Characters walk like they’re clenching a broom handle between their buttocks, and the way their mouths move is very off-putting. Special mention goes to Officer Bradley, your Darkwater PD sidekick who looks like the offspring of Gordon Ramsey and a dropped plate. Call of Cthulhu contains some of the ugliest character models I’ve witnessed in any mainstream game in the last few years. Unfortunately, while the environments are well-drawn, the character design is terrible. Each locale is sufficiently decorated with period detail to make you want to poke around its nooks and crannies. Although not especially original, the environment design is the strongest part of the game. Environments tend to be swathed in a sickly green fog, while its adventure amounts to a sightseeing tour of popular American horror settings, from creaking Charles Addams mansions to infirmaries run by crazy doctors. Intrigued, Pierce takes the case, and promptly sets off to Darkwater to investigate.Ĭall of Cthulhu’s take on Lovecraftian horror is distinctly pulp. The father believes the fire was no accident, and that his daughter’s last painting is prophetic of her fate. Struggling to find work because he is basically a snob, Pierce is approached by the father of a famous artist who was tragically killed in a house fire on an island subtly named Darkwater. Instead it’s primarily a first-person adventure game, with some light stealth and RPG systems mixed in.Īfter a short introductory sequence involving a secret cult ritual and a whole lot of dead fish, we awaken to find ourselves embodied in Edward Pierce, a stereotypical private investigator who is down on his luck and up on his blood-alcohol level. The game itself, however, is not an RPG, or at least not much of one. Rather, it’s based on the pen-and-paper RPG of the same name (which I have not played). At its very best, the game is weirdly endearing, and at its worst it is stupid and dull.Ĭall of Cthulhu: The Official Video Game is not a direct adaptation of HP Lovecraft’s original tale (which I have read). Like Trigger from Only Fools and Horses, Call of Cthulhu is neither very scary nor particularly clever. But it nonetheless encapsulates my sentiment towards the game. I’m aware that this is an entirely unfair reason to criticise Call of Cthulhu, although I have plenty of more valid criticisms that I’ll get to in due course. What power can the Great Old Ones hold over a man who can drive a person mad with a simple broom? It’s difficult to take a tale of cosmic horror seriously when the grizzled noir detective you’re playing as reminds you of Trigger from Only Fools and Horses. I suspected I wouldn’t get on with Call of Cthulhu from the moment I realised the main character looks like the beloved (and sadly departed) British actor Roger Lloyd-Pack.
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