IGNORANCE IS BLISS
Also for: Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4, Xbox One
Story exploration has not always been my thing, but if there is one universe
suitable for the genre, it's the Cthulhu mythos. Because what are
H.P. Lovecraft's stories about? Existential dread, occult detective work and exploration
of all manner of cosmic horrors, that's what. As a video game, Call of Cthulhu (loosely based on the tabletop role-playing game of the same title) is an entertaining idea, but unfortunately not particularly successful.
It holds a lot of squandered potential; good intentions ruined by poor execution. I like the somber atmosphere established by the visuals. Things
like the heavy mist and the poisonous color scheme make me approach this
game with appropriate unease. I also appreciate bits and pieces of the somewhat
confusing story. But there's not much meat to the gameplay mechanics and its streamlined role-playing elements. Do the different skills and skillchecks
matter at all in the end? Why is there even a strength attribute? I only
actively used it once, in spite of exploring the game extensively.
I do however appreciate the attempt to include a sanity mechanic. The more
you explore, the more your sanity drains, because the horrors you uncover might be too much for the fragile human mind to take in. If you dig too deeply, you lock
yourself out of a "happy" ending, but if you don't, you might not get the
entire scope of the story and will have to remain curious. It might sound
counter-intuitive, but stays true to concept. In the universe of H.P. Lovecraft ignorance is bliss, because humans can't handle the bigger truths about the cosmos.
The game takes place on the small island of Blackwater, off the coast of
Boston, where the main guy, private investigator Edward Pierce, has come to investigate the death of a client's
daughter. The strange circumstances surrounding her death takes him down a
horrifying chain of events. You get to make quite a few seemingly important
choices throughout the story, but how they affect the ending (four distinct
endings exist) remains unclear. And after the post-credits, most of all I
feel like I've been lead down a very linear path.
Just like old point-and-click adventures, Call of Cthulhu presents
you with a few inventory puzzles, dialogue trees and a few close-up switch
puzzles for unlocking safes or hidden doors. Some locations require you to
enter detective mode, where Edward demonstrates an arcane talent for reading a
room, as he can visualize everything that happened out of a few items that seem out of place.
At a couple of locations you encounter otherworldly beasts, but
these "boss fights" are disappointing. At first I got terrified by the notion of being trapped in a room with one of them, but that dread soon died down. The encounters are either too easy or confusing to have any tangible effects. Their only function, as things stand, is to shake up the old adventure game/story exploration formula a little.
The characters aren't well-developed, but strong characterization has rarely been the point of Lovecraft's novellas anyway. Instead we're meant to
sympathize with their ordeals and anguish, that just grows with increased
insight into the Cthulhu mythos. Edward endures more
than most of Lovecraft's own protagonists, and his increasingly tormented
appearence made me sympathize with the poor bugger.
Visually the game is a mix between ugly character models (to think this game was released in the same year as Red Dead Redemption II) and some remarkable
location designs. The otherworldly areas are very aptly realized, especially
towards the end, where the scale of the world-threatening horrors suddenly becomes apparent. Sound-wise not much stood out to me, more than the
horrifying ramblings in the drawn-out institute stage. This is also the most
frustrating level, where the poorly implemented stealth mechanic makes its
first real appearance. It's all about avoiding extremely near-sighted enemies, who keep to very robotic patrol routes.
Luckily, if you get detected, all enemies move so slowly and seem so
demented that you can easily outrun them and hide. They'll soon forget about
you and go back to their regular patrol routes. Another inconsistency is
that Edward seemingly out of nowhere (or did I miss something?) pulls out a
gun towards the end of the game. Why the hell didn't he use this sooner? He could
have made great use of it in a couple of situations, or at least threaten to use it.
I don't have a lot of major complaints against Call of Cthulhu, save for a
rather crucial flaw: it lacks a real sense of horror. I think the game
fails to convey the desperation of the situation. The forgiving
checkpoints never make me fearful of dying - you never lose a lot of
progress. And the very linear sense of progression never causes me second guess my dialogue options. I never feel that invested in the outcome of the story because little I do really seem to matter.
On the plus-side, I do like the confusion, and the diminished sense of reality
towards the end. What is real? What is imagination? This is further elevated by
the immersive first-person perspective. But after a promising start, the
game never lifts off the ground. The lack of genuine scares makes the end product feel like a dud.
Call of Cthulhu is short, and my rather slow and methodical playthrough took
about twelve hours to finish. Although I'm not a fan, I'd still like to see
Cyanide make another attempt at a Cthulhu game. I see some potential
in the things that should have been really hard to pull off, like the
otherworldly vistas, the somewhat compelling story and the idea of a skill system.
Just try to make the skill checks and upgrade trees really matter next time,
a'ight? And for Dagon's sake, please hire someone better at creating
character models. Some of them look distractingly silly.
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