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 SPOILERS TO FOLLOW ON ALL CTHULU MYTHOS STORIES, NOVELS, SHORT FICTION, VIDEO GAMES, ROLE-PLAYING GAMES, CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE BOOKS ETC. Call of Cthulu (2018) is a first-person investigative adventure game with some stealth segments named after a short story written by Howard Philips Lovecraft (1926). It has RPG elements allowing you to customize your main character's skills. The game autosaves frequently and only provides one save slot per playthrough. Your time is spent in conversation, searching for things, and cowering in that order.  You play as Detective Pierce, an alcoholic private eye and veteran of the first world war and beard-haver extraordinaire. Although the game and the short story share the same title, the game's story is not directly based around the short story. The game is set in The Cthulu Mythos, a fictional world originated by H.P. Lovecraft. Lovecraft encouraged other writers to build on his world, and many have done so before and after he died penniless at the age of 46. Since there isn't much gameplay to discuss, I thought I'd start a spoiler thread so Lovecraft fans can talk about how it's too derivative, not derivative enough, and hopefully go into some of the more subtle aspects of the game. What works, what could be better. How you play the game does determine what aspects of the story you experience, but replay is somewhat limited. Regarding the "Official" status of this game, Lovecraft's works are all in the public domain, but Chaosium has copyright on the title in association with games. Still waiting on my Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath official video game.
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Jan 20, 2019 20:59
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Like many HPL readers, Shadow over Innsmouth is my favorite story, and I like the shades of it I saw in Call of Cthulu 2018, without it being a total rip off. I only ever played the first part of Dark Corners of The Earth, so if anyone can tell me how they compare I'd like to hear it. I found the "combat" in CoC 2018 to be pretty lacking, unwelcome and dumb, was it any better in Dark Corners? edit: wife says, "see no one cares about what you care about, even the weird internet nerds." BBQ Dave fucked around with this message at 05:35 on Jan 21, 2019 |
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Jan 21, 2019 00:51
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Still remember a friend putting me on to an anthology of Cthulhu mythos in '93 (I think?) which combined well with being a student and midnight toker. It really worked for me - that which was left unsaid, or which cannot be described. As much as people poo poo on HPL for being a complete racist - I suspect he was genuinely afraid of the world in general, and would be self-diagnosed in some hilarious reddit forums today; and as the most lavender purveyor of purple prose, he provided a framework - or at least some reference points - for a lot of excellent fiction. Even Stephen King uses the mythos in some off-handed ways. I still remember playing 'Alone in the Dark' on my 486DX/66, and finding it unsettling. The mythos has never seemed like a good fit for combat-oriented game play. The things you encounter can eat your mind, other than 'cultists', who you can shoot for 'leering at you in a queer way' or 'unsettling your faithful Irish wolfhound' (which was a good enough reason for homicide according to Lovecraft). I know that Charlie Stross' Laundry Files are deeply rooted in an increasingly insane world, where Lovecraftian horrors are making their moves. The books are a lot of fun, and I think there's some dumb nerd poo poo role-playing game with the rights to it - I find the idea of dice and percentage tables to be stupid as poo poo when computers have done it better since "Pool of Radiance" blew my mind. gently caress me, I can't pretend I'm not middle aged anymore... Actually - for anyone reading this, if you haven't read the 'Laundry Files', you should do so immediately. It's a deeply satisfying series on many levels. My only criticism is that it's starting to suffer from the 'levelled-up' character problem - but it feels like an end-play isn't too far off.
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Jan 21, 2019 08:12
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BBQ Dave posted:I found the "combat" in CoC 2018 to be pretty lacking, unwelcome and dumb, was it any better in Dark Corners? Dark Corners ultimately played a lot more like a traditional FPS--albeit with a slower, less competent protagonist than, say, the Doom Marine--and by the end of the game, the player would have been obliged to slog through quite a few combat-heavy segments. I haven't actually played CoC (2018) but I'm under the impression that the "combat" is fairly...autonomous, I guess? From the LP's I've seen, it's more of a singular action and less of a "circle strafe around and frantically dump a magazine into this monster" kind of thing. Dark Corners got (and probably still gets) a lot of poo poo for its reliance on guns and conventional combat; I don't remember being super turned-off by the mechanics, but I can definitely see where the game could have benefited from less of it overall.
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Jan 21, 2019 11:43
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Pudding Space posted:Actually - for anyone reading this, if you haven't read the 'Laundry Files', you should do so immediately. It's a deeply satisfying series on many levels. Okay I’ll order a book soon. Nothing on audible so I downloaded Lovecraft country. Honestly I see lovecraftian (it’s a broad set of qualities after all) stuff in games all the time, like Soma and others, but the one that had it best was Eternal Darkness and that had tons of combat.
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Jan 22, 2019 17:47
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