maxlords
10-29-2005, 01:08 PM
Ok, just randomly heard that Call of the Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth was released for the XBox after something like five full years in production. Managed to score a copy at Best Buy yesterday evening. The people there told me they got a whopping two copies and hadn't even had anyone ask about it.
For those of you that don't know, Call of the Cthulhu is based on a series of turn of the century stories (not 21st century, but the late 1800s and early 1900s) written by H.P. Lovecraft. These stories are the origins of both the genre of fantastic horror and most of the modern mythos of stuff like the Necronomicon. Lovecraft went further than any other author in the field of fantastic horror, coming up with an enduring genre and very realistic characters. The game is based both on Lovecraft's original Cthulhu Mythos (pronounced "K-THOO-LOO) and also on the much more recent "Call of the Cthulhu role playing game.
Now that the background is out of the way....this is one wild horror game. The game takes place in the early 1920s with a detective. It starts out cold (after the intro) with you showing up at a house where some cult is asking for you by name, then immediately launches into rather strange circumstances. As you play, your character becomes more and more scared. His vision blurs, his heart races, he tends to panic when he sees certain things. Everything is presented in first person, almost cinematically. You're unarmed, have no idea what's going on, and things just keep getting weirder. The ambiance is stunning, with a very careful attention to detail. The music is subtle, the graphics just washed out enough to look almost real. When scenes areimportant, the game drops to a widescreen format and then expands the black bars when you're in control.
You're basically a detective looking for clues to find out what the hell is going on and why. Not original, but the presentation is simply stunning. Amazing voice acting, lots of attention to how people would react, and a very disturbing visual presentation. I clocked about 30 minutes on this game today and honestly had trouble stopping playing at all. Everything about the game just screams fear in much the same way that the Silent Hill games play on your mind, but with a COMPLETELY different format. Apparently there are some nasty insanity effects too when your character gets scared enough...an actual warning not to take things too seriously is shown before the game starts....
If you enjoy Lovecraftian stuff or want a rather unique horror game, this is going to be one game you will NOT want to pass up! My wife also watched me play it and said that it's one of the creepiest games I've even shown her...and she watched all the way through Silent Hill 2 and 3. Don't miss this one....it seems to be being roundly ignored!
Anyone else play it? Comments? Thoughts?
For those of you that don't know, Call of the Cthulhu is based on a series of turn of the century stories (not 21st century, but the late 1800s and early 1900s) written by H.P. Lovecraft. These stories are the origins of both the genre of fantastic horror and most of the modern mythos of stuff like the Necronomicon. Lovecraft went further than any other author in the field of fantastic horror, coming up with an enduring genre and very realistic characters. The game is based both on Lovecraft's original Cthulhu Mythos (pronounced "K-THOO-LOO) and also on the much more recent "Call of the Cthulhu role playing game.
Now that the background is out of the way....this is one wild horror game. The game takes place in the early 1920s with a detective. It starts out cold (after the intro) with you showing up at a house where some cult is asking for you by name, then immediately launches into rather strange circumstances. As you play, your character becomes more and more scared. His vision blurs, his heart races, he tends to panic when he sees certain things. Everything is presented in first person, almost cinematically. You're unarmed, have no idea what's going on, and things just keep getting weirder. The ambiance is stunning, with a very careful attention to detail. The music is subtle, the graphics just washed out enough to look almost real. When scenes areimportant, the game drops to a widescreen format and then expands the black bars when you're in control.
You're basically a detective looking for clues to find out what the hell is going on and why. Not original, but the presentation is simply stunning. Amazing voice acting, lots of attention to how people would react, and a very disturbing visual presentation. I clocked about 30 minutes on this game today and honestly had trouble stopping playing at all. Everything about the game just screams fear in much the same way that the Silent Hill games play on your mind, but with a COMPLETELY different format. Apparently there are some nasty insanity effects too when your character gets scared enough...an actual warning not to take things too seriously is shown before the game starts....
If you enjoy Lovecraftian stuff or want a rather unique horror game, this is going to be one game you will NOT want to pass up! My wife also watched me play it and said that it's one of the creepiest games I've even shown her...and she watched all the way through Silent Hill 2 and 3. Don't miss this one....it seems to be being roundly ignored!
Anyone else play it? Comments? Thoughts?