Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth

[Neziroth]

Just picked this up the other day, mostly because I'm a huge fan of Lovecraft and I was in the mood for a scary game. It was a completely unresearched impulse buy. Hell I don't even know when it came out but I think I paid $30 for it.

It's a spooky, dark game. There is a screen at the beginning that tells you not to jack up the brightness and cheat, and it's there for good reason.

The box makes it out to be a FPS, but so far (I'm probably 2-3 hours in) it's not. I don't even have a gun yet.

It's a survival horror through and through, but it has a twist. It has all of the typical Sneak, Run and Hide action, but there's more.

First, you don't have a Health meter. You find healthpacks that contain Sutures, Antidotes, Splits and Bandages which you use on injured parts of your body. An arm injury affects your aim, a leg injury affects movement, head injuries affect vision, etc. You can bleed to death, or you can heal naturally, depending on the severity of the wound. I like this system a lot.

For instance, I was at a part where I was being chased by a couple of guys with shotguns, and I came to a point where I had to leap across two rooftops of Innsmouth (a city created by Lovecraft) and right before I leapt I took a shotgun shot in the leg, it staggered me and slowed me down and my jump was weakened to the point where I missed and fell to my death. It wasn't frusterating, it was cool.

The save points are close enough together where you never lose much gameplay.

The real kicker is, if you see somebody get killed, see a monster or see something horrific / gruesome you start going insane. You can find a safe comfortable place to calm down, but if you don't you continue losing your mind.

Insanity affects you with Blurred vision, hearing loss (except breathing and heartbeat), and super twichy controls.

Also, you can hallucinate (from insanity). You can see a civilian as a horrible monster and you won't realize it until after you've killed him.

It seems good so far, and it's a good buy for $30.

The graphics are somewhere between half-life 2 and half-life 1. They're not great, but not horrible either.

P.S. There's puzzles but they're not tedious, either.

I recommend it. 7.5/10

[Tuberok]

The action picks up really quick. Get ready for a helluva ride. Too bad development and botched deals with publishers kept this game in production for four plus years. Graphics are a tad dated but for those looking for some good ole fashioned mind melting fun.. this is it.

[rhyae]

Emberella you finally finished it?
grats