Conarium Goes Free On The Epic Games Store Next Week

How are you with psychological horror games? Are you the type who plays them on the edge of your seat, or the kind of person who doesn't even bother downloading them? If you're in the former camp, you might love what the Epic Games Store is giving away next week in 2017's Conarium.

Conarium places you in the role of a scientist at an Antarctic base who wakes up to find said base empty. All the other crew members are gone, and any memory of what occurred has also vanished. It'll be your job to piece everything back together and discover what happened. And that'll involve some exploring, some puzzle solving, and yes, some scary moments.

The game was developed by a tiny studio named Zoetrope. It was published by an indie publisher named Iceberg Interactive. It didn't get a lot of attention a few years back when it released, a fact made evident by the scant number of mainstream outlets that reviewed it. Really, it's about as indie as a game can get. Fortunately, Polygon took it for a spin and found it to be a proper Lovecraftian tale (though lacking in some aspects). Here's a bit of what reviewer Philip Kollar had to say:

"It left me wanting more, for better and worse. It left my mind racing with the reality-shattering implications of this universe's dark lore. But I finished Conarium wishing it would have pushed a little deeper, a little further and with a little more quality, even as the most solid attempt at bringing Lovecraft to video games done so far."

Polygon scored Conarium a 7.5 out of 10, which might actually put it on the lower end compared to some of the other titles the Epic Games Store has given away (trust us: there have been some gems). In its defense, however, it's a departure from the various action games and platformers EGS users have downloaded in the past few months. If you want a short adventure game with horror elements that you probably haven't played or heard of before, Conarium might just be what you're after.

At the low, low cost of free, you really can't go wrong either way.

Conarium will be available as a free download in the Epic Games Store from Sept. 12 through Sept. 19.