Dagon is a free, immersive cosmic horror adventure

An image from horror game Dagon. The sea floor is bare.
(Image credit: Bit Golem)

The apparently very generous and talented people over at Bit Golem have let loose a free horror adventure on Steam, an adaptation of the short story Dagon by H.P. Lovecraft. It's a game that takes place somewhere inside the morphine-addled mind of a former ship's officer, and in that way it's very much the "100% faithful adaptation of the original story" that it claims to be. Dagon takes about 30 minutes to complete.

Dagon is completely free on Steam. So you can just go get it. It'll update with VR support in October of this year. 

Bit Golem is a Polish indie studio working on their first game, the fishing and investigation thriller Tales of Herring Lake. If you decide you like Dagon, there's a $5 DLC with audiobook and ebook to support the developers.

I'm a noted cosmic horror game skeptic, and I'm never surprised when a game with the theme is bad. I am surprised when they are good. Dagon strikes a nice balance: It's a point-and-click adventure, so it's more walking you through an interactive story rather than offering up a narrative in which you are a fundamental participant. That's a great step of remove for the genre. But if it interests you, well, go give it a shot. It's free.

Correction: A previous version of this article stated that Dagon was only playable with controllers. This is displayed on the Steam store, but is a bug. Dagon is playable with mouse and keyboard or controllers.

Contributor

Jon Bolding is a games writer and critic with an extensive background in strategy games. When he's not on his PC, he can be found playing every tabletop game under the sun.

Read more
desiccated faces with columns protruding from their heads gaze forward toward the camera through an orange haze
The best horror games on PC
A Lovecraftian monster in a dungeon in Cyclopean: The Great Abyss.
This fascinating Lovecraftian RPG has me determined to build an army of ghoul-slaying cats—and no I haven't been driven mad by forbidden knowledge, why do you ask?
A man turns away from an open window while monsters gather in the dark
Look Outside is a survival horror RPG where you absolutely should not look outside
Facing an enemy in No-Skin
No-Skin is an incredibly simple horror roguelike about the worst party ever, full of strong booze, bad conversation and eldritch violence
A chunky robot stares out a window at a moon
Here's a game about being a depressed, lonely maintenance robot on a long-haul space colony ship
The demon Pharaoh screaming
Ancient Egyptian horror game Amenti had everything lined up to make it a stellar scarefest—except it forgot to include some actual horror
Latest in Adventure
Image of illuminated manuscript-style drawings from the game Pentiment.
Random characters kept swearing in Obsidian's font-obsessed murder-mystery when its procedural error system ran amok: 'Naughtiness abounded'
An image of a corpse with the text "You've been re-educated."
I played the lost videogame sequel to 1984, and came away more nostalgic than ever for gaming's awkward adolescence in 1999
Rosella encounters a satyr in a forest in King's Quest 4
Eagle-eyed streamer spots that Roberta Williams' portrait in King's Quest 4 is based on her author photo on the back of the game box: 'I never noticed it before.'
Myst puzzle game
'You’ve been asking, and we’ve been listening': Myst remake adds a whole new world to the classic adventure, one originally introduced in another overhaul from 25 years ago
The character takes a test in a school room.
Expelled! review
Max, protagonist of Life is Strange and Life is Strange: Double Exposure, stares with trepidation at something off-screen with her friend.
Life is Strange: Double Exposure reportedly a 'large loss' for Square Enix, says analyst, who adds: 'The company's IP fundamentally varies too much between good and bad'
Latest in News
A female Zoi making two hearts with her fingers.
Following 24 hours of Denuvo-based backlash, Inzoi is taking a surprising step and removing it entirely: 'We want to sincerely apologise for not aligning more closely with player expectations'
An ancient, angry stone mech from No Man's Sky's new Relics update
No Man’s Sky lets you unearth ancient, angry mechs in the astro-archaeology filled Relics update
Assassin's Creed Shadows promo image
Ubisoft scores a legendary ratio against Elon Musk on his own platform—which hopefully marks a final end to all the Assassin's Creed Shadows' culture war nonsense
Tzarina Katarin Bokha, the Ice Queen of Kislev
Total War: Warhammer 3 rolls out a cool Kislev overhaul, changes befitting Tzeench’s magic, new projectile units and creakier skeletal horses
An image of a golden first place award from Geoguessr
'We're actually getting GeoGuessr on Steam before GTA 6': the Google Street View puzzler arrives on Valve's platform this April
Napster client circa 1999
Former music-pirating platform Napster to be reborn rather ironically as a metaverse for musicians to connect with their fans after $207 million deal