From an Arkham Horror fan’s perspective, Arkham Horror: Mother’s Embrace on Xbox feels like a blancmange model of the source material. It has none of the spiralling difficulty, gloom and impending doom. It’s easy, competent, and it’s clearly been made more palatable for a wider audience. We suspect that non-Arkham fans will see it as an extremely basic tactics game with lots of levers that you won’t need to pull, sewn onto an unsatisfying adventure game.

Despite my absolute fondness for Arkham Horror: The Card Game, Arkham Horror: Mother’s Embrace is dreadful: a sort of empty and unfaithful substitute to a pleasant board game deserving to be acknowledged. Mother’s Embrace is a mere video game transposition without an ounce of creativity and even at times a bit lazy and slow. Nonetheless, those used to the series might be thrilled to once again find some of the franchise’s iconic characters and enjoy its atmosphere. As for the others, this game can also be a sleeping-pill substitute rather than a decent introduction to H.P Lovecraft’s universe or FFG’s board games: what a waste.