Arkham Nightmares

About

Arkham Nightmares is a single player action game with a horror theme. It was developed by Tim Rachor and was released on August 13, 2016. It received neutral reviews from players.

Arkham Nightmares is an adventure game with rogue-like elements. You play Prof. Liebwerk the head physician of the Lovecraftian Arkham Sanatorium. Your task is to complete your journal with all the stories from the crazy inmates. But before they will tell you anything you have to win their trust.

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Play Modes

Single-Player

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50%

Audience ScoreBased on 20 reviews

replayability1 positive mentions

atmosphere3 negative mentions

Atmospheric Lovecraft-inspired setting with a constant sense of unease and effective sound design including a distinctive jazz-influenced soundtrack.
Unique blend of psychological horror, narrative-driven exploration, and light roguelike elements offering some replayability and a compelling concept.
Certain quirky charm and enjoyably bizarre voice acting that may appeal to players who appreciate 'so bad it's good' style indie games.

Gameplay is often shallow, involving guessing who likes which items without clear direction or meaningful consequences, leading to frustrating progression and lack of guidance.
Technical issues including bugs, crashes, poor controls, inability to save progress mid-chapter, and underwhelming graphics that fail to support immersion.
Disjointed pacing and inconsistent balancing between daytime narrative interaction and nighttime survival mechanics, making the overall experience feel incomplete and uneven.

gameplay
13 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
23%
54%
23%
The gameplay attempts a unique blend of stealth, investigation, and psychological survival with distinct daytime and nighttime phases, but suffers from inconsistent integration, limited depth, and awkward pacing. Many players find the mechanics unengaging and confusing, compounded by technical issues and a lack of polish. Overall, the gameplay experience is often described as clumsy and frustrating rather than enjoyable.
- “The gameplay is divided between daytime and nighttime phases, each serving a different purpose.”
- “These segments introduce stealth and evasion mechanics, creating a contrast with the slower, dialogue-driven daytime sections.”
- “The idea of balancing investigation with psychological survival is compelling, but the transition between these gameplay styles can feel disjointed.”
- “However, these features are not deeply integrated into the overall design, and their impact on the gameplay remains limited.”
- “Additionally, the balance between narrative and gameplay is inconsistent, with some sections feeling engaging and others lacking direction or impact.”
story
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
38%
24%
38%
The story is generally viewed as unclear, minimal, and uninspired, offering little motivation or direction for players. Lore interactions rarely enhance the narrative, and progression guidance is lacking. While some modes attempt to address gameplay and pacing issues, the overall narrative experience remains weak and unengaging.
- “There is now a story mode that fixes inventory clearing every night and also skips some gameplay issues.”
- “The voice acting and the music were pretty good for a free game.”
- “The primary gameplay mechanic involves searching out plot items scattered across the map and figuring out who to give them to.”
- “You can also talk to these people and gain some sort of lore, but most of the time it doesn't add anything to the already lacking story, and doesn't give you any indications on how to progress.”
- “The story is unclear, the gameplay some kind of overworked old-school and the voice-over are the most terrible I've ever heard (only pro: you can disable them by unchecking 'sound' in the menu).”
- “The story is uninspired or at least too minimal as my time playing didn't give me any drive to want to know more.”
atmosphere
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
40%
60%
The atmosphere of Arkham Nightmares is noted for its unique, Lovecraftian setting that shows strong potential, but it is often undermined by inconsistent execution, lack of detail, and polish in environments and character models. While it creates a distinct mood, the overall experience struggles to fully immerse players due to these shortcomings.
- “Atmosphere is where Arkham Nightmares shows the most promise.”
- “It offers an atmospheric setting and a unique blend of mechanics, but struggles with consistency, depth, and polish.”
- “Environments and character models are functional, but they lack detail and polish, which can make it difficult for the atmosphere to fully resonate.”
- “For the sheer awkwardness of this game and the weird atmosphere, but for those of you who want a game that is actually a good game and want some fun gameplay that's not where to look for.”
- “I bought this game for the Lovecraftian atmosphere.”
music
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
40%
20%
40%
The game's music features a distinctive jazz and ragtime-inspired soundtrack that adds a unique and fitting atmosphere, often praised for its charm and style. However, opinions on the overall sound design are mixed, with some users appreciating the voice acting and soundscape, while others find the music and voice work lacking.
- “The addition of a jazz-influenced soundtrack gives the game a distinctive tone, blending period style with a slightly surreal edge that fits its world.”
- “And I really liked it, it's good looking, the soundtrack is very nice.”
- “This is not innovative, the music is bad, the voice acting is bad, the island is absolutely tiny.”
- “The soundscape is hilarious though, and I enjoy the tinny ragtime music and heavily-accented voiceover.”
graphics
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
40%
60%
The graphics rely on intentionally outdated, retro pixel art that lacks detail and cannot be improved beyond simple resolution scaling, resulting in uninspired 2D visuals. Despite using the Unity engine, the game employs low-quality assets from RPG Maker, limiting any graphical enhancements.
- “A choice was made to use obsolete, decades old retro pixel 'art' as a substitute for contemporary PC graphics.”
- “While there are options to change the resolution for the game, all this does is scale up the simplistic 2D art assets used to make the game, which makes little or no difference to the graphics quality.”
- “Without any other substantial graphics tweaks, it's not possible for gamers to improve the lacklustre 2D visuals.”
replayability
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
50%
The game offers some replayability through changing elements between playthroughs, but the overall difficulty is minimal since players retain acquired progress upon restarting. This limits the challenge and impact of replaying.
- “Certain aspects of the experience can change between playthroughs, giving the game a degree of replayability.”
stability
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game suffers from significant stability issues, frequently causing freezes that require force-closing. It is reported to be buggy and poorly optimized.
- “This game is extremely buggy and badly assembled.”
- “The game just freezes my PC and I have to force close it.”
humor
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor is primarily conveyed through a quirky soundscape, featuring tinny ragtime music and a heavily-accented, amusing voiceover that adds a lighthearted and entertaining atmosphere.
character development
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The reviews do not provide sufficient information to assess character development, as the focus is mainly on the poorly executed voice acting and visual presentation within the limited initial gameplay.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Arkham Nightmares is a action game with horror theme.

Arkham Nightmares is available on PC and Windows.

Arkham Nightmares was released on August 13, 2016.

Arkham Nightmares was developed by Tim Rachor.

Arkham Nightmares has received neutral reviews from players. Most players liked Arkham Nightmares for its replayability but disliked it for its gameplay.

Arkham Nightmares is a single player game.

Similar games include Dream, Guise Of The Wolf, Frankenstein Master of Death, One Dog Story, Quest for Infamy and others.

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