tools and processes, and a policy to fight turnover rates.

Nacon had originally announced that it was filing for insolvency last month after the majority shareholder Bigben Interactive was unable to make a partial repayment of its bond loan. At the time, the publisher requested a “rapid implementation of a financial restructuring” that goes beyond simply restructuring debt under court supervision.

INFO Origami – L'éditeur français Nacon cherche à vendre Spiders, studio parisien racheté en 2019.Hier, quelques jours après les multiples demandes de mise en redressement judiciaire au sein du groupe, la maison-mère a prévenu les salarié·es de Spiders qu'un appel d'offre était imminent.

— Gauthier 'Gautoz' Andres (@gautoz.cool) 2026-03-27T11:56:34.153Z

Devil May Cry 5 getting a Switch 2 release wouldn’t be too surprising, since the company has been bringing its games to Nintendo’s relatively new console for some time now. Its recent releases on the platform include Resident Evil Requiem and Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection. The upcoming Pragmata is also coming to the Switch 2. Its rating was spotted by Gematsu on the website for the Taiwan Digital Game Rating Committee. However, at the time of writing, the page seems to have been taken down. Devil May Cry 5 was originally released on PC, PS4 and Xbox One back in 2019, followed by a Special Edition release on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S in 2020. Capcom had also confirmed, as of May 2025, that Devil May Cry 5 had sold more than 10 million copies.

The ratings for Hell Is Us and Blood West were spotted on the website for the US-based Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB). Both titles have gotten a Mature 17+ rating. The page for Hell Is Us cites blood, drug references, strong language, suggestive themes and violence. The one for Blood West, on the other hand, cites blood and gore, partial nudity, use of alcohol and tobacco, and violence. While both games may have been rated for release, it is still unknown when they will actually come out on the Nintendo Switch 2.

Of the three titles, Hell Is Us is the most recent release, having come out just last year. In our review, we described it as part “Souls-like, mostly action-adventure” that melds the horrors of war with supernatural horrors thanks to an event known as the Calamity. We gave the launch version of the title a score of 7 out of 10 thanks to its realistic depiction of a civil war with uncomfortable sights and well-designed dungeons paired with fast-paced and responsive combat. Our main criticisms revolved around a lack of variety in enemy types, as well as a lack of interesting boss fights.

Blood West was released back in 2023, and melds in elements of the weird west sub-genre of horror with gameplay closer to the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series. We gave the title a score of 8 out of 10 in our review thanks to its atmosphere, core gameplay, and the variety offered by its progression systems. Our major criticisms revolved around its levels feeling too similar to each other, along with a steep difficulty curve that starts off much harder than it should have. Ultimately, we recommended it for fans of the stealth genre as well as the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. franchise.

While we don’t quite get much in the way of gameplay, the trailer does a good job of establishing the tone that one would expect out of a game set in the same universe as Vampire: The Masquerade. Rather than playing as vampires, however, players will instead take on the role of hunters that are hunting down the creatures of the night and trying to make sure that they can’t take advantage of regular humans.

The trailer showcases how a vampire, working as police officer Shaw, was able to find a victim already tied up, and could use his powers as a policeman to ensure that no one would know about them. We then cut to the hunter’s perspective, showing off all the research they had already done on Shaw, including whether or not they might be a vampire of either the Ventrue or the Lasombra clans.

While not outright confirmed, the trailer indicated that Hunter: The Reckoning – Deathwish might also include some co-op gameplay, since the end of the trailer features several hunters grouping up before they take on officer Shaw. Each hunter was also seemingly equipped with different weapons and equipment, including shotguns,a hacking device, and a stake to paralyze the vampire.

The final bits of the trailer show us some of the in-game environments, confirmation that it will be a first-person shooter, a quick look at a stealth takedown, and a hideous creature.

However, it has given us a better look at how we’ll be spending our time in the depths. The mysterious collapse of an underwater mining facility in the Pacific Ocean is the catalyst for an investigation into something very sinister that’s going to need a lot of painstaking research to fully uncover. You do that by analyzing clues, which consumes the limited energy that you can recover by collecting organic resources scattered around the area.

While that part sounds all right, Cthulhu’s corrupting influence is something you need to watch out for as the lines between reality and illusion blur, and you cannot trust your own senses. Fortunately, KEY, your AI assistant, is there to help, and your onboard SONAR is going to be quite useful in scoping out the areas ahead of you as you make your way further into the depths.

Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss launches on April 16 for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC.

In a statement, the union has said that Nacon’s leadership had a disdain for video game production, which worked alongside their “incompetence” to “actively sabotage” its studios.

“Years of mismanagement and strategic nothingness, both at the group and company levels, have blocked studios from modernizing, organizing and developing themselves,” said the union. “Today, even after completely emptying its studios’ coffers – dozens of millions of euros which should have ensured studio stability and safe jobs! – Nacon comes out with a deficit.”

“Makeshift solutions like canceling all recruitments and raises for more than a year, or snake oil solutions like ‘AI,’ which Nacon is gradually forcing on its studios without even knowing what for, will not save money and clean up the company accounts. The deterioration of working conditions in the last years, and the creation of new studios with the barely hidden goal of sabotaging existing ones, were already convoluted ways of reducing headcount, and they only made matters worse.”

Syndicat des Travailleureuses du Jeu Video has gone on to call for the removal of Nacon’s executive team. Along with this, the union also wants better working conditions, updated tools and processes, and a policy to prevent further talent drain across studios under the company that would involve fighting turnover rates.

Nacon had announced its filing for insolvency back in February, which happened due to the majority shareholder Bigben Interactive being unable to make a partial repayment of its bond loan. The shareholder blamed “unexpected and late refusal” from its banking pool. In its filing, the company requested a “rapid implementation of a financial restructuring” that goes beyond simply restructuring debt under court supervision.

A report from earlier this week had indicated that Nacon had paused payments to employees at Cyanide Studios, Spiders and Kylotonn. At the time, an estimated 320 game developers were affected by this lack of payments, with the three studios becoming part of the publisher’s court-ordered restructuring. In its more recent press release, Nacon has outright confirmed that four of its subsidiaries – Spiders, Kylotonn, Cyanide and motion capture company Nacon Tech – had filed for insolvency with the Lille Métropole Commercial Court. More details are slated to be revealed as proceedings continue.

The insolvency comes in the light of Nacon having suffered major failed game releases under its belt, including 2023’s The Lord of the Rings: Gollum. The company has also acquired several studios, including Neopica, Midgar Studio, Ishtar Games, and Big Ant Studios, among others. Along with Gollum, Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown also saw an underwhelming reception, which likely contributed to the company’s current financial position.

That’s not to say that Nacon hasn’t published well-liked games, however. We recently saw the release of GreedFall: The Dying Light, as well as 2024’s co-op hack-and-slash roguelite title Ravenswatch.

Nacon’s original filing occurred after the majority shareholder, Bigben Interactive, failed to make a partial repayment of its bond loan to bondholders. The shareholder laid the blame on an “unexpected and late refusal” by its banking pool, which in turn has also affected its own operations. Nacon has requested a “rapid implementation of financial restructuring” to survive. Previous considerations of debt restructuring under court supervision fell apart because the company lacked enough available assets that could be sold to pay off its debts in time.

The insolvency filing involved the company requesting a judicial reorganization to assess potential solutions that could lead to Nacon’s survival “under the best possible conditions.” This means protecting its employees, preserving jobs, and renegotiating with creditors. The hearing took place earlier this month.

The publisher had also decided to push back its planned Nacon Connect showcase, which was originally slated for March 4th. Citing a “difficult economic environment,” the company has postponed the event to May so that the company can “ensure that our future announcements have the impact they deserve.”

“Faced with a difficult economic environment for the company, we are choosing to focus our resources on upcoming releases and the development of our current games. This period will allow us to polish our projects and prepare for a new Nacon Connect to be held in May, which will showcase the work of our studios in the best possible way,” said the studio in its announcement.

The event was going to feature gameplay from a pair of cosmic horror titles: Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss and The Mound: Omen of Cthulhu. Along with this, a new action RPG dubbed Edge of Memories, as well as a new entry in the Endurance Motorsport Series by KT Racing, were also going to be part of the show.

GreedFall: The Dying World was its most recent release. The title spent significant time in Early Access on PC before its eventual 1.0 release, which also coincided with the launch of PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions. For more details, take a look at our review.

Earlier this month, Nacon, along with developer ACE Team, had also announced that co-op horror title The Mound: Omen of Cthulhu is making its way to PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S on July 15th. This announcement came alongside a new trailer, which showcased gameplay as well as some of the title’s spookier elements, including hallucinations that players can suffer from.

INFO Origami – La série noire continue chez Nacon, dont les trois plus gros studios de développement en France – Cyanide, Spiders et Kylotonn – sont en cessation de paiement et ont été placés en redressement judiciaire.

— Gauthier 'Gautoz' Andres (@gautoz.cool) 2026-03-23T16:47:19.550Z