Call of Cthulhu: Shadow of the Comet

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3.7/5

( 61 Reviews )

3.7

61 Reviews

English & 4 more

Posted on: November 17, 2020

evilsensei

Verified owner

Games: 240 Reviews: 19

Great atmosphere, dodgy controls

Great horror game inspired by Lovecraft's "Shadow of Innsmouth". The overall atmosphere is consistently creepy and unsettling throughout the game. For the best effect I recommend playing it in the middle of the night. :) The graphics are mostly very nice if you grew up with and can appreciate the pixellated beauty of '90s games. The game is very hard though, even if you are familiar with the Cthulhu mythos, and its knowledge doesn't really help with solving the various puzzles, so I recommend having a walkthrough handy to save yourself some frustration. Sometimes the in-game clues do not make it clear enough where to go next, sometimes you just miss a tiny detail, and sometimes you feel stuck even if you are doing the right thing but the cursor is off by a few pixels and you wonder why you can't get something working, or why you can't find and object despite you have clicked on every inch of the screen. Also save often, because there are many ways you can die unexpectedly. As I already mentioned the controls are the biggest flaw of the game, takes a while to get used to and up to the very end of the game I wasn't always sure how to use them properly -- sometimes to 'use' an object you have to 'look' at something rather than click the 'use' icon, and so forth... it's not very intuitive, hence only 4 stars.

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Posted on: January 15, 2022

isolags

Verified owner

Games: 677 Reviews: 6

Original and atmospheric

This game is an old school adventure whose strong points are the atmosphere and originality of the puzzles. The graphics, music and gallery of characters are notable and have a considerable charm, even if outdated for modern standards. The story is interesting and unfolds nicely during the game, although it is a bit cheesy and not very original. My wife and I liked the puzzles and we found them logical and non trivial, which is not easy to achieve. The puzzles require some thinking, but the automatic journal helps a lot. Overall, the game is very challenging but not absurd, and we could complete it withot consulting the walkthrough. The interface is not the best one out there, but it kind of works if one uses the keyboard. Those who wish to play with the mouse are going to have a very hard time, as the mouse support was a late game addition and is made to mimick the keyboard commands.

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Posted on: October 1, 2020

Hurdrax

Verified owner

Games: 311 Reviews: 8

Didactic Portrait of Lady 90s

Shadow of the Comet is a good example of the adventure genre in the 90s, with its merits and flaws shining like the stars over Illsmouth on Halley’s passage. However, what the game does wrong may require your patience and goodwill more often than not. Therefore, its appeal is a bit more narrow than other titles, even from that period. On the upside, first things first: it’s Infogrames, it’s Cthulhu. That alone could take you through. This version contains decent voice acting. Nothing extraordinary, but still giving a serviceable personality and flavor to almost all characters. The overall plot is charming, par for the course for Cthulhu lovers. Art direction is stylish, especially the scenery and building design. Other than that, you’ll probably find out for yourself that Shadow of the Comet’s best quality is a certain ‘je ne sais quoi’, a mysterious style that guarantees its place in the gaming cosmos. On the downside, I’d start with sound design. I always chuckle when reading the official line about this: “Bone chilling sound effects that hurtle you into the depths of chaos!”. Uh… no. Sound effects are lacking when compared to similar titles from its time (even other Infogrames’ titles), sometimes just plain weird and funny and also very sparse. Many a scene will feel bland precisely because of this shortcoming of “silent” events. Some puzzles hinder the game’s progression, locking your progress if you make “wrong” choices. Save, save and save, my friend. Dialogue choice structure is linear and also blemished by the 'game-over mechanic' problem. Plot progression felt weird and sometimes nonsensical, tarnishing the story. Not the plot itself, which I quite enjoyed it, but the transitions between the main scenes (the diary helps to bring rythm to the story, but not as much as one would think). In the end, I'd still recommend Shadow of the Comet without hesitation. It’s very didactic of its time if nothing else. Game history par excellence.

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Posted on: May 2, 2023

AFistKing1

Verified owner

Games: 277 Reviews: 1

For those who enjoyed it decades ago

I wanted to like this game. I really like the source material, and I enjoy adventure games, but this one just commits too many faux pas of game design. I understand that things have changed, but it becomes unenjoyable pretty quickly. Mazes where the correct path forward is to go back into the door you just left, or to wait for secret doors to open are bad enough, but inexcusable when there are no clues. Pixel hunting is even worse when you don't actually click on things to interact with them. Combining items is done entirely contextually, and you can break sequences pretty easily if you don't do the exact song and dance that the game intends. Most puzzles are complete guesswork, like being asked a riddle made up by a six-year-old. Locking yourself out of finishing the game because you didn't pick up a hidden item hours previous is another common feature and, again, no clues are generally offered to point you in the right direction. The story is fun at first, and the characters are altogether likeable enough I guess, but the writing completely falls apart about halfway through the game. There are one or two really atmospheric moments that show a lot of potential, but the game becomes so nonsensical that it ruins the immersion. Things go beyond Scooby-Doo levels of cartoonish campiness and with less justification. The ending is also incredibly weak, and was a complete letdown. I really enjoyed the art, and what music there is. I would have liked for the artists to be able to flex a bit more. The Museum feature included with the game has some awesome stuff to see that exceeds most of what you see in the game proper. Altogether, I'd say that this was an almost entirely unenjoyable experience that requires a guide to complete without tearing your eyes out. I'm moving onto Prisoner of Ice after this, which I've heard is a better game overall. Lovecraft and adventure games sounds like an easy layup for a talented team, but this game just falls short.

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Posted on: October 30, 2024

schmoxxx

Verified owner

Games: 641 Reviews: 1

The worst I have ever played

This is for sure the worst adventure game I have played so far. The graphics are admittedly very good, the music is catchy, but repetitive, the voice acting ranges from decent to completely rediculous, and the story is cheap Lovecraft fan fiction. Those things usually don't bother me too much, but the first big issue is the incoherent and awkward user interface. I understand that they wanted to create their own thing, but in a time in which Lucas Film Games and Sierra already figured out how to do it right, there is no excuse for such a fail. But by far the worst fail is the game design. The puzzles make sense for the most part, until the second quarter of the game. From then on the puzzles not only become pure guesswork, but also nonsensicle. I already got used to look the solutions up, but at some point I encountered a maze which was so convoluted, that no walkthrough could actually walk me through it. I quit and watched the last third of the game on YouTube, which was rediculous to watch. Oh, and there are many ways to die, and they occasionally make the game unsolvable if you choose a wrong dialog option - but don't tell you that. Again: Worst adventure game I have ever played.

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