Call of Cthulhu: Prisoner of Ice

This game is a step forward from its predecessor Shadow of the Comet, and its definetly more comfortable for the modern audience, but it also lacks the atmosphere of SotC and it's very short. Graphics are good (for '95) (monsters look silly though and aren't very lovecraftesque) Controls are good (classic point n click controls) Sound is ok (I had few sound and fmv glitches, but nothing major) but music kinda sucks (15s loops repeated over and over) Voice acting is good Puzzles are ok, nothing special but they follow logic and are pretty straightforward. There are a few hard, pixel hunting puzzles, but in general this is an easy game. There is an autosave system so death scenes aren't a big deal. The story would be nice and interesting (much better than SotC IMHO) if it wasn't extremely rushed: the game starts in media res and feels like it's the final act of a much longer game. Monsters and magic are introduced right away at the beginning with no explanation, so the game lacks the mistery and suspense of a good lovecraft story. The characters, even the protagonist who plays a pivotal role in the plot, are extremely dull and generic and lack any kind of conversation beside what is strictly necessary to make the game progress. The world is not interactive at all. The story it's also a direct sequel to Shadow of the Comet so everything will make more sense if you played it (even though it's not mandatory). In the end, it feels like the authors learned and improved from SotC and had an actually really interesting story in mind for this one, but lacked the budget or the time to make a full fledged AAA point n click adventure title, and resorted to put everything togehter in a very condensed manner. The same story but with a Broken Sword or LucasArts production value would deserve 5 stars. As it is, it only deserves 3: buy it on sale if you liked SotC or if you like CoC and 90s adventures.

I first played this in 2021 so I have no nostalgia for the game. It has surprisingly easy and intuitive controls for such an old adventure and the cinematic scenes look great. It's mostly very linear and easy but sometimes I got stuck and had to look at a walk-through. Some items and buttons are only a few pixels and are hard to find. As a big fan of H.P. Lovecraft I have to admit that modern games like Dark Corners of the Earth, Darkness Within or Conarium can create the atmosphere of insanity and unspeakable horrors much better.

I'm dissapointed about this game. Long time ago I already had this title and played it. In my memories it was a quite OK adventure, but now I would say it's annoying and frustrating. The artwork is mostly great, but that's the only positive thing I can say. The animation of the characters are ridiculous, and also Ryan stands in a strange posture. There are some items which are almost impossible to find. It's really boring going over and over on every scene and moving the cursor slowly from left to right from up to down pixel by pixel, just to find an object. And if you think the pixelhunt is just for about 1 or 2 items, I have bad news for you: almost every difficulty comes from these hard to find hotspots. The puzzles are quite simple. You have only a few items at the same time, so it's really not difficult to find out what are they for. Problems come when you know what to do, but don't know how (e.g.: try to use something on the creature instead of Ryan, etc). Also there are some points in the game where you just want to scream and break your monitor in anger, because you keep dying and reloading for 30 minutes, just because the time is too short to find out what you should do or in what order. Buy it when it's discounted and don't expect too much.

Great game from my childhood! Just wanted to confirm that the savegame bug if indeed fixed! That's one of the great things I like from GOG.

First off, a disclaimer: I played this game in DOSbox back when it was considered an abandonware, but this shouldn't influence the review in any way. The best part of the game is the first section, set on board of submarine. It's suspenseful, claustrophobic and has a great sense of urgency and paranoia to it, even though if the death animations look a bit goofy. In the next section the game still tries to keep you on your toes, but the suspense is mostly gone and the moon logic starts to creep in. Despite this it still manages to hold your interest. The third section feels like it was cut from Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis with female sidekick that plays no role in the rest of game and fighting nazis instead of eldritch abominations. After that part the game sadly starts to feel unfinished. There are locations that look like we should spend a lot more time in them, an item that seems to be a crucial plot device but then is used mostly for clearing rubble and soon it's hard to tell what are we doing. There are actually two endings, but the game straight up asks you which ending you want to watch. Two other things worth mentioning are the beautiful and striking images illustrating stories of some of the characters and the voice acting which for the most part is rather well done. Overall, if you're interested, it's best to wait for a discount.