To share much more would risk spoiling an extremely authentic and well-written story, but rest assured, it’s trippy, frightening, and asks as many questions as it answers. Knowledge is not strictly a good thing in Lovecraftian cosmic horror, and while elusive answers might be satisfying to the player, they do a number on Pierce as he shambles inexorably down a road that ends in brain rending revelation. The deeper you dig, and the more you learn, the more Pierce’s sanity comes under attack, and the more the truth lurking behind the facade that is reality comes poking out.
Lovecraft short story, wraps it in a detective tale, and sends Pierce tumbling down the rabbit hole to Insanity Town. Call of Cthulhu puts its own spin on the lore from the original H.P. Thankfully, as Call of Cthulhu goes on, those segments become fewer and farther between (or at least feel like they do), and it eventually begins leaning into its source material in earnest.
I can understand the desire to inject some variety into a dark occult investigation, but these asides just don’t really work. That made a scary moment quickly evolve into a frustrating one. It’s a nuanced, engaging take on a detective game, and the chapters that highlight these mechanics are the best in Call of Cthulhu.Ĭall of Cthulhu’s one attempt at a boss encounter, a claustrophobic cat and mouse game with a true Lovecraftian horror, is wonderfully atmospheric and very tense, but so obtusely designed that it was difficult to ascertain what I had to do to progress. In many cases, you are only allowed to ask one question of the many available to you, but this never felt restrictive, and indeed made me consider what I wanted to learn most in any given conversation. Several times I found myself leaning forward in my chair, my brain fully engaged on piecing together what I’d seen, only to lean back with a breath and a “wow” when the answer clicked in my head, not simply because I was told it.Īll too often, dialogue options feel stunted and unimaginative in games of this nature, but Pierce always seemed to have the same questions that I had. In certain key areas, Pierce can “reconstruct” events that occurred, and when the information hard-won by thorough detective work meshes with the information these fun “CSI Cthulhu” segments reveal, magic can happen. Finding those clues in Call of Cthulhu’s detective sections is a true highlight – I enjoyed investigating the well animated and atmospheric environments, reading notes and books, and taking in environmental hints. Very, very little is revealed at first glance, and it is only over its 15-hour campaign that clues are dug up and the bigger picture starts to piece together. The story begins in almost rote pulp fashion – Pierce, the PI with a history, gets a weird case in a weird place and immediately sets to work.
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