Call of Cthulhu®

I almost skipped this one given the very middling reviews it received. This is undersatndable as, if you put "Lovecraftian" in front of a video game, you trigger a thousand different expectations based on who you talk to. The truth is, this game nails the atmosphere as very few of the Lovecraftian games managed to. This is perfectly explained by painticus on youtube. Thanks to his review i gave this game a try and I had a blast. The existential horror in this game is palpable, no jump scares, only a very finely crafted dread that permeates through the experience. So, not only is the atmosphere great, but the graphics are top notch too. Very detailed environments with great lighting and effects. The character animations are a bit janky though, but nothing terrible. I think the biggest flaw of this game is the way it doesn't communicate the various mechanics. For example, the dialogue. You get these garbled dialogue options, but no explanations on what these are meant to do. Also, the experience system doesn't seem to have much impact on gameplay. Concerning the different styles of gameplay, I think the first monster/stealth encounter was not very good. Stealth doesn't really work as the monster can see you even if you peek while crouched, so you have to do the section running even if it ruins the atmosphere. For the gunplay/stealth section, everyone points this out as being "bad gunplay". I quite liked it, for these are not gunplay sections but, "push A to kill" sections. This is an "adventure first" game, no skills required. So this is a gem of an existential horror adventure game, with an entertaining dialogue system, a somewhat varied and relaxed gameplay, a good story, even if a bit overdone but that's what you get when you use 100 yo material. If you hesitate because of the negative reviews, I highly recommend to watch Painticus and his review of the game on youtube, if it resonates with you as it resonated with me, you will love it!

very well written game it is probably the most you could ask for a Lovecraftian game and as dark as pitch black goes with intriguing shady characters you wouldn't call friends one thing is certain why there are no ammo pickups and health bar extensibles because you can't kill things not seen by others I'm not entirely sure if a fly-mode would have been sometimes useful the graphics vary from time to time as if there were more teams at work.... but it won't kill the game, it's just, that it's noticeable the voice acting is as fantastic as much as the spine-chilling soundscapes are let's hope everyone is playing this through and stay sane at the bitter end one last thing..... just be careful if you see a bald grandad with Lennon sunglasses around somewhere you might be still trapped in your destiny and don't know it... ... always take your painkillers

This game gets SO many things right. I'm truly at a loss as to why it got panned, So, a little about me: I'm a long-time fan of the Cthulhu mythos, but I've had a hard time playing Cthulhu games. Dark Corners of the Earth was lovely, up until the rooftop chase scene, which threw me right out of the experience. But, I love the mythos, I love the style HPL had, and I find the mythos captivating. However, I waited on this game, because both this game and it's sibling title (The Sinking City) got _very_ mixed reviews. However, Call of Cthulhu was on sale here on GOG, so I gave it a go. What I found was, in short, the single best execution of capturing the mood of being in a Lovecraftian story in the medium of video games. That's not to say that the game is flawless. Far from it. It's a AA RPG that inherits a lot more from old school point-and-click adventure games. But within that framework, it _shines_. Don't pass this up!

Starts out pretty good- rpg points for investigating crimes scenes in different ways, it even appears to have an open world of sorts for you to wander the areas. Then at some point the investigations start shrinking, most of your points(which you can't max out) are useless, and you're railroaded from location and cutscene to location and cutscene in a very linear way. The game does maintain a good Lovecraftian feel, and makes some decent effort into (optionally) descending into madness, but The Sinking City definitely does it all better. Graphics are acceptable but strangely limited, things like repeated character arm gestures as they're talking. Worst is probably not having any type of chapter replay, since there are multiple possible endings, but you literally have to replay from the start to do anything different. Also not a fan of hide-and-seek insta-die sections, but that's on me.

A quick lowdown of the game based on my experience: Pros: + Beautiful graphics + Terrific H.P. Lovecraft mood + The main protagonist has a great voice Cons: - Game design is all over the place - It's like the designers can't decide if they want Call of Cthulhu to be Myst, Mass Effect, or Outlast. One moment it's a puzzle game, next is a stealth game, next is RPG, next is an FPS. What the hell?! - Cruel checkpoints - When you miss a certain item/event that will trigger the ending you want, you cannot revisit it unless you restart the whole game. That's stupid! If only we can manually save our game! - Lack of jumpscares - The game is eerie but not scary. I want CoC to make me jump off my seat but it didn't happen. Booooo! - Characters come and go - A lot of NPCs you meet tend to die too soon so you don't have time to connect with them, which is disappointing. - Broken sanity system - Unlike Dark Corners of The Earth or Eternal Darkness, this one doesn't do a good job of making the protagonist feel scared or losing his mind. You have all these stats that you unlock in your inventory that don't mean anything to me. I don't want to read that I'm scared; I want to feel scared! Despite all the criticism, I for some reason keep coming back to Call of Cthulhu time and time again. Both the atmosphere and level design grabs me in a way that no other single-player games do, so I guess that's a good thing. If Cyanide Studio were to make another Cthulhu-related game, I suggest they read my cons carefully and execute those ideas well. Also, please stick to one genre.