A comedy mystery in the Loathing universe
Shadows Over Loathing is a single-player adventure-RPG set in the prohibition era of the Loathing universe, following on from West of Loathing. You head to Ocean City because your Uncle Murray asked for help at his antique shop, and when you arrive he's gone. Digging into his disappearance and the artifacts he's been collecting pulls you into shadowy plots and squirming eldritch tentacles that threaten the end of the world. The whole thing is drawn as stick figures in line art, in black and white, and it plays like a choose-your-own-adventure book with a lot of jokes stuffed between the pages: thousands of gags, authentically baffling 1920s slang, sentient math, talking frogs, pettable cats, and a corrupt government to overthrow at your leisure.
How your group plays it
This is a single-player game, so one person owns the run while the rest of the group watches, suggests, and argues about what to pick. That suits it well: choices matter and there are multiple endings, so a crowd shouting opinions at the person holding the controller is half the fun. Steam lists Remote Play Together, which lets friends join in over a stream of the game. The game also supports controller play, so whoever is driving can sit back on the couch while the rest of the call looks on.
Classes, combat, and the open world
You pick a path at the start: the athletic Pig Skinner, who stuffs enemies into phone booths; the cunning Cheese Wizard, who controls the curds and whey of the cosmos; or the Hip Jazz Agent, marching to the beat of inscrutable purposes. Each comes with its own character customization and stick-figure wardrobe. The world is a sprawling open one full of quests, puzzles, locations, items, friends, foes, and familiars, plus oddities like an infinitely tall building, a time-travel side quest from your future self, multiple cursed antiques, and inappropriate fishing.
Combat is strategic and turn-based, but the store notes it only happens if you want it, so you can lean into fights or talk and puzzle your way through. Expect Lovecraftian non-Euclidean horrors lurking past the edges of the screen alongside the slapstick. Before starting, know that it's a long, joke-dense single-player story with real consequences to your choices, best played with someone willing to read everything out loud.