Call of cthulhu gambling addiction. Review of the game Call of Cthulhu (2018). A mysterious island awaits

), Xbox One, PlayStation 4

Introduction

advertising

The gaming brand faced a difficult fate: the second part by Headfirst Productions was canceled, and “Call of Cthulhu” was in limbo for many years.

Nine years later, in 2014, Focus Home Interactive announced to the delight of all fans that a completely new game was in development (but with a familiar name!), but the happiness did not last long. Over time, “Call...” changed its developer (the Ukrainian one was replaced by a French one), and it seemed that the misadventures were over - three years later the game reached release, but...

You know, it would be better not to get there.

advertising

Horror, but not cosmic

Oddly enough, the problems of the new and old Call of Cthulhu are strikingly similar. An encouraging, cool start and a gradual descent into the abyss of game design hell. Edward Pierce - main character novelty and part-time detective, World War I veteran and alcoholic.

Things at work are going from bad to worse: the last investigation was a long time ago, and Pierce risks losing his license. Therefore, the main salvation of the hero becomes a certain Stephen Webster, a gray-haired man who instructs Edward to find his daughter Sarah. She disappeared on Darkwater Island, and our hero immediately boards the nearest ship and sails towards his fate.

The protagonist’s visions and dreams are the few things that connect the original work and the game.

And now, it seems, a great adventure is about to begin. After all, the beginning cannot lie! RPG elements, an election system, good-looking graphics - all this sets you up for a big and complex (in the good sense of the word) adventure.

However, already at the twentieth minute you begin to suspect something is wrong. The town of Darkwater is amazingly small (even smaller than Innsmouth in Dark Corners of the Earth!), and somehow you don’t feel that same atmosphere.

There are seven characteristics available for leveling up (only five can be directly improved; occultism and medicine are leveled up only by finding treatises and books scattered throughout the levels), each of which has a slight effect on dialogues and investigations.

For example, in the Hawkins mansion, the puzzle with the globe can be solved in two ways: honestly rack your brain or find a crowbar and hack the activating mechanism (it can be hacked without a tool, just invest in upgrading your strength in advance). Perhaps this moment can be called the highest point of the entire game, because you will not see anything like it further.

And the more you move through the plot, the more flaws begin to become apparent. The gameplay before us is a typical walking simulator, in which you need to periodically interact with certain items, in order to move further along the plot.

Compositionally, the gameplay consists of the following parts: investigation, hiding from monsters (or people) and solving puzzles. Moreover, each of the three elements does not claim any originality - the main driving force of the new product is pixel hunting in its deepest manifestation.

The riddles are simple (except for one) and solving them will not be difficult.

For better understanding of what we are talking about, I will say that the quintessence of this nightmare is the level in the hospital, when the game designers literally force the player to collect notes and signs, just like in that very free game about Slender.

And one day the hero (or rather, the heroine, because in the new product you will get to try on the roles of as many as three characters!) will be forced to run from a boring, slow monster in a small location, collecting so-called “glyphs” along the way. Need I say that this does not stand up to criticism?

advertising

The investigation system seems to transport the hero in time and allows him to see the events that happened. Not only does it look very secondary, but not only Edward, but also other heroes can reconstruct the entire chain of events in his head. A logical question arises: why are detectives needed in this world if an ordinary nurse can conduct an investigation? Now it’s clear why things weren’t going well for Pierce!

Even the dialogues are incredibly boring to read here. The characters talk as if they live in the twenty-first century: no archaisms, fancy words, or anything else. The dialogues themselves are the most glitchy part of the game, so one day you run the risk of getting stuck in one of these conversations simply because none of the answer options will be clicked. Everything can be cured by rebooting, but starting from the nearest checkpoint (the save system is standard, based on checkpoints) is not very pleasant.

But one could turn a blind eye to the boring gameplay if it were supported by a successful story in the spirit of the works of Lovecraft. Unfortunately, this is just as bad as the gameplay. If not worse.

advertising

The writers created Frankenstein's monster by mixing stories from both the American writer and his followers. It’s scary to say, but in the end we got a story about sinister experiments and terrible mutations. What? What are these cosmic horrors? Sorry, but you are in the wrong game - follow this in Darkness Within (or in), but definitely not here.

In Lovecraft's stories, much attention was paid to loneliness and situations when a person is alone with something unknown and ancient. Everything is different in the new Call of Cthulhu. As the story progresses, the main character will find understanding friends who will not let him go to waste. And also (perhaps this will shock some) there is some semblance of a romantic line between the characters, while in the original stories the theme of love was NEVER touched upon. Sometimes thoughts arise that the developers from Cyanide Studio in this way show their true attitude towards the personality of the (very ambiguous) writer.

The second complaint that breaks the atmosphere (although it is completely broken from the very start) is the art design. Here everything with him is also “not very good,” and that’s putting it mildly. The only monster in the game (localizers called him “Vagabond”, for which, of course, they have no forgiveness, because the most correct option would be “Wanderer”) looks like a hybrid of a necromorph from Dead Space and Alien.

In addition, there are few successful locations and all of them can be counted on the fingers of one hand; all the rest look like a secondary copy from other horror projects. The hospital levels look especially terrible - at this point the game begins to look like (the game has the same publisher, coincidence?), which does not add points to it.

advertising

Call of Cthulhu is unable to scare even a child. Just look at these characters! No, really, look at these cheerful bright green ulcers - what is this, marmalade? And the tentacles - did he steal them from a nearby seafood store? What kind of cosplay nightmare is this?

And this despite the fact that the visual performance itself, for which it is responsible, is not bad. Of course, there is something to complain about (after the disgusting green filter, after an hour or two of playing, your eyes begin to water and your head hurts), but the graphics, compared to everything else, are kept at an acceptable level and cause a minimum of complaints.

However, someone system requirements may seem too high: an Intel Core i7-3820, 8 GB of RAM and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 970-level video card will be enough to plunge you into madness.

They'll also let you shoot, but the action is reminiscent of a shooting gallery The House of the Dead(unless you control the hero yourself): no tactics, not even reloading. It is enough to simply shoot the zombified inhabitants of Darkwater from afar (following the principle of “one cartridge - one corpse”) and not get close to them. The only difficulty is that there is not enough ammunition for everyone, so after a short time the boring action will be replaced by equally boring stealth.

advertising

Will someone explain why this man straight out of the twenties of the last century has such a fashionable hairstyle? Is he a time traveler? Or is there something we don’t know, and it was he who set the fashion for shaved temples? Unclear. But one thing is clear: the developers were unable to convey the atmosphere of that time: the game has too many minor flaws for it to be taken seriously.

Conclusion

Call of Cthulhu is a surprising game in its mediocrity. In short, we got an ordinary five-hour walking simulator, released under a high-profile brand. And it’s not clear what rating you can give, because at times the new product is so bad that you begin to experience that same indescribable cosmic horror that Lovecraft wrote about in his works.

advertising

Yes, we live on a quiet island of bad games based on Lovecraft stories, but that doesn't mean we don't need to go beyond it. Seriously, go through the masterpiece Darkness Within or , but never touch the 2018 Call of Cthulhu.

Verdict: defiant bad game based on the stories of G.F. Lovecraft.

Rating: none (“Cosmic Horror”).

Ruslan Gubaidullin

Howard Phillips Lovecraft was a strange, if not unpleasant, man. A high forehead, small bulging eyes (just like those of the heroes of his own books), an almost reclusive lifestyle, a wife abandoned to live with her two aunts, regular suicide attempts, and never received a diploma (due to a nervous breakdown). higher education. In addition, Lovecraft was a very bad writer: on the first five pages he described the subtle creaking of a floorboard, and on the remaining twenty - the countless tentacles of a nameless creature, from the very sight of which his heroes hanged themselves or put a bullet in their mouths. Having lived only 46 years, Lovecraft left behind an impressive literary legacy - hundreds of his stories unexpectedly formed into a frighteningly coherent and consistent mythology. With enviable zeal, he described the ancient gods, from the mere sight of which people go crazy, depicted on paper the cult of Dagon, whose adherents grew gills over time, reliably depicted sacrifices and several very unpleasant religious procedures, such as flaying the skin of a living person.

It is not surprising that in order to transfer all the above-mentioned happiness to our monitors, the courageous Englishmen from Headfirst gone - just imagine! - six years. The result of their labors is the strangest and most controversial game we've seen in a very long time.

Lurking at the threshold

It feels like Call of Cthulhu exists in some parallel space. Where they did it Dark Corners of the Earth, people didn't play Half-Life, did not see Thief and are firmly confident that in 2006 it is possible to release a game with a complete absence of Newtonian physics. The first feeling from Call of Cthulhu is culture shock. That's not how games are made today. Imagine a cross between the first Half-Life, an absolutely rudimentary stealth action game and a classic adventure. The result will be just the fruit of six years of work by an English company. The author of these lines shook his head, closed his eyes and continued to play with the hope smoldering in his soul that all this was some kind of prelude, an old-fashioned screen, behind which it was about to begin real game. The well-developed, but thoroughly gray gameplay of Dark Corners of the Earth should, perhaps, be told from the very beginning.

First, digest this news: for the first third of the game you have no weapons. That is, in general - no pistol, no crowbar, nothing. But there are enemies, and serious ones at that. The main character, private detective Jack Walters, who spent the last six years in a mental hospital and remembers almost nothing about it, comes to a provincial port city to find the missing grocery store manager. As it turns out, the townspeople are holding this manager in prison. They don’t mind sending you there either - for your exorbitant interest in the internal affairs of Innsmouth (an urban village where, in fact, the events unfold).

Literally 30 minutes after the start of the game, almost the entire population of the city will start chasing you, shaking pitchforks and double-barreled shotguns. And then it turns out that there are no weapons. And the townspeople openly fire their rifles and in a bad voice demand to immediately put your bullet-ridden head on a platter - in general, they behave extremely inhospitably. You are hysterically poking around corners and cabinets, selecting combinations for countless safes and categorically refusing to believe that all this crowd needs to do is simply run away. But that's how it is. The first third of Call of Cthulhu is a cross between an escape game, a hide-and-seek game, and an almost classic quest. There are no complaints about the “escape” - it is arranged in such a way that the hair on your head stands on end. When angry townspeople begin to break into your room, cutting through the door with an ax, the blood in your veins will naturally run cold. You will slam doors in hysterics, barricade yourself in rooms using old cabinets, break out windows and rush across rooftops as bullets whistle. At such moments there is no need to think about the outdated engine and old-fashioned gameplay.

Unfortunately, the adrenaline rush on the roof is a one-time entertainment, after which the stealth action begins, not even reaching the level of the first Thief. You will spend a long and boring time wandering among piled boxes, scurrying away from enemy streetlights with your mouse and, like in the old days, sketching the monorail routes of the guards. There is neither your visibility level nor a noise meter. Among the available abilities is some dubious stealth-mode, in which you supposedly make less noise. As a result, it is absolutely impossible to predict whether the next patrol will notice you. If you hide in a fit of fear in the darkest corner, you will be noticed. Run at random behind the enemy's backs - they won't pay any attention to you. It is simply impossible to predict the consequences of your own actions. Add to this the console save system (you can save near special signs painted on the wall), and you get a complete picture of what is called stealth in Call of Cthulhu.

Tentacle Day

Until you get a weapon, the game will entertain you with classic puzzles in the spirit of quests of the first half of the 90s. For example, the combination to the next safe is encrypted in the diary of one of the heroes. He allegedly uses the year, month and day of his daughter's birth as a code. You will have to calculate the indicated dates yourself, guessing from indirect hints that today is, say, February 7, and remembering that yesterday this same daughter turned ten years old. The owner of the safe will tell you the information about the code during the next dialogue. By the way, there are a lot of dialogues here - almost every resident is ready to throw out a few phrases in your direction; full-fledged conversations can generally take ten minutes.

Here is an absolutely quest interface, which forces you to contact yourself every time you need to apply, for example, a wrench to the next valve. It would seem even Silent Hill By the fourth part I learned to sort through objects without having to access a separate screen. But the British from Headfirst are true to, as they say, traditions.

When the stealth portion finally ends, you are given the desired pistol and an impressive-looking double-barreled shotgun. At this moment, Call of Cthulhu suddenly forgets about its adventure ambitions and turns into a dark, raucous action game almost on the level of the first part of Half-Life. That is, there is absolutely no hint of physics or other joys of modern technology here. But the game generously treats you with regular scripted videos and does not hesitate to revive a couple of new enemies behind your back, who are enthusiastically hitting with large shot in your direction. This is especially vile, considering that the main character dies quite calmly after several significant wounds.

By the way, about injuries. Call of Cthulhu offers a not very convenient, but extremely atmospheric self-healing system. Instead of the usual first aid kits, you carry with you the natural kit of a young doctor - bandages, a tourniquet, some kind of cotton wool (four varieties in total). Every time Jack begins to moan or drag his shot leg behind him with a characteristic sound, you should find a secluded place and conduct a traditional medicine session there. It looks like this - you twist 3D model your alter ego and choose which places you need to apply, say, a bandage. There are not that many options, but there is something to think about: arms and legs (separately left and right), chest or head. Considering that there may not be enough bandages for all parts of the body, you have to choose. For example, a damaged leg can wait, but a torn chest or face can lead to disastrous results - dangerous wounds continue to bleed, and eventually Jack dies.

In addition to physical health, the main character also has mental health. Seeing a figuratively gutted corpse or an upright toad with a beard made of tentacles, he begins to noticeably freak out. The game makes us understand that a nervous breakdown is just around the corner, using simple but effective visual techniques. The screen begins to “walk”, the image sways from side to side, and the sound is either muffled or, on the contrary, becomes unbearably loud. To be honest, it is not known exactly how a person feels when he sees an upright bearded toad, but for some reason Headfirst wants to believe. Their simple techniques lead to serious disorders of the vestibular apparatus - the head naturally begins to spin, and during particularly long playing sessions the author of these lines began to feel quite nauseous.

American Gothic

G.F. Lovecraft has become an inexhaustible source of inspiration for a close-knit group of like-minded people who have been terrorizing the population of Zemsha for twenty years with their completely second-rate, but inexplicably charming horror films. Brian Yuzna, Stuart Gordon and their longtime actor Jeffrey Commbs have probably directed the largest number of Lovecraftian film adaptations. About the cult " Reanimator", the third part of which was recently released, we have already written. Below are three major films that are a must-see for anyone who is partial to Lovecraft's books. From Beyond (1986) A group of dubious scientists (a slutty-looking blonde, a pumped-up black man and a roguish professor) arrive at a Gothic mansion, where, in the course of a pseudoscientific experiment, they open a door to a parallel dimension. Having been on the other side, they stimulate their own sixth sense, which forces the professor to eat human brains, and the blonde to dress up in sexy lingerie with garters. A thoroughly second-rate horror film, also based on a story that was not part of Lovecraft’s Cthulhu cycle, “From Beyond” is its best and most atmospheric film adaptation. Dagon (2001) A relatively recent film based on two Lovecraft books at once - “ Shadow over Innsmouth" And " Dagon». Married couple accidentally visits a rotten port city inhabited by inhospitable inhabitants, who end up feeding his young wife to a huge underwater god - Dagon. A widowed husband suddenly grows gills and reveals himself to be a descendant of an ancient cult. "Dagon", being based on the same works as Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth, perfectly conveys the classic Lovecraftian atmosphere of some completely hopeless sacred horror. Highly recommended to all fans. Necronomicon (1994) Three short stories based on various Lovecraft stories. In one of them, Jeffrey Commbs, who once played Re-Animator, portrays Lovecraft himself. The look of Combs in his hat and glasses is complemented by the direction of B-horror king Brian Yuzna. Christopher Gans, who directed one of the short stories, recently released a film adaptation Silent Hill.

* * *

And this is what happens - being built on individually outdated game elements, the game makes a fresh and original impression. But the most important advantage of Call of Cthulhu is not its tortured originality, but the fact that it very accurately, almost on a physiological level, conveys the sensations of Lovecraft’s books. I very clearly remember these viscous, roughly and somehow overly detailed texts, through which I had to wade through, experiencing almost physical stress. The best metaphor for Lovecraft's prose is a barrel of fuel oil. Very dark and very dense.

The same thing happens in Call of Cthulhu. You will slowly move through the local plot, which stalls almost until the middle of the game, enter into lengthy dialogues, read numerous diaries, but throughout all this dubious entertainment you will not leave the feeling that now something will begin. So, in fact, with Lovecraft - the action sags, he gets into some completely unnecessary details, but almost all of his stories are literally imbued with some special atmosphere of secret knowledge. Despite his questionable writing skills, Lovecraft built a frighteningly plausible mythology that eventually became the subject of a cult. Headfirst clearly employed ardent admirers of his work - they don’t really understand how games should be made now, but their imagination and ability to clearly convey the desired atmosphere overcome almost all the shortcomings.

Yes, individually, the graphics, gameplay and everything else in Call of Cthulhu is no good. For such stealth, we have been arranging a public flogging for several years now, not to mention the action, which even two years ago would have caused slight bewilderment. The local engine, despite the bump mapping hastily attached to it, is hopelessly outdated. But in these muddy textures, low-poly models and half-baked gameplay there is a tank of thick, almost tangible atmosphere.

There is, of course, no sadder story in the world than the story of how the courageous Englishmen from Headfirst decided to transfer the classic of modern gothic to our monitors. In the six years since Call of Cthulhu was first announced, we've seen too much. Dark Corners of the Earth is a wonderful, old-fashioned and completely commercially disastrous project. Literally immediately after the release, Headfirst, drained of blood by protracted development, closed its doors, and its employees fled to other companies...

Replay value-No

Cool story-Yes

Originality-Yes

Easy to learn-Yes

Meeting expectations: 80%

Gameplay: 7.0

Graphic arts: 6.0

Sound and music: 8.0

Interface and control: 7.0

Did you wait? Thick, viscous, drawn-out and old-fashioned, like Lovecraftian prose, Call of Cthulhu still manages to make an impressive impression. The mixture of stealth, action and quest, which is questionable in our time, ultimately works - it’s interesting to play, no matter what.

Another unsuccessful attempt to use Lovecraft's work.

Tested on standard PS4

While in the depths of the waters under R'lyehom rests Cthulhu, waiting in the wings, fans of creativity Howard Lovecraft really waiting quality game O Great Ancient Deity, but all they get are references in other works.

October 30 adherents of the cult now have the first chance in a very long time to see a full-fledged game about Cthulhu, but Call of Cthulhu turned out to be far from what they had been waiting for. This is not a shooter, as it might seem at first glance, and not even role-playing game. This is a real adventure game or a walking simulator in the spirit of Chronicles last days" and "The Disappearance of Ethan Carter", if that makes it clearer to you.

Call of Cthulhu has no gunplay and virtually no gameplay. But there is a pretty good story of a private detective Edward Pierce, who takes on a very unusual case. After First World War when life Edward was going downhill, and the main character was looking for his salvation at the bottom of the bottle, a respected resident turned to him Boston, who asked to investigate the mysterious death of his daughter and her entire family.

Sarah Hawkins died in a fire under very strange circumstances. Knowing the girl’s mental disabilities, who also drew incredibly creepy pictures, the police believed that it was an accident, but her father did not agree with this. That's why he asked the main character to go to the island Darkwater and investigate everything there yourself.

By gameplay Call of Cthulhu can easily be called a detective story. Measured, psychological, in which you need to communicate a lot, walk and do little else. And all the conditions have been created for this: Edward turned out to be a very talkative character who knows how to elicit the most important details of a case that interests him. To do this, he relies on one of his skills, which can be upgraded in the corresponding menu: psychology, investigations, eloquence or even strength. Their development opens additional options in dialogues and exploration, but this is where the role-playing component of the game ends.

The RPG mechanics aren't the only thing that feel very stripped down in Call of Cthulhu. At first glance, it may seem that the game offers a huge variety of options in action and dialogue, but in this way the developers are just showing off. Cyanide has created an extremely linear game that simply leads you along its own narrow path. But what kind!

From a visual standpoint, Call of Cthulhu looks great. All locations and colors are clearly designed in the same style and allow you to thoroughly enjoy the atmosphere and feeling of creativity Lovecraft. Green tones and dark colors do their job, but scarier game this doesn't make it any better.

Unfortunately, there are practically no scary moments in the game, which is why it cannot be called a horror game. There is some feeling of anxiety, but it quickly passes when you start looking closely at the local graphics - they are simply disgusting. It feels like Call of Cthulhu was created for the last generation of consoles, because this is exactly what local textures and animations look like.

The characters move absurdly, move their mouths stupidly and stare, as if something is pressing against their butt. Because of this, you have to look at what is happening through the gap between your fingers, because only then you will not be caught by the horror of the local graphics.

Separately, I would like to talk about the main character. Besides the fact that he looks absolutely faceless and looks like the protagonist of another game from Focus Home Interactive- Vampyr, - he also has absolutely no character and, despite his weighty appearance, cannot give physical resistance to even a fragile lady.

***

It's hard to say who to recommend Call of Cthulhu to. First of all, probably to the most ardent fans of creativity Lovecraft, which will find many references to his works and a lot of pleasant fan service. The passage itself will be somewhat reminiscent of board games « Arkham Horror" And " Call of the Ancients“, but there is no such thing here that it could attract someone else. This is an extremely niche product that is not shy about showing its budget and looking outdated. Perhaps you have Cyanide more funds, Call of Cthulhu would have turned out to be a different game, but it was announced in 2014 anyway, and during this time it even managed to change developers. Now the original creators of the project from Frogwares are engaged in The Sinking City, and now all hope is on them.

We tell you why Cyanide Studio succeeded

Gambling addiction https://www.site/ https://www.site/

First, we need to clarify something. Call of Cthulhu from Cyanide Studio- this is not a remake of the game Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth, which was released in 2006, but rather a digital embodiment of the role-playing board game of the same name. The plot is not based on any specific work by Howard F. Lovecraft. The action takes place in a place that you will not find in any of the writer’s stories. Moreover, the game will feature creatures that were written not by the “father of the Cthulhu myths” himself, but by his followers.

But, despite all this, the French developers managed the most important and most difficult thing: to capture the Lovecraftian spirit and convey it as closely as possible.

Waves of madness

The town of Darkwater, perched on an island off the coast of Boston, is shrouded in perpetual fog. Fishermen and whalers have long lived here, but the city's best days are behind it. Fish became extinct in coastal waters back in the 19th century, and the last whale caught at the same time entered local legends as the “Wonderful Catch.” True, there are rumors that it was not a whale at all, but an unknown creature similar to the Kraken, but is it worth believing the tales of superstitious hillbillies?

Now it's the Roaring Twenties, and Darkwater is slowly dying. Its prototype from Lovecraft's stories, the town of Innsmouth, managed to stay afloat thanks to a deal with the Deep Ones: in exchange for sacrifices, the sea people gave the inhabitants of Innsmouth fish and gold. However, the inhabitants of Darkwater made a slightly different deal. So the only people who feel at ease on the island are bootleggers who quietly carry out their business far from the mainland police... and cultists who dream of awakening the Lord of the Worlds.

Somewhere here the story of our hero, detective Edward Pierce, begins. He arrives on the island to investigate the death of Sarah Hawkins, a talented artist and wife of a local aristocrat. But the narrow streets of Darkwater, along which the tentacles of fetid fog creep, and its dark waters (where the tentacles are no longer foggy) hide much more secrets than Pierce expected to reveal.

In the previous text, I hoped that the game would plunge you into an atmosphere of horror and madness, and my hopes were justified. But the demo version deceived me in some ways. In the first three hours, it seemed that Call of Cthulhu would be leisurely, measured and viscous, like Lovecraftian prose, and that you would have to investigate more than run and hide. It turns out that the demo ended exactly at the moment after which events spiral in such a way that there is no time to leave for tea.

And this is not bad, not at all. Quite the contrary. After all, Lovecraft himself did not shy away from chases or hide and seek in his stories.

In the first four chapters, Pierce explores Darkwater in detail, trying to find out whether the unfortunate Sarah really tried to kill her family. The fifth starts with a sudden plot twist, after which you, along with the hero, wonder what is going on here and what is true. The more I played, the further the action moved away from the predictable course, only to rush beyond the bounds of reason in the final act.

In a literal and exclusively positive sense.

In the maze of fear

The game takes eight to ten hours to complete, even if you carefully study each location. On Pierce's path there are no barricades of artificially created obstacles and endless tasks, for the solution of which you need to deal with other problems. But even if Call of Cthulhu were longer, it would hardly get boring for one simple reason - the game does not like to repeat itself.

Each chapter is greeted with something special. In the Hawkins mansion, you need to study the crime scene and look for evidence. In the catacombs under the mansion - run as fast as you can so as not to be buried under the rubble. A pure stealth awaits in the art gallery, and a curious riddle awaits in the bookstore. Towards the end you can even shoot a little... and look into someone else's head. Lovecraft loved the theme of mind-sharing, so Pierce would be able to temporarily transfer into the bodies of other characters.

It doesn't quite match the original. Pierce only observes the actions of others, and does not have full control of the new physical shell - as, for example, Ephraim Waite did in the novel "The Thing on the Doorstep". But this is a great find from a storytelling point of view: this way we see important things that would otherwise remain behind the scenes.

Even when we are returned to a familiar place, we will not be bored. Not only because of the beautiful pictures, excellent atmosphere and the element of chance borrowed from the board game. Familiar locations will definitely offer a new activity, almost always non-trivial.

I'll give just one example. In one of the chapters, Pierce will have to wander through a dark hospital wing on the wrong side of reality. He has two lanterns at his disposal: the green one shows the way and opens passages sealed with witchcraft signs, the red one allows him to pass through doors that are simply not visible in the rays of another lamp. If you go the wrong way, space will twist and you will be returned to the start.

The catch is that the lamps can be changed in a strictly defined place... and that in the light of a green lantern you see something toothy living in the darkness - and he, accordingly, sees you. Please not only correctly combine lamps, but also quickly run to the desired point for exchange. And control yourself when you hear someone’s hoarse breathing in the impenetrable darkness ahead.

In addition to the tasks in each location, the game intelligently alternates the locations themselves. The creepy catacombs are replaced by a mental hospital - and for the next half hour you hide from good doctors, feeling as if I had briefly looked into Outlast. The shabby walls of the hospital are replaced by a cozy mansion - and immediately from the warm living room with a crackling fireplace you are thrown into a nightmare where you best traditions Alien: Isolation shaking in the closet while a fanged monster wanders outside.

But the main thing is that Call of Cthulhu alternates different types of fear. Fear of the unknown is what Lovecraft called “the oldest and the most powerful.” Fear of being noticed and caught. Fear of what lurks in the dark. Fear of encroaching madness: in some episodes, Call of Cthulhu becomes no less surreal than Layers of Fear, and plays with you the same way - things around you change as soon as you turn away. And after another nightmare new chapter greets the hero with a short respite and bright sunshine... just so that you don’t get tired of being afraid. After all, fear, as you know, has its own degree of freshness.

A choice that doesn't exist

In some ways, the demo promised less than what I ultimately received, but it was not without disappointment.

I played through the game twice, trying very hard to take different paths. The problem is that your choices have little effect on anything other than the ending. Yes, when Pierce says other lines of dialogue, you get crumbs new information. Yes, with a different path of leveling, the detective makes slightly different conclusions at the crime scene and sees things that he had not noticed before. But, in general, the plot rolls along the beaten track, towards the same cutscenes with minor differences.

In conversations with characters, the game more than once meaningfully hints that this or that answer will change your fate - but in the end the changes turn out to be much less significant than you might expect. Storylines In any case, many of the secondary characters will end up crumpled, or even end up completely broken off mid-sentence. You can make friends with someone, you can insult him - it will not affect anything except a couple of phrases in the next conversation. At one point, Pierce is given the choice of which of two acquaintances to save and which to be condemned to death, and even here there are no significant consequences.

Notice the icon in the upper left corner of the screen. And a little about what’s on the screen: Leviathan was included in the Lovecraftian pantheon not by the writer himself, but by his follower Ross Bagby in the story "Artifacts from Quivira", but he fit into history surprisingly well

The pumping system also promises more than it delivers. Some skills are more useful than others, and by the end of my second playthrough I was wondering why the ability tree was made the way it was. In any case, search skills have to be used much more often than eloquence or force. By the end of the game, the last two skills seem completely unnecessary: ​​in order to defeat the final enemy, Pierce will not need the skill of words, and no matter how strong our detective is, he will be laid down on both shoulder blades by one blow from a zombified fisherman.

This smoothly leads to problems with the phobia system, which the developers have talked so much about. Some of the fears you get from the plot, no matter how you look at them. By the end of the game you can stay in relatively sane, but not in absolutely sane (and this fits well with the rules of the Lovecraftian myths). Getting others depends on the nuances of the passage. If you climb into the wrong room, you will see a mountain of dismembered corpses - hello, psychotrauma. If you get too many injuries, hello insanity.

It sounds good, but again it only affects the ending and the answers in the dialogues. Don't expect any gameplay consequences. From the fifth chapter the hero begins to have panic attacks in confined spaces- regardless of the number of injuries received. That's all.

The funny thing is that panic doesn’t affect anything either. Pierce loses his breath, his heart begins to pound wildly, an ominous fog creeps along the edges of the screen... and that’s all. I honestly sat in a dark closet, waiting for death, a new phobia, or at least for the hero to fall out without asking right under the nose of a bloodthirsty monster - but the game did not punish me with anything other than funny visual effects. Hide until you're blue in the face. Why, then, is it needed at all? Scare with an imaginary threat?

In general, in the absence open world, small locations and a short plot that would fit well into the format of one of Lovecraft’s stories, I expected more replayability.

Still, the advantages of Call of Cthulhu outweigh the disadvantages. I didn’t get bored during my second playthrough and will definitely play again to collect all the endings (let me remind you, there are four in total). For me, this story would ideally complement a collection of the original Cthulhu Mythos, only here the atmospheric content is accompanied by beautiful visualization.

I respect the guys from Cyanide Studio for not taking the easy route. It would be easy to borrow external attributes, cram in familiar names and titles, draw fish frogs in golden tiaras singing “Cthulhu fhtagn”, but forget about the main thing. In the new Call of Cthulhu we will meet fish people (even if not quite canonical ones), and a lot of pleasant little things that refer to Lovecraft’s opuses, but, in general, this story is not so much By Lovecraft, how old? in the spirit Lovecraft.

Eat different books, games and films in the horror genre. Some methodically lay out entrails around the hero, making him feel fear and disgust, others throw corpses and monsters around the corner, trying to cause a sharp fear. But the best works in the genre are always achieved thanks to the atmosphere: oppressive, frightening, saturated with horror. Such masterpieces are remembered for a long time by the reader, player and viewer. But over all of them reigns one author, whose works do not just inspire fear: they create in the imagination pictures of all-encompassing hopelessness, describe ancient gods, merciless and inexorable. And the only way out is madness, and salvation is death. Of course, we're talking about Howard Lovecraft. The new one is another attempt to recreate such an attractive and terrifying atmosphere of his works in the form of a game.

The most significant video game based on the works of Lovecraft was released back in 2005. Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth was based on the events of the story "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" and offered to go on a crazy adventure in a possessed town where cults and mysticism rule, not common sense. The game successfully combined shooter and stealth, methodically pressed the atmosphere, required you to constantly fight for your life, severely punishing for mistakes, and of all the rewards it offered only grains of information and the opportunity to survive. Having completed it, you rethink your attitude towards the genre and understand what inspired the developers of many subsequent projects in a similar style - the same Penumbra, which stirred up the circles of horror fans a couple of years later.

Cyanide Studio, the creators of Of Orcs and Men, Styx and Pro Cycling Manager, took a slightly different route. IN new game Lovecraft's work emphasizes exploration and investigation. Call of Cthulhu is practically an adventure game. 90% of the game consists of searching for clues, solving simple puzzles and talking. One not very wonderful day, detective Edward Pierce is visited by the father of Sarah Hawkins, who mysteriously died along with her entire family in a fire. Sarah had a talent for painting, but her work was dark and frightening. And her death does not let her father go: the circumstances look too strange. Pierce travels to Darkwater Island, where the family lived, to begin an investigation.

Despite its exploratory nature, Call of Cthulhu is largely linear. The chapters follow one after another, and most locations take the player where they need to be quite consistently. There are some levels where you can move around the environment more freely, but overall both the progression and the story itself follow a set path. Even the evidence is usually laid out along the main path. In rare cases, examining each stone brings a positive result, and there is no need to talk about getting an additional optional mission. Only once in the hospital, in the role of a young and compassionate female doctor, was I able to try to do at least something that did not relate to Pierce's main investigation.

Edward is consistent and methodical in his work. Behind every plot twist there is a new clue, and only old notes and various finds allow us to understand what is happening more deeply. The detective is allowed to improve his skills. Medicine and occult knowledge are upgraded by reading books and finding objects, and other abilities such as persuasion, searching for hidden things or strength are developed through special points that are awarded for achieving plot milestones. Skills make it easier to find objects or determine the composition of medical substances, and in some situations they add special phrases to dialogues: for example, to apply knowledge of psychology or to intimidate the interlocutor.

Everything here is imbued with a marine theme.

Almost half of the game is based on conversations. Here you can chat with everyone you meet, right down to the watchman with an ax who is ready to hack the detective to death on the spot. And most of the time it seems that different variants in the dialogues do not in any way affect the development of events, although a caring inscription in the corner of the screen helpfully reminds us of the opposite. But there is simply no feeling that history changes depending on some decisions. Even despite the fact that the game has several endings, most of them are revealed after the final decision (hello Mass Effect 3). Some side effects also go into this pile. For example, Pierce may drink. Or maybe not drink. And the influence of the fact of drinking alcohol on the development of the plot or the psyche of the hero is not obvious.

The psychological component of the game, which the authors are trying to bet on, is generally revealed in different ways. The presentation of the plot itself looks pleasant and intriguing. The picture of events changes as the investigation progresses. And only towards the end the whole picture comes together more or less together. But the development of the plot sometimes turns out to be uneven: some colorful characters appear a couple of times, disappearing from view for a long time, and suddenly appear only towards the end.

The game also has its own charming and mysterious character. Alas, underexplored.

CoC also suffers from other problems: from the necessary but absurd shootouts for the plot, a couple of moments with monsters jumping out of the darkness (which is not at all expected from a game with such a serious face) and ending with the visual component. Call of Cthulhu looks quite solid, but the quality of development still varies. Somewhere there is clearly not enough detail, and some places are drawn with enviable trepidation. And in general, there are questions about the engine: parts of the body fall through clothes, and its animations sometimes do unknown things. But that’s not the main thing in a psychological thriller, right?

Skills that can be improved

Call of Cthulhu tries to create the right atmosphere and mood as best it can. And up to certain point everything is working in the right direction. But then it turns out that history changes, and with it the psyche of Edward Pierce. And here the depth and second wind of the narrative is no longer enough. And minor flaws and a lack of understanding of how the choices of phrases and actions affect the development of the story only exacerbate the effect. The game is definitely worth a look, largely because adaptations of Lovecraft's works don't appear that often, but the initial bar is so high that reaching it turns out to be an almost impossible task.

Cemeteries are an indispensable attribute of Lovecraft's works

If you find an error, please highlight a piece of text and click Ctrl+Enter.

The game is definitely worth a look, largely because adaptations of Lovecraft's works don't appear that often, but the initial bar is so high that reaching it turns out to be an almost impossible task.