In the past couple of years, horror games seemed to be having a resurgence in popularity. This is mainly thanks to indie developers being able to think outside the box when it came to designing them. Even some mainstream triple A developers seemed to have found that spark again. Looking at the games that have been released so far from both indie and triple A developers, they’ve both have taken inspiration from the fear of the unknown and warping our sense of reality to drive us mad (or at least making us feel very uncomfortable) from the written works of HP Lovecraft, most notably The Call of Cthulhu.

Being the all mighty Cosmic God that he is, there aren’t that many horror video games about Cthulhu, based in the mythos or on the story itself. Sure there are games that use aspects of the mythos, but those few haven’t tried to take the player on a ture journey into madness, until now. Cyanide Studios and Focus Home Interactive have heard the Call of the Old Gods and have brought forth from the depths of R’lyen Call of Cthulhu: The Official Video Game. Have they managed to summoned a game worth of the Old Gods to drive us into gleeful madness? Or will the game just make us mad for wasting our time? Let’s step forth and face see what destiny awaits.

Vulgtmnah (Good)

Adaptation of pen & paper RPG- Now you may be wondering what makes this game “official”? The game is actually based on a pen and paper RPG developed by Chaosium Inc. in the 80’s called Call of Cthulhu. They adapted the Call of Cthulhu story into a table top game, in which players use their wits and investigation skills to solve the mysteries behind whatever adventures the Dungeon Master had for them. Much like how Chaosium adapted the story into a tabletop RPG, Cyanide Studios did the same thing for their video game. In fact they enlisted the help of the original developers of the tabletop game to ensure that fans of the tabletop game, fans of Lovecraft and fans of horror games in general would get an authentic cosmic horror experience that is worthy of the Old Gods return. The game does a great job of translating the tabletop mechanics of the original game into a video game. Instead of having to roll dice to do skill checks, all of the calculations are done in the background as players talk to the citizens of Darkwater, investigate different areas of the island and solve various puzzles. depending on how players spend their skill points, each conversation, investigation and puzzle interaction will change. This really make you feel like an investigator (more on that feeling later).

Story of madness- Call of Cthulhu has players take on the role of Edward Pierce, a World War I vet turned private detective. Ever since coming home from the war, Pierce has been diagnosed with PTSD from his time at the front lines and suffers from nightmares. Even though his doctors have given him sleeping pills to calm down the nightmares and constantly drinking whiskey to forget, his nightmares are getting worse. One day a prominent businessman arrives at his office requesting him to reopen the case of his daughter and her family’s death. He brings the case file and a eerie looking painting for Pierce to examine. Not really in the mood to work on a “solved” Pierce humors him by looking at the files and painting. After reading the file and looking at the painting, he gets a feeling of unease. That there’s something wrong with the case. He decides to take the case and sets off to Darkwater. Thus sets in motion Pierce’s and the player’s journey into madness. The writing for Call of Cthulhu mirrors the feel of the original tabletop and of the story written by Lovecraft. Those feelings are of dread, creepiness, unease, suspense. When you have a game that makes you feel like this and its only been an hour or so, you’re doing something right. And to be fair there are some slow points to the story, but I feel those are there to give players a break and to try to process what happened.

Occult investigator- The majority of the indie horror games that I’ve played so far seemed to fall in a new sub-genre called “walking simulator”. For the horror variety, they feel more like “haunted house simulators”. If you have ever been into a haunted house, you understand what I’m talking about: You walk into to house or some make shift area and walk around getting jump scared, all the while being led down a path. You can’t really fight back, so you’re forced to move towards the exit. That’s how I think most indie horror games feel like. In Call of Cthulhu however, I actually feel like I am Edward Pierce. I feel like I’m investigating, slowly learning that there is something sinister is afoot. That is thanks to the game’s adaption of the original pen & paper game’s mechanics. Both in the original game and the video game, there are skills that govern the character Edward Pierce. These are eloquence, medical, occultism, strength, investigation, spot check and psychology. Depending how how you spend your character points, your interactions with Darkwater and its citizens will differ. For example if you have a high eloquence, those gents at the local tavern will not be fond of strangers of higher learning talking down to them. Or if you have high strength, the local bootleggers will will acknowledge that you have some guts standing up to them and will ease up. How you want to go about your investigation is up to you. Which brings us to…..

Branching paths- As I just mentioned, depending on how you spec Pierce, you will end up with multiple branching paths in the game. Prioritize strength over say eloquence and while the bootlegers might be a bit more friendly to you, the local police will not. Dialogue and interaction with the locals are not the only things that are affected. Your specs also determine how you interact with puzzles. You can brute force your way into a room with strength, or you can appeal to certain characters with psychology and have them lead you into that same room through another route, which also increases the chance of learning more about the current objective.

Insane in the brain- A mechanic that I almost forgot to mention that is represented in the game is insanity. During your investigation in Darkwater, strange occurrences will start to happen now depending on how sound of mind Pierce, these instances will start to affect his sanity. For the most part Pierce is a logical thinker and is able to hold himself together. However due to the events he faced in WWI that led him to being diagnosed with PTDS, he can freak out a bit easier. He can drown this out with alcohol, but once under the influence he is more susceptible to bouts of insanity.  The more insane Pierce gets, the more things become not what they seem. It also affects his skills as they take a temporary hit. Even knowledge can affect his sanity.

Erie audio design- One of the most important aspects of a horror game besides a good story, a creepy setting and a grotesque looking monster is great sound design. From ambient sounds to musical cues, sound design is very important in a good horror game. Call of Cthulhu does this very well, using it as tool to unsettle the bravest of players. Even when just getting to the start menu, you can feel a bit of unease as the music plays. This plays into the same fear of the unknown since we can’t see sounds. You get more of this feeling as the game progresses, following Pierce’s decent into madness. Ambient sounds, musical cues, roars of unnatural beast are all a part of the symphony of madness which plays into the theme of the Cthulhu mythos.

Mgvulgtnah (Bad)

This is a investigative/adventure RPG- Now this isn’t a flaw or something that’s wrong with the game. This is more of a precaution those who think that this might be an action game. It’s not. When you think of Cthulhu, what do you think of? Crazy looking abominations that need to be killed? Maybe an epic boss battle with the big man himself? While that sounds cool, that’s not what this game is about. This game is about investigating a case that might have ties to the occult and slowly realizing that not this what it seems. Its about using skill checks to further your investigation, not go on a monster killing spree. Its about slowly going insane without realizing it. It way have its slow sections, but overall its fun. So this is a precaution for those who might go into this game thinking that this is an action horror game.

Lackluster ending- I’ll kept this brief and spoiler free: Call of Cthulhu’s end was a bit lack luster. The most I’ll say is that there are two endings/outcomes in the game. Obviously they are you stop Cthulhu from being summoned or he gets summoned. While the journey to the end game was filled with twists, turns and going insane, the pay off, as I just said, was very lack luster.

Minor textural pop ins- One of the things I noticed in Call of Cthulhu is that while the game look errielly pretty with all of its dark greens and blue, whenever switching over to Pierce’s notebook to see various clues, skills and other things, images tend to look a bit fuzzy before the textures pop in and look much better.

Call of Cthulhu in my opinon is one of the best horror games in 2018. First off its not another zombie game. Don’t get me wrong, zombies games are fun, but the genre is somewhat over-saturated with them. The game is a great adaptation of the classic pen & paper version of the game. So much so that creators and writers for the original game were tapped to help create a story of madness. Playing the game made me feel like a detective searching for the truth, like I’m actually doing something, rather than just running towards an exit in games that most people describe as walking simulators. There are many paths to take in the game, which depends on the skills you invest in, making multiple playthroughs a must. And by having excellent sound design, the decent into madness in amplified, making for a even greater experience.

Do know that the game is an investigative RPG and focuses more on narrative and non-physical skill checks rather than action. There is a bit of textual pop in when accessing Pierce’s book, but thankfully that doesn’t affect the game’s world. As for the ending, well you’ll just have to play the game to see. I personally felt that it was a bit lackluster. Halloween maybe over and the jingle bells of Christmas are on the way, but if you feel the need to be spooked on the cosmic level and be driven mad by one of the most famous Old Gods instead of being driven mad by hearing Jingle Bells on loop for the next two months, then Call of Cthulhu is a experience you do not want to pass up. And who knows, if the game does well enough, maybe this will encourage gamers to search out more of HP Lovecraft’s works and other books.

9/10