Thank you Raven Novels for providing us with a preview code!

Innsmouth 22 is an Early Access visual novel where all of the character and background art is completely AI generated. While not perfect, it’s really impressive what ai can do. According to the Steam store page, the dialogue is 75% complete and Steam achievements will be added soon. In its current state I was able to complete the game and see multiple endings in less than three hours.

Upon launching Innsmouth 22, I was greeted with a menu in a foreign language. I’m guessing Italian. If you go into the third option (Opzioni) you can change your language preferences there. If you’re like me and play games on multiple devices, you may be disappointed to find out that there is no Steam cloud support. I was able to copy my save from the steamapps\common\innsmouth 22\game folder.

The story is about an Italian professor named Lorenzo Righi who is invited to speak at a Boston convention for history scholars. At first, Lorenzo is flattered and unaware of how they heard of his work, but as he arranges the trip accommodations he senses that they know a lot, if not too much about him.

Despite thinking that something is off, Lorenzo continues on with his journey to Boston. His trip is only a few days long and ever since his arrival, he has been experiencing nightmares and seeing unusual symbols and activities in the port town of Innsmouth. There are references to various gods and during a diving excursion, Lorenzo finds and brings back a green statue that he found deep in the ocean. Upon seeing it, the guide was visibly shaken and demanded he hand it over right away. (He did).

Lorenzo learns about the history of Innsmouth and how it used to be a smuggler’s paradise and how a few families became powerful and influential as a result. These family members play a key role in the story and why Lorenzo was chosen to speak at this event. I won’t go into details because this is a short visual novel and I don’t want to spoil it for you.

Innsmouth 22 is pretty well fleshed out for an Early Access title. I’m bummed about missing out on the Steam achievements, but I feel like the story is pretty well rounded so far.

The art being completely AI generated is a mixed bag. I love the box art and most of the characters look professionally designed. Some of the other characters in the game are not as well fleshed out or do not match the text descriptions. A few examples include the boy at the hotel lobby being shown as a middle aged man artistically. The waiter at a greasy diner is wearing a bow tie and a tuxedo vest, quite over dressed if you ask me. One of my favorites was a teenage boy that looked unidentifiable as if they got smacked in the face a couple of times with a baseball bat.

The background music is pleasant, but not memorable. Perhaps that was AI generated too?

Morally Innsmouth 22 has some issues worth pointing out. There is some language (d*mn) and the Lord’s name is used in vain. One on of his evening excursions Lorenzo stumbles into a church-like building with people dressed in robes and chanting indistinguishable phrases. Some of the characters will die no matter what choices you make. No blood is shown. Lorenzo does drink on occasion and mentions getting tipsy once. Marijuana use is mentioned. Some of the female characters wear clothes that accentuate their figure.

Innsmouth 22 shows a lot of promise. Hopefully language selection will be easier in the final version and that the game is fully translated as a few of the slides were not in English when playing through this title. I look forward to checking out more stories from Raven Novels.