Discount Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth

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If you're a fan of horror stories, then you know that one of the founders of this genre was HP Lovecraft and his Cthulhu stories. Lovecraft was born in 1890 in Rhode Island, and his Cthulhu storyline was based in a seacoast town of Massachusetts of the 1920s. Lovecraft's own father went insane when Lovecraft was 3, and Lovecraft himself had a nervous breakdown in high school. His stories were developed from his own severe nightmares.

This game title has been in development for many years, so the graphics in the end product aren't necessarily cutting edge, especially for the XBox platform. It's important to just accept this up front. The load times are also exceedingly long. Strangely, when we played this on our XBox 360 (in backwards compatability mode of course) the loading screens were super long but the individual messages that would cycle through would not stay on the screen long enough to read. It was an odd combination.

I found it best not to think of Call of Cthulhu as a traditional horror game like Doom or Half-Life. This game isn't about constant action and harassment. It is much more like a steady epic that unfolds over time. It's not about in-your-face blood and guts, although there is plenty of both. It is more of a psychological gnawing away at you. It's a game that you need to set aside a long weekend, a bottle of wine and turn on the answering machine for. It's immersive.

So how does it play out. You are Jack Walters, a detective called in to help with a cult that has holed up in a gothic house in Massachusetts. Strangely, you have no gun. You and a few cops approach the house, and the cultists shoot your cop pals down. You try to pick up one of the downed cop's guns and the system says "Ewwww a dead body". Hmmmm. You go in and find that the cult is obsessed with you for some reason, and find a few dead cultists. You spot a trap door in one room and when you open the trap door, you mysteriously can't walk around the room any more your feet are now unable to step over the tiny ledge that lines the hallway. You go down, and see .... things go dark.

Fast forward to six years later. Now you're a PI, suffering from amnesia from that horrific event. You are sent into a small town to track down a missing "lad". The town is typical New England dark, dreary, grey, with people who speak in monosyllables. I live here, I know this type of town ;) You're now ferrying items to get clues, doing sneak-avoidance to get into areas, and solving puzzles. You don't even get a weapon for about the first third of the game.

There are interesting twists because of the "going insane" aspect of this story. If you spend too much time in a scary area, your vision goes blurry and you have other issues. You can't always trust what you see. You have to plow through trying to do the best you can, as quickly as you can.

There is a group of horror players who will probably find this game "too slow". Players who are hooked on the constant action of Halo etc. probably won't do well with the long loads and exploring sequences. On the other hand, I really recommend that they stick with this. Fast adrenaline can be a shallow thrill. A slow-building insanity can really get to you.

If I have complaints about the game, it stems from some of my commentary earlier. The game elicits laughter when obviously it wasn't meant to. It seems that 99% of the doors you encounter are mysteriously glued shut. The dialogue is repetitive and sometimes inane. You're being shot at but can't pick up a gun?

That being said, every game has its dumb idiosyncracies. The guy in Grand Theft Auto could take down hordes of drug dealers but would drown in 1" of water. You just have to accept these things as part of the game environment.

I definitely recommend this game for adventure gamers who can handle the mature rating. If you're more of a shoot-em-up, at least rent the game to see if you can get into the flow of things. You might find that you really can enjoy something that has a slower pace.

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Better than any other horror game I have played, this one succeeds at giving the player real chilling moments combined with the truest survival horror yet.

The first person perspective combined with the many lines of dialogue, the total lack of a HUD, and the effective and creepy graphics really put you into the experience of the game. Add to that the cut scenes which are seamlessly blended with the action, so that you can follow the story w/o feeling like you are watching a movie.

The game features good puzzles, which take investigation and not luck to figure out. I had to give some of the puzzles some thought time, but I never had to go looking for the solution online. The combat is brutal and realistic, featuring a great wound system. The Sanity system is very effective in that it adds to the gamers horror experience, and is not simply a gimmick. When you hear your character whisper "There's someone following me", you feel like watching your back.

Add to all this little touches like your character being afraid of heights and the possibility of becoming addicted to the Morphine used in the game and you have a very involving horror game.

The game is a bit on the difficult side at times. But this is as it should be... after all, you must feel like you are fighting to survive. The game is also very dark graphic-wise, and should be played w/ lights out for maximum effect.

If you are a fan of H.P. Lovecraft, you will love this game. Even if you are not a Lovecraft fan, chances are you will love the unique experience this game has to offer. Just wait until you are creeping along a not so sturdy wooden plank, suspended above prowling baddies far below, while you experience vertigo and hope for a quiet spot to sit and stitch up your bleeding arm...

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I've been waiting for this game for several years. I watched in dismay as what was originally going to be a multiplyer PC game shrank into a single player adventure. Finally, I thought it would never come out. That made me sad, as there have been too few Call of Cthulhu computer games (The last great one being Shadow of the Comet). Thankfully, this one was worth the wait.

The Shadow Over Innsmouth was one of HPL's more creepy and claustrophic tales and it is so wonderful to see it translated so well into a game. Seemless plot and some real pulse-pounding moments make this game a must-buy for Lovecraft fans and anyone else who likes the horror genre. Forget Silent Hill and Resident Evil, this is the real deal. Like the pen & pencil game of the same name, this one relies on brain more than brawn but doesn't present any really obtuse puzzles.

I hope this is the first of many CoC-related computer games for the 21st Century. Howard himself would be proud of the dedication that went into visualizing his creation.

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This is a great game! It drips atmosphere, and is scary/nerve wracking as hell. While not a traditional shooter, the First Person perspective adds a significant layer to the immersive feel. There's a chase scene early on that is just amazing.

The game also stays true to the source material, sometimes directly, sometimes with little nods and winks. Readers of Lovecraft will see tidbits of various stories intertwined, thought the game is ultimately about someone who is ignorant of the mythos, and learns as he goes, so knowing the material is not needed to enjoy the game.

Much has been written about the HUDless system, sanity system, and the health system so I wont go into those, other than to say it all works together very well.

The puzzles are decent (so far), and while there are some `get A for B' puzzles, they all make sense and add to the plot. I haven't felt like I was running an errand simply for something to do. It's all part of the investigation, and is believable.

The graphics have a stylistic feel to them, which hints at the time period (scratchy, and grainy), the voice acting is very good.

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Let's admit it most modern games baby the player. Helpful hints and arrows, spotlit items, bosses sporting "shoot me here!" spots....even top-notch titles like God of War and Resident Evil 4 fall prey to these unfortunate conventions. As games have become more complex, developers have felt the need to include these hints to keep from alienating players. Understandable, sure, but something gets lost from the immersion factor as a result.

What if someone made a game that tossed all these safety features out the window -a horror title that abandons players in the literal and figurative darkness, leaving them only paltry clues to decipher? As the players slowly understand what is happening, they are given glimpses into a world-shattering truth that tears at the very fabric of reality, threatening to drive them mad with its ancient revelations! Maybe it's best to close your eyes and ignore what is happening....or perhaps you will discover something beyond your imagination.....

If this sounds good to you, your game has arrived.

Behold U.K.-based Headfirst Productions' oft-delayed, long-awaited title, Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth, based on the writings of H.P. Lovecraft and Chaosium's pen-&-paper role-playing game. This is not a title destined to be a Platinum Hit, nor is it one trying to cater to all comers. It is a challenging title that demands much of the player, and not surprisingly, pays off in many ways as a result. The Xbox has a disappointingly small number of horror games (and fewer Xbox-only ones), but Dark Corners fills that void with a flourish. It must be mentioned that you don't need to be familiar with H.P. Lovecraft to appreciate it, although fans will notice numerous nods to the author's influential work.

On the surface, Dark Corners is a somewhat awkward game: it's not that pretty to look at, tends to be buggy, and has clunky controls and combat. Fortunately, these technical issues don't have a major impact on the more important stuff: gameplay, story, and atmosphere. In fact, its shortcomings make the experience that much more haunting and realistic, making the player concentrate on the task at hand rather than gawking at eye-popping animation and effects.

As with most of Lovecraft's universe, the plot is essential, so I won't go into much detail here. You play as Jack Walters, a private investigator who's hired to find a missing person in the New England coastal town of Innsmouth. Things spiral out of control from there, as Jack quickly discovers there's much more to the town than its fishy appearance.

The game is played from the first-person perspective, and there's thankfully no on-screen icons to distract you from the surroundings. Dark Corners is all about living through Jack's eyes, and he quickly learns what you don't see is as important as what you do see. Unfortunately for Jack, what he faces is so unspeakable that it can actually drive him insane enough to commit suicide (a creepy thing to experience in first-person). There is a sanity system in place that is miles more effective than the superficial one used in the Gamecube's Eternal Darkness, and the player must be careful at all times.

Dark Corners is not a shooter. The game feels something like an evil combination of Shenmue and Thief, with some stealth content, a sprinkling of platforming, a few shooting sequences and Metroid-ish boss puzzles. It doesn't start slowly despite the fact you will not receive any weapons for the first third of the game. The feeling of dread and helplessness Jack feels as a result gives the game a horror aspect unlike anything Resident Evil, Silent Hill, or Fatal Frame can produce (and it's only slightly reduced once you do arm yourself). Jack must use his wits to survive, and the game excels at making the numerous situations and obstacles challenging in a realistic fashion. You'll have to pay a lot of attention to clues you find, the environment, even noises and conversations you hear. You will more than likely get stuck, possibly numerous times, but the solution is always logical and close at hand. Like the manual states, "You're a detective, not a soldier!" Paying attention pays off big time here.

Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth has been a long time coming, but it's more than worth the wait. Fans of Lovecraft and horror in general will wonder why it took so long for someone to make a game with this kind of effective design. What Headfirst may lack in programming and artistic expertise, they more than make up for with cleverness, challenge, innovation, and atmosphere. The result is one of the best Xbox games of the year, and one of the best horror games ever made.