Call of Cthulhu
Developer: Cyanide Studio
Publisher: Focus Entertainment
Platform: Steam
…of Dreams and Nightmares
Cosmic horror is my jam. I love the horror of the unknown, and the thought that humanity is nothing but a small speck of sanity in a universe of madness. So, it should really come as no shock that I am a big fan of the writings of Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Lord Dunsany, and others in the genera of weird fiction. I love it in films like Alien and The Thing, and in games like the one we are talking about today, the Call of Cthulhu. Named after the Lovecraft story of the same name, Call of Cthulhu is a role-playing horror game based not on the story, but on a module from the tabletop RPG from the ‘80s on. It also has nothing to do with 2005s Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth, which is a game I would love to replay one day, but for now it will sit in storage with the rest of my collection.
The Mystery of Darkwater
The game opens in the year 1924, and we take on the role of Edward Pierce, a private detective and veteran of the Great War. The mystery starts when a grieving father comes to us to solve the mystery of his daughter Sarah Hawkins, and her family’s untimely death on the island of Darkwater. He is sure the story of his daughter dying in a fire is just a cover for something more sinister, and that he is certain that things are not as they seem. After reviewing the information Sarah’s father provides us, we make our way to the island, and the investigation begins in earnest. What fallows is an adventure role-playing experience where Edward explores the island of Darkwater in his effort to unravel the mystery surrounding not only the deaths of the Hawkins’ family, but also what is festering under the surface the of the island. Edward’s investigation across the island takes place over 14 chapters, with each chapter taking us deeper and deeper into the madness swirling around Darkwater. While trying to not give too much away, we eventually discover that Sarah and her husband are not dead but are the architects of the horrors that are plaguing the island. What follows is Edward trying to uncover the truth, all while trying to keep his sanity in check as his world spins out of control.
Call of Cthulhu is a role-playing game at heart and is very much inspired by the tabletop game of the same name. As you explore the island and uncover its mysteries, Edward gains skill points which you can spend to improve his skills in investigation, strength, perception, and a few other skills. Leveling up these skills unlock new dialog options and new ways of interacting with the environment, which lets you uncover the mystery of the Hawkins in a variety of ways. This variety lends itself to a healthy level of replayability to the experience, which is something I find a lot of games are lacking lately.
Gameplay wise, Call of Cthulhu plays very much like an adventure game: you explore the environments looking for clues and chatting with the islanders on your quest to figure out what is going on in Darkwater. Depending on what you find and overhear, different options are presented to you on how to move forward, with certain actions locking you into your destiny; destiny being the multiple endings to the game. This is not to say that the investigation gameplay is amazing or anything, it is passable and does what it needs to do.
There are a couple of more action-oriented scenes, which are not great if I am being honest: instead of the organic and deliberate gameplay of the investigation sections, the action portions are a frustrating ordeal of mindless trial and error. They bring the game to a halt and really disrupt the flow of the story. While I understand why they’re in the game, they do not improve the experience. They should have either removed them or improved them, because as they are now, they’re terrible and do a lot to bring the game down.
All in all, the gameplay is nothing to write home about. I enjoy the roleplaying aspect of the game and the slower paced adventure game sections, but I found the action sections really pulled the game down. There is nothing here that we haven’t seen before, and none of it is done better here than in other games, but overall, the gameplay is serviceable. If I wasn’t a fan of the Lovecraft Mythos and the setting of Darkwater, the gameplay itself would not have kept me coming back, and I doubt I would have finished it.
The Aesthetics of Darkwater
Call of Cthulhu looks good enough, but even when it was released in 2018, I don’t think it would have been winning any awards for graphics or visual fidelity. This is not to say that the game looks terrible, it just looks very 2010s in the most generic way you can imagine. Like The Matrix, there is a green tinge to the world, but unlike the movie, I didn’t find it as overwhelming. The character models are very stiff, and their animations leaving a lot to be desired. They’re not terrible by any stretch of the imagination, and it’s good then that the main characters have enough personality to make up for their lack of animation and fluidity. On the other hand, the environments fare a bit better, but I was never blown away by the visuals. The game’s simply looks okay, which is kind of the theme when it comes to Call of Cthulhu as a whole: it’s just okay.
Sound design on the other hand, is straight up bad. The voice acting isn’t bad, but the mixing is absolutely terrible: everything is so quiet, and unless you’re looking right at someone or something, they are basically inaudible; other times everything is loud as hell for no good reason, only to then drop down to a whisper the very next moment. It’s as if very little thought was given to the sound direction or the sound mixing, which is disappointing. All I can say is thank God for subtitles, because without them I would have missed out on so much important dialog and information.
Conclusions
Call of Cthulhu is okay, even if it sounds like I thought it was terrible. It’s not a great game by any stretch of the imagination, but it is not an unplayable disaster either; it is simply average across the board. I enjoyed it because I am fan of Lovecraft, weird fiction, and cosmic horror, and because I was willing to overlook a lot of the game’s flaws. I honestly did enjoy my time with Call of Cthulhu, and I can see myself playing it again to see what things I’ve missed. There is an earnestness to the game which I appreciate, and even though it’s not a masterpiece, I think it is worth playing at least once if you’re a fan of the Mythos.
I want to check out Cyanide Games other release, The Sinking City, at some point. It’s a Lovecraft inspired third-person adventure game, and I want to see what the studio has learned and improved on since Call of Cthulhu. I have my fingers crossed!
