Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss Reveals Its Trophy List — What It Says About the Game

Big Bad Wolf goes all-in on Lovecraft

Big Bad Wolf doesn't do things halfway. The creators of Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong have apparently decided to tackle Lovecraft with the same narrative ambition as their previous work. Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss positions itself as a detective thriller rooted in the Cthulhu Mythos—treacherous ground where many have tried their hand, and few have truly succeeded.

The release of the game's complete trophy and achievement list, weeks before launch, is a goldmine of information for those who know how to read it. And what we're finding is rather encouraging.

What the achievements reveal about game structure

The list breaks down into several distinct categories: trophies tied to main progression, others attached to dialogue choices or moral decisions, and finally achievements clearly geared toward replayability with multiple endings to discover. This signals a game banking on branching narrative rather than collectathons.

Notably, there are evocative achievement titles around the concept of reason and madness—a core mechanic in any Lovecraftian work worth its salt—suggesting that a sanity system will sit at the heart of gameplay. Several achievements also seem to point toward fleshed-out secondary characters, a sign the studio invested in writing peripheral roles, not just the protagonist.

The density of the list—neither bloated nor thin—indicates an experience calibrated for 8 to 12 hours on a complete first run, with genuine incentive to replay for alternate paths.

A game built for narrative trophy hunters

What stands out is the near-total absence of purely technical or artificial achievements like "die 10 times" or "walk 1000 meters." Big Bad Wolf appears to have designed its achievements as an editorial calling card: each trophy tells something about the world or rewards a real player decision.

It's a mature approach, one from a studio that understands achievements are part of the experience, not an artificial retention system. In a genre—narrative investigation—where games often forget to reward curiosity, that's a distinction worth noting.

• Trophies tied to multiple endings, encouraging replayability
• An apparent sanity system, aligned with Lovecraftian lore
• Achievements attached to moral choices and secondary characters
• No artificial padding detected in the list

A milestone moment for French gaming

Big Bad Wolf ranks among the handful of French studios capable of competing internationally in premium narrative games. After Swansong, which divided critics while carving out a strong identity, Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss represents an obvious leap forward—judging by the stated ambitions and the consistency of what we're already seeing.

The trophy list is only a partial glimpse, of course. But for a narrative investigation game, it's often one of the most reliable indicators of design philosophy. And Big Bad Wolf's seems firmly oriented toward what matters: story, choice, consequence. Everything else will follow—or won't—at launch.