One thing you'll
notice about Call of Cthulhu from the very beginning is the complete lack of a
heads-up display. No life bar, no map,
no objective information … this game is all about what you see and nothing
more. You can check some of this stuff
in the inventory menu, but you'll
have to pay close attention if you want to know how much life you have. When you're
injured there will be blood on the screen, you'll
grunt and ache, your heart will pound louder than normal, and the colors from
the background may start to fade.
Thankfully you won't have to
search around for green herbs or other strange objects to cure yourself; all
you need to do is use a med-kit to fix your ailments. The med-kit features a number of useful
items, each needing to be placed on the correct location in order for you to
heal. You have a cure for poisonings;
you have a splint for broken bones, stitches, and even bandages. In the inventory screen you are able to place
these items all over your body (where ever it shows you being injured), so you'll be keeping track of everything from your head
all the way down to your legs. It's not too hard to heal yourself, but it can be
somewhat time consuming.
Unfortunately there are a few noticeable problems with Call
of Cthulhu, including the somewhat dated graphics. It's not that the game looks bad, but certain
parts of the game look like they were created years ago and the game has just
been sitting on the shelf. Also, some of
the weapons are kind of hard to use thanks to the inaccurate aiming. And considering how much stealth you have to
do in the game, it would have been nice if Jack was a little better at it. Granted, he's just a private investigator
with amnesia so we shouldn't expect him to give Solid Snake or Sam Fischer a
run for their money, but his clumsy sneaking can result in a few too many
unnecessary deaths.
Oh, and then there's the fact that you'll need to redo some
sequences over and over again. Some of
the most tense situations require you to do everything exactly right, something
you might not catch the first, second, or even third attempt. These moments of frustration are few and far
between, though, and once you've figured them out (thanks to trial and error)
you have a great feeling of accomplishment.
Even with these brief moments of frustration, you'll always want to see
what's past them and learn the rest of the story.
The story itself is the real gem of Call of Cthulhu; it's a deep
story that only continues to get more interesting as you play through to the
end. Better yet, once you've beaten the
game it's well worth going through a second time, if only so that you better
understand what is going on early in the game.
Since much of this game leaves you in the dark until the later chapters
it's nice to be able to go back and really understand each characters
motive. There are a lot of games with
good stories, but not many with the amount of layers Call of Cthulhu has.
Cthulhu's dark tone and brutally serious story may turn off
some gamers; this is not a game for everybody.
But those who enjoy survival horror games should have a look to this
game if they want to find a story that will get under their skin like no
other. It would be easy to write this
game off as nothing more than another first-person adventure game, but it does
what it sets out to do brilliantly and is fully worth the price of admission. Call of Cthulhu may not be the biggest game of
the year, but it's one of the most surprising; don't let this mystery go
unsolved.
B
It may not have the productions of Resident Evil, but Call of Cthulhu is easily one of the scariest video games ever made. It's also a great story full of mystery, intrigue, and a few twists and turns you won't see coming!
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