PIERCE: âWhat a muhcarbra souvenirâŚâ STEVE: âI canât believe this story youâre telling me. Itâs macabre!â [dramatic music sting] [startled screaming] [calm gramophone music fades in] PIERCE: âI hate whiskeyâŚâ âCall of Cthulhuâ is an adventure horror game. You play as a grizzled alcoholic detective sent out to a mysterious coastal town, to find out whatâs going on. Hang on⌠Havenât I played this already? Well, some things are similar, but a lot more is different. âDark Corners of the Earthâ was a First Person Shooter, and this is, eh, wait⌠[*bang, bang*] Okay, there is some shooting. A little bit. But itâs not an FPS â itâs an⌠RPG. Sort ofâŚ? Let me just start over⌠So, you play as a man named [Edward] Pierce â a private eye and traumatized World War 1 veteran. Heâs met by a man who wishes for Pierce to investigate the death of his daughter. Her name was Sarah Hawkins, and she was a famous painter. Unfortunately, she, and her entire family died in a tragic house fire. But there was always something strange about her paintings, and they only got stranger before her demise. Her father finds the house fire to be suspicious. So, Pierce ventures out to the obscure island of Darkwater, to find out the truth. Itâs an intriguing setup for a mystery. Things are kept vague enough that youâre still not sure what to expect yet. Unfortunately, this doesnât last too long. If youâre even remotely familiar with Lovecraftâs more popular stories, when you get to Darkwater, youâll pick up on some things. You can take broad guesses and be right about most of them. Iâll talk more about the story later, but save the spoilers for the end. For now, Iâll just say there is some excellent writing and attention to detail, and some good reveals. At the same time, other parts are a mess, or just plain awkward, or horribly familiar. It is worth mentioning that itâs not just âDark Corners of the Earthâ again. That game was more âShadow Over Innsmouthâ than the âCall of Cthulhuâ book anyway. I guess, it did have some of the RPG elements sprinkled here and there. The 2018 âCall of Cthulhu: The Official Videogameâ (thatâs a long title) takes bits out of just about all Lovecraft media. So, itâs a big, incestuous squid lasagna. Now that I think about it, Lovecraft did have some incest in his writing, so⌠thatâs appropriate. Also, there is way more of the role-playing game in here. Weâll talk about that too. So letâs take a good look at âCall of Cthulhuâ. PIERCE: âWhereâs the proof?â PUDDING: âWEâre the proof!â LOCAL: âWithout it, the whole of Darkwater would have died of hunger in 1847.â [*CRUNCH*]
LOCAL: âWithout it, the whole of Darkwater would have died of hunger in 1847.â LOCAL: âWithout it, the whole of Darkwater would have died of hunger in 1847.â [*CRUNCH*]
LOCAL: âWithout it, the whole of Darkwater would have died of hunger in 1847.â LOCAL: âWithout it, the whole of Darkwater would have died of hunger in 1847.â Okay, itâs a rough-looking game, especially for 2018. But thereâs more to that. The more I play relatively newer games, the more I notice post-processing effects. The worst of these seem to be Unreal 4 games, and âCall of Cthulhuâ is no exception. So let me go through everything I can perceive. It might be hard to see on YouTube, but, like âDark Corners of the Earthâ, there is a slight Film Grain effect. So that fuzzes things out, but we have Chromatic Aberration on top of that, so the image is distorted, too. Then you have Depth of Field to distort things even more, your Motion Blur, then, finally, your Green Filter. This is a very green game. Now, when you put all those together, the game looks⌠awful. Itâs more blurry and out of focus than gay characters in a Disney âStar Warsâ product. I canât even say it reminds me of âMorrowindâ this time, because âMorrowindâ is not blurry. Now, the only one of these you can turn off directly is Motion Blur â for everything else, you need to dig around in the engine. I experimented a lot with this, and, unfortunately, some settings are just tied together. So, ultimately, I just forced Chromatic Aberration off. I donât want every setting off, but, all together, itâs just too much. I also ended up turning brightness WAY down. You know how games go âturn it down until you can barely see the logoâ? And youâre, like: âHow barely is âbarelyâ?â Well, âCall of Cthulhuâ really means BARELY. Itâs not a sharp looking-game, and maybe all those effects are trying to obfuscate that, but itâs still ridiculous not to have an easy checkbox for some of these. You know, I wouldnât wanna take away your color filter. A lot of scenes and art assets are clearly designed with that being there. But the effects that constantly degrade and fuzz the image donât seem that way. I think this is a growing pet peeve of mine. Because, sure, these effects could make sense for an insanity sequence, but my eyeballs usually donât act like cameras. Beyond that, there is some great scenery in âCall of Cthulhuâ. There are some excellent lighting effects, and the game does use its color pallet in unusual ways. Having such a focus on green is unique, and they properly use the colors under that to make some surreal visuals. Itâs not like that the whole time though â they do mix things up. You do get scenes of relative normalcy to balance out all the weird squid stuff, and creepy things will still happen in areas not covered in green, so they donât rely on the color as a âthis is the scary partâ filter. This art gallery if full of unsettling pieces. You have the screaming face paintings, the Tomb King constructs, Aslan â itâs all here. No, itâs not AAA, as far as fidelity goes, and yeah, a lot of the game looks horribly ugly, but the art direction is good and unusual enough to punch above its weight sometimes. The worst part (or, maybe, the most unintentionally uncomfortable part) are the character models. Theyâre right in that uncanny valley, where theyâre realistic enough where your brain tries to see them as, like, actual human beings, but still look just a little too plasticey. Combine that with their movement being too janky. So my brain doesnât register human being â it registers animatronic. In particular, the one at Chuck E. Cheese that definitely bit me when I was 6. There are exceptions, but, generally, itâs pretty rough. It is poor-looking when youâre aiming as high as ârealismâ in 2018, but, as far as a mid-range game goes, itâs not too bad. Especially on a lower-budget horror game scale. Oddly enough, I find the pre-rendered cutscenes to be the ugliest part of the game by far. In theory, theyâre supposed to look better than the actual game does, but⌠not here. You might be able to tell just from watching this, but it also has some of the worst lip-synching Iâve seen in a game in maybe a decade. Older games could get away with having ârah-rah, rah-rah-rah-rah, rah-ra-ah-rah, rah-rahâŚâ It was because they had more primitive and abstract graphics. With all the detail here, itâs blatantly noticeable. WEBSTER: âTell me⌠Tell me if this is the work of madness?â WEBSTER: âOr if, on the contrary, you managed to detect some logic â a rationality to follow, so that I may understand it?â PIERCE: âIs that all you want from me?â WEBSTER: âYes! PleaseâŚâ PIERCE: âAlright⌠Iâll look at your picture.â While the visuals arenât AAA quality, Iâd say that the audio is. The mixing has occasional issues, but the actual voice acting and direction is excellent. And itâs all being backed up by a solid soundscape. PIERCE: âKiller whales donât have many known predators.â FITZROY: âThatâs true. And normally, theyâre not found around here.â FITZROY: âBut, ehm⌠Heh⌠Youâre gonna take me for a foolâŚâ PIERCE: âGive it a try.â FITZROY: âHave you heard about the Depths? Trenches that plunge into the Earth and that shelter creatures unlike any other?â PIERCE: âYouâre talking about mythology.â FITZROY: âHah-ha, indeed, youâre right!â [crisp footsteps] PIERCE: âThe Book of Dzyan is the foundational work behind Helena Blavatskyâs theosophical movement.â PIERCE: âIts followers place truth on the same footing as a religion.â [quiet, yet menacing, gargly monstrous breathing coming from undiscernible direction] [Pierce's breath becomes laboured, sound of heartbeat fades in] I donât wanna spoil the supernatural or intense sequences, but whatâs here is excellent. Youâll still get some awkward deliveries of lines. Sometimes, Pierce will say one thing, [moves away from the microphone]
and the next sounds like it was recorded on a different day, or in a different room, but, compared to the quality of the rest of the work, itâs pretty minor. The soundtrack is competent: well done ambience and droning sounds, strange chanting, strings â everything youâd expect from a Lovecraft title. It is appropriate and thematic, but most isnât very memorable. There are some standouts, like a track with a creepy ethereal woman singing. Even some of the downtime music is somber or bittersweet. Genuinely gorgeous music. You know, beyond⌠[ambient humming] Gotta say though, it does ramp up. [ramped up humming with drums and anxiety-inducing strings] So, overall, a wide gap in presentation highs and lows. Moving onto the gameplay â why is there a squid, and why is it cake? As detective Pierce, you have some options for how you handle the case. There are choices to make and skills to use, and this is a game with multiple endings. There is some variety, as far as gameplay goes, so Iâll try and tackle one element at a time. Iâd say your primary activity is mainly digging around for clues. Some will be as simple as an object you go up to and click on and collect, others will be a little more complicated. Some clues require going through a wide variety of puzzles, getting past enemies, or having a proper skill. A lot of obstacles typically have a few ways of getting past them. For example, this hidden bookshelf door. You can study some clues and find a way to open it properly, test your muscles and try to force the mechanism, or poke around until you find a crowbar to pop the thing. Good ideas so far, so how do the skills work? Well, youâre allocated character points at the very beginning, and you could put them wherever you want. The initial choice is important. Itâs a fact of life: the more creepy people you investigate, the more CP you find. So, as you play the game and get more clues and get closer to discovering the truth, you get more character points. You canât max everything out in one playthrough, and two of the skills â Occultism and Medicine â canât be upgraded conventionally. You get these up by finding relevant items in the environment. So the very start is the only opportunity to put things in directly. Occultism in particular is a tricky one. Because, the more you learn about forbidden knowledge beyond the colors of time, the worse it is for your mental health. You do learn a lot poking around unholy books, but it does start to rot your brain. How intact your mind is (that you canât chalk up to alcohol) will help determine your ending. So, if you decide to be willfully ignorant, you might have a happier time. PIERCE: âI canât read Latin.â Your other skills help you break through obstacles and give you more conversation options, but can also Aid in Pearceâs special ability. Using his detective magic, he can sometimes recreate past events. An example: a skill like Psychology can help him deduce the motive or think of what an object might represent to somebody. So, in theory, when you replay the game with a different build, you might not just get a different ending, but also new insights along the way. What was just a weird object to Doctor Pierce, could be significant for Occult Pierce. This also changes how you progress through the game. Letâs compare my Nerd Pierce with my Gains Pierce. Nerd Pierce breaks into a warehouse by bribing people with alcohol to cause a distraction. To do that, he had to use an investigation skill to lockpick his way into a shed and steal alcohol. Itâs Prohibition, after all⌠Meanwhile, Gains Pierce assembled a bunch of items to fix a gate winch. His brute force can then easily- [*screech*] PIERCE: âDamn! I broke itâŚâ Okay, that didnât work, but he can beat up the people who confront him about it. Even if I went back with Nerd Pierce, heâd never be able to open the g- Wait, he has less strength, how did he open the gate? Oh no⌠âIncreases your chances ofâŚâ âIncreases your chances ofâŚâ Thatâs right â every skill is a dice roll. This is the worst possible idea for this kind of game. And this isnât the most egregious example. Sometimes, a little icon pops up, saying hidden items are nearby. When you find them all, it will vanish, so you know you got everything. So does the Spot Hidden skill mean that icon pops up, but that you can see the item from farther? No. Naturally, you have more insight in the subject matter, but youâll also find more clues. Because⌠âImproving this skill increases your chances of finding hidden objects. An undiscovered object will not appear in game.â What?! So, finding more clues is based on a skill thatâs still a⌠a dice roll! Youâd think that greyed-out conversation options means itâs a threshold, but no â that just means that you can test the skill. So, if you play the game again, with a new build, you can still be failing the exact same things the other character did. Because, ultimately, itâs all up to chance. Does maxing out a skill guarantee success? I have no idea. But weâre now playing a mystery game where finding some clues is up to RNG. I donât understand the logic behind this. The random element doesnât make the game more replayable for me â it does the opposite. Even if a max skill guarantees success, that means Iâd need to be min-maxing every playthrough. And, leading up to that, all the skill checks are up to chance. That kind of thing makes sense for combat in a role-playing game. A videogame. In a tabletop setting, it works, because youâre being monitored by a DM. They can adjust and monitor things on the fly, to keep everything clear. Random numbers donât do that. You can still understand the broad strokes of the game without these hidden clues, but itâs very⌠Itâs baffling! Especially when you look at the skill tree itself. The fact that the Investigation skill is dead center. So you have two separate skills that are supremely important for understanding whatâs happening, and itâs RNG. Itâs not a huge game either â your first playthrough might be between 6 to 9 hours. Also, you sometimes play as other characters, who have their own set skills. And they can also recreate crime scenes. Which makes it extra weird when the game established that doing that was kind of Pierceâs thing. Itâs a good idea, but the skill system execution is a nightmare. I did replay this thing a few times, and the dialogue options in particular had very little consequence most of the time. Thereâs too little in the game for this skill system to work off of. In a longer, richer game I could see how it would work, if the RNG was removed, but as is, the options it offers feel too redundant. Being friendly with a cop and failing to threaten a cop have the exact same outcome. Itâs nice window dressing for a playthrough, but donât think playing it again will be much different. Do you want to pull a gas lever or an electrical lever? I donât know, theyâre right next to each other. The game did switch developers at some point, and the original one went on to make their own Cthulhu game, so, maybe that could explain some things. So it is messy on that front. How about the stealth mechanics? ???: âHey!â Itâs bad. More funny than tense. What is- What is he doing? I donât know what that was! Iâm not gonna show the monster yet, but it has the same problems. The AI is near braindead, and completely forgets about you once youâre out of line of sight. On top of that, there are mechanics that just seem unfinished. If your sanity got too low in âDark Corners of the Earthâ, that meant the end of you. Games like âAmnesiaâ could just distort the screen, or have unpleasant effects. In âCall of Cthulhuâ, if you hide in a locker too long, or see unsettling things, it will look like something bad will happen. The screen distorts, thereâs a heartbeat, heavy breathing, your vision narrows. But youâre never in any danger, even though the game seems to imply that. You pop out of the situation, and a few seconds later, your visionâs back to normal. There is a sequence near the beginning where Pierce has an uncomfortably realistic panic attack. The rapid subtle breathing, and not the Hollywood fish gasping. Youâre outright told that this is a danger, and if this happens, you need to get out. So what if I told you that it never ever happens again in the game? Even in the sequence itself itâs pointless, but I could see how it would work. You start making noise and are easier to find, or maybe you collapse and something can get you, but nothing happens. Itâs a warning for a meaningless feature that never returns. As for the FPS gameplay â itâs just clicking. A shot hitting depends on your strength skill and RNG. But really, you donât need to hide or shoot, because you can easily outrun everybody (which also includes interdimensional monsters). So, for all the mood and atmosphere it tried to build, I wasnât really that tense playing it, and I never got scared. Thatâs not bragging, Iâve been creeped out by plenty of games. It would even fail at jumpscares. It would just play a loud clang right before the scary thing actually happens, so I was just alerted to it. They werenât polished up. The absolute worst part is when they use the cutscenes. The most tense and promising part of the game for me was exploring the Hawkins' manor. Itâs near the beginning of the game, itâs quiet and dark, and you just keep finding signs of something awful that happened there. Then you hear a noise near the attic. Right by where you are. And you go to check it out, and⌠oh⌠You just watch the scary thing happen, and youâre not in the situation anymore. There are even parts when monster catches you and the UI will fade out for a few seconds before it actually shows up in pre-render form. The game has a real problem with executing and projecting its scares. The game does do some great things when youâre actually playing it, and itâs glimpses of what could have been. The game will occasionally do some subtle stuff to make you second-guess yourself. Thereâs just barely any of it. I probably will remember this âWizard of Ozâ poster that looks like anti-Japanese World War 2 propaganda than I will most of the scares in the game. So, before I get into spoilers, Iâll talk about the story vaguely. There are three main intertwined tales. You have the original draw of Sarah Hawkins and the mystery paintings, the mysterious cult on the island, and finally, the mad scientist and his lab. The first playthrough did have some confusion to it, because the game is throwing a lot at you at once, but the main details are tied together nicely. It just has some execution problems, like everything else. It is competent, and clearly made with reverence and love for the source material. Like a lot of other parts, I think it might have suffered from its ambition. The story seems abridged, and the pacing rushed in parts. Pierce has a vision entirely about someone trying to break into a bad guyâs office inside of an asylum. Itâs heavily guarded. Then, next scene⌠[swooce] [*clank*] Heâs just there now. Did I mention he also escaped from this asylum? Okay, if you donât want spoilers, go to here: PIERCE: âI pray that Colden is really here. And aliveâŚâ [*BASS*] Darkwater is a strange town. It used to run primarily off whaling, until several decades before, after an event called The Miraculous Catch. The biggest whale ever recorded was caught there, and then no whales ever returned. This was done by the father of old captain Fitzroy, who looked a lot like him, except he had a peg leg. Pierce makes friends with a local officer Bradley, who brings him out to the crime scene at Hawkinsâ manor. This is also where I realized the game might be unfinished. You look around the grounds, then attempt to go into the manor itself. [clicking of a locked doorknob] [*CHOP*] PIERCE: âWha- Whoa!â SILAS: âYou were trying to force the door, you nosy prick!â PIERCE: âEasy, sir, alrightâŚ? Put down the axe.â SILAS: âYou know what we do with rabble like you?â SILAS: âWe gut them! Dump them into the ocean!â PIERCE: âWhoh! AhâŚâ (anxious huffing) Well, thatâs no good. No axe for you! [*clop*] [*thud*] PIERCE: âAH! AhâŚâ SILAS: âWhat do you think youâre doing?â Oh, thatâs it? PIERCE: âGive me that!â [*clop*] [*clop*] PIERCE: âControl yourself, old man.â Okay, letâs use basic logic. Old Silas the groundskeeper has just threatened to murder you. You can try to talk him down normally, or try to grab his weapon. If you do grab his weapon, you hand it back to him, in a show of strength, I guess. Youâre here investigating a murder of several people. He worked for the Hawkins family for many years, and was hanging out in the abandoned manor long after their demise. It doesnât help that he looks like the red herring character in every âScooby Dooâ episode. You have less than zero reason to trust this man. Beyond that, this is a guy you should be asking tons and tons of questions to. He was with the family forever â he would know who their enemies could be, or what could have happened. Instead of being a gigantic suspect, or a witness, heâs just a quest to open up the manor. Thereâs also a good chance you brought officer Bradley with you. Even if he said no, heâs at the door after this encounter anyways. You never see or hear about the groundskeeper ever again. You know, even in âScooby Dooâ theyâll go âI bet Old Man Jenkins is behind thisâ, but they donât even do that. Why have a throwaway character in such a relevant role to the story? This is also where I started to notice the shortcomings in what you can actually investigate. You can check out random books on the table, but not the giant scratches outside an evil summoning circle room. Theyâre not hidden objects â these are obvious clues. One of the iffy voice direction things I mentioned earlier pops up beneath the house. Youâve been attacked by a mysterious intruder, and are finding signs of a secret cult. There are artifacts and images left over from an ancient tribe that disappeared from the island. Pierce studies the images. PIERCE: âThis monstrous creature must be an allegory.â PIERCE: âThese paintings must be several centuries old.â PIERCE: âThese people lying down⌠are they dead? Are they asleep?â That freaked him out. How about a human skeleton? PIERCE: âA sad way to go.â The crime was a long time ago â that could be evidence. I guess it sticks out, because he focuses on stuff that the player would be knowing about. If you have this game, you know the supernatural stuff is real. I guess, you could interpret that he gets a bad feeling from it, because itâs influencing his dreams, but I donât know⌠All the investigating up to this point just comes across as odd. WALTERS: âDamn, he recognized me! And it sounded like he was gonna get on the level with whatâs going on in this joint.â Okay, itâs always been this way. Another character also stops being brought up as much, because itâs possible youâll recognize his voice. You need to sneak around a mysterious ritual, and not sure whatâs happening. I know I have been picking at things I donât like, but at this point, itâs still an interesting mystery. Right now, you only have the cult and the paintings to deal with. Along with the nonsensical skill system. PIERCE: âDead?! This ritual killed him!â Okay, let me get through this. You go to a place from your dreams, and Charles Hawkins â the husband of Sarah â is alive, and half a sushi roll. Thereâs some fighting, an accident, and you end up in an evil asylum. As you escape, an art collector turned patient reveals the truth of Sarah Hawkinsâ paintings. Her latest piece is a gateway for a creature called a ĐiĐź3nsi0Đa1 SĐ˝AmĐŤ3r, and that it must be stopped. So you go to his art gallery to confront it. Youâve only gotten whispers and glimpses about it until now. Now itâs here. [loud clangs of closing shutters] [hoarse rattle] PIERCE: (startled gasp) (terrified panting) So itâs kind of like a Xenomorph. You try to hide from it in lockers, and generally just sneak around. But, as I said before, the AI is not very good. So, to try and counter that, the level you confront it in is incredibly simple. Youâre actually seeing all of it right now. All you need to do is grab a weapon out of a case and go stab the painting. You donât have to hide at all, actually â you can easily outrun the thing, which makes it all incredibly underwhelming. Itâs not a huge letdown, because after the asylum AI your expectations are tempered, but, man, what an underwhelming design for a painting monster. I mean, what can I say â this is no âAlien: Isolationâ. (Xenomorph's screechy hissing) If you guessed Sarah Hawkins was still alive, then, yeah, here she is. Charles Hawkins is back from earlier too, but his tentacles are on the other side now. I honestly donât know if thatâs a genuine mistake, or if this means something. Later on, you play as Sarah Hawkins banishing the Shambler again, and itâs not much better than before. Iâm omitting a lot, but I realized that I donât care about anyone in the story. I guess, I like officer Bradley, because heâs just a nice guy trying to do the right thing, but all the characters are things youâve seen a million times before. Honestly, the whole painting thing is minor in the grand scheme of things. She summoned a monster, and also predicted Pierce would come to do⌠something. The true reveal is that The Miraculous Catch was just bait. A creature called The Leviathan wanted to be caught. The people of Darkwater would eat his endlessly regenerating flesh and fall more and more under his influence. So that wasnât Fitzroyâs father in the picture â it was Fitzroy, but his leg regenerated, and heâs been immortal. Good reveal. The mad scientist is trying to study the flesh to unlock the secrets of life and death and all that. Sarahâs role is to help carry out a ritual that Leviathan planned. Which is to summon Cthulhu. All the elements I liked in the story were setups and payoffs. Clever character moments or world-building details, but not really anyone in it themselves. It is fun to put the pieces together and go âOh, thatâs what that was about!â But beyond that thereâs not much to really linger on. Itâs a feeling of âOh⌠THATâs what happened.â Depending on your choices in the game, youâll have 4 ending options: enact a ritual, stop the ritual, have Sarah Hawkins kill herself or kill yourself. The extra hard to attain endings really donât feel worth another playthrough. [music ramps up then fades] [*BANG*] I hope I didnât play the game again for that. Oh, that canât be it⌠UGHH!! To make matters worse, the longest, most awesome, most thematically appropriate ending is always a choice. Appropriately, thereâs not an âeverything works outâ ending, so thereâs nothing really to work towards. You get to see Big Papa Cthulhu and all the madness he unleashes anyway you play, which would make sense as a reward for doing well, but you want most of your players to be able to see this. There is some fantastic stuff in the last hour of this game, but it always feels like there was a bunch missing in the middle. At launch, this game was sold for $40, and I would have been aggravated if I bought it at that price. There is a lot of ambition and good ideas, but theyâre clearly not fully realized. On paper, it seems like a game Iâd enjoy a lot more than âDark Corners of the Earthâ, but I donât think I can recommend it over that. Itâs a short game, and, while it tries to be replayable, thereâs not enough there to make it worth it. I can really appreciate the effort behind âCall of Cthulhuâ. Itâs not some franchise-grab in name only. I know theyâre making a âWerewolf: The Apocalypseâ game, and Iâm excited to see that. Videogames have an insanely generous price-to-entertainment ratio. If you do get it, get it when itâs cheaper. Itâs a mess of ideas, and the storyâs characters are bland, but there is some interesting stuff there. Enough to maybe make it worth it if you like Lovecraft games. But for now, I guess, âBloodborneâ remains king for me. I do wanna play the game the original developers made though. Maybe that will go better. Iâll see you next time. DRUNK: (unintelligible moaning) Another semi-horror game is next. I think Iâm on a bit of a kick. Snayff: âWhy do you think Lovecraft games are made poorly?â Well, he figured out this video wouldnât be glowing⌠I donât necessarily think theyâre made badly. I think they have tons of ideas they start to put in, then realize the budget and the scope of what theyâre doing, and they have to reel it back. Seems like every Lovecraft game was gonna be something much bigger. Wrekk: âWill there be Halloween videos?â Definitely. Iâve already started on a pretty big one. Chris Long: âHas there ever been a game that gave you an extreme emotional response?â Not extreme, but in recent memory, the end of the first Telltale âWalking Deadâ game. I didnât ever play the games after that. The end of âMetal Gear Solid 4â, even though that game is a mess. I knew what was coming in âMass Effect 3â, and I was still mad when I played it. Paul N, Jacob Thacker: âFavorite Lovecraft story?â âAt the Mountains of Madnessâ, but âInnsmouthâ is a close second. I hope Del Toro gets to make his movie. TheHappyTau: âExcited for âElite: Dangerousâ space legs?â Iâm interested, but, honestly, my hopes arenât too high. Iâm going to go in expecting Rovers 2.0, and not a âStar Citizenâ competitor. Iâve been wrong plenty of times before though, so, I guess weâll see. Iâll see you next time. LOCAL: âCanât help ye.â
I assume when he says it feels like there's something missing in the middle he's referring to the story, because I always saw this as a great example of how great pacing can elevate mediocre gameplay. The action, horror, stealth, puzzles and role playing elements all feel weak or at best mediocre, but because you spend only a short while dealing with each aspect before moving on to the next, they never get the chance to get annoying. I can't say I liked any of the gameplay elements on their own, but combined they made for something I ended up enjoying a fair bit.
"Get it when it's cheaper"
It's literally on this months humble choice bundle. Pretty good timing really.
Man he had me sold on the game until he started detailing the RNG. Jeezy chreezy I can't think of more egregious example of a game throwing away an interesting core gameplay experience by shackling it to RNG.
I greatly enjoyed this game up until the point of the very end when I realized none of what I did mattered or made a difference and the default ending was extremely sudden and underwhelming.
I disliked it even more when I Googled how to get the other endings and found out that they are practically impossible to get on a first play through, or even a second without looking it up because the end conditions for each one are so strangely specific and done in the correct order that screwing up even one part out of like eight would lock you out of picking that ending. Just awful design.
The game was really jank, and the pacing towards the end cliff dived, (and also I never knew the skill checks were still RNG, that's just trash) but it was nice feeling like an investigator interviewing everyone.
I thought it was really neat and I would enjoy the hell out of it, up until the first Outlast-type section of "run from the scary thing and if it touches you, game over". I'd rather the sense of looming dread through atmosphere and story (like the exploration through the mansion WAS before that point) than the spooky overplayed monster chase sequence.
I got this game last year for $15, played it, and was entertained. It definitely could have been better but $15 felt fair. If Iâd paid $60 then I would have felt disappointed.
Im currently playing Witcher 3 and The Last of Us 2 right now and i tried playing this too but Its hard to play great games like those then play something like this at the same time because of the quality drop. Ill jump on it again later during a time period of nothing else to play to judge if its bad, average, or decent.
This game has some redeeming qualities but overall it's just not worth the time I think. It doesn't do anything well and I don't think it's worth trudging through 9 hours of bad gameplay for the occasional cool lovecraftian moment. The whole review is spot on.