Call of Cthulhu: Prisoner of Ice

An interesting story but poorly paced. The twists are genuinely decent, but they have little weight because there isn't enough time spent interacting with the characters. Game play is decent, although there was too many times where the challenge came from pixel hunting and one puzzle where you had to go back and re-examine a background item to progress with logical reason to do so. Apart from that the puzzles are very logical, you won't use items for things they don't have a logical purpose for, but there is very little signposting. Only one or two inventory puzzles. Several times I had to use an item on the main character which didn't seem logical. The left-click and right-click actions would be better reversed in my opinion. The timed deaths are annoying trial-and-error sequences, but at least the game auto-saves just before them. The graphics seemed fine for its era, and cut-scenes are nice and moody as they should be. The designs of the environments could be more atmospheric. The end music seemed to glitch out. Only about 4 hours of game play, which is fine considering the price, but I'd recommend it on sale.

This is both better and worse than its predecessor, Shadow of the Comet, but overall, I feel that it's a better experience. To get the bad out of the way, the graphics are very reminiscent of an era where rendered graphics were all the rage, but weren't really that good yet; the visuals are a mix of rendered objects and spritework, creating a weird juxtaposition, and needless to say, the rendered objects don't look that great. The whole experience is so over-the-top that it's often just silly, and that includes the voice acting. The gameplay was riddled with timed deaths (that you won't necessarily know are timed) and puzzles so counter-intuitive that I frequently didn't have any idea why I was doing what I was doing. The story also has one of those plot twists that plague modern writing: the kind that are just thrown in with no thought, add nothing to the story, and don't actually go anywhere; the twist happens, and... they just don't really do anything with it. On the other hand, a lot of this works in its favor. Yes, with the new visuals, gone was the creepy, intriguing atmosphere of Shadow of the Comet, but what Shadow of the Comet needed more of was surreal, horrific creatures, which this game has in spades. The interface is a lot less awful than in the previous game, too; simple point-and-click. Though the timed deaths are a total drag, at least you don't have to actively avoid enemies with bad controls. What Prisoner of Ice suffers the most is the misfortune of taking things too far in the opposite direction, leaving it a bit south of its potential. And hey, at least half of the voice actors actually pronounce Cthulhu correctly; I was very impressed by that! Just not much else. While I felt little more than frustration with most of Shadow of the Comet, Prisoner of Ice was overwhelmingly meh, but that's an improvement, at least.

I played this game, originally, when it came out on PC and I used to play it with the Portuguese voices, which were horrible but entertaining, so I am extremely biased in this case. The game captures very well the Cthulhu Mythos and delivers on a very nice story, adventure, mystery and horror. Dying in this game would send shivers down my spine every time. Visuals are nice and for the time it was amazing. Today it holds up but not completely. Audio is very good. I played the English voiced version this time and it is quite decent. The music and the sound effects are so good and fit perfectly with the theme. Controls can be a bit jiffy sometimes, but not all that confusing. The main problem was figuring out how to open the inventory, but that was eventually figured out. The puzzles in the game are evident but some items can be placed in the weirdest and hardest places to find. Some patience is required. All in all, this is a fine point-and-click adventure horror game and a very good fit into the Cthulhu Mythos, if you are into that.

It's about 2 hours long, story touched very superficially, lots of events in which you have about 3 seconds to find the solution before you die...some real nice cutscenes, but that's it. It's worth about 0,50€, but clearly NOT the 5€!

I’ve played and completed this game a number of times over the years and being a lifelong fan of all things HP Lovecraft I’ve enjoyed the game every time but... it is a flawed gem, especially when compared to its vastly superior predecessor Shadow of the Comet which is a beautifully realised vision of the Cthulhu myth is. The concept is original (horror and Nazis - good combination) and you could argue that the graphics are a step-up on Shadow of the Comet, however I’ll take pixelated characters and a great storyline over rotoscoped 3D renders any day! But I’m possibly being a little too harsh and you’re probably asking why I have given this game 4 stars. Well it’s simple really - the game mechanics are better and it’s easier to manage your character and inventory. The story has a good premise and draws the player into the plot and game. The sound is OK (not amazing). The characters are engaging to a point but they don’t quite gel in the same way as it’s predecessor. Overall if you have played Shadow of the Comet you’re likely to enjoy this game. If you’re a HP Lovecraft fan then you’ll enjoy this game. If you like graphic adventures you’ll like the game (but be warned it can be difficult).