Call of Cthulhu Review

Call of Cthulhu is a survival game that attempts to also be a FPS shooter. The first couple of hours of the game are somewhat boring as you are without a weapon and run around talking to people and solving puzzles. Once you finally do get your weapons, the game gets incredibly difficult. For me, the weapons just dont seem to respond very well. I reloaded so many times and so many areas that I finally gave up cause the aiming system is crap. I was aimed point blank with a shotgun and would at times completely miss the target. The AI was also pitiful at times, which actually allowed me to live for a few more minutes. The enemies would walk right past me or stand still right in front of me. It was almost as if I had to trigger something before they would react.

The environments are interesting but the game just seems unfinished to me. The menu screens appear as though they were thrown in as an afterthought. There was no time spent on the interface within the game. It was not intuitive. I found myself clicking on things and not knowing whether or not I had done anything.

What else was annoying? Well the save game system sucks. In order to save the game, you have to find these pentagram/eye images located on walls. The problem with this, and many other games that use this sort of system, is that you may have to spend hours getting through difficult areas and much further to locate a save game point. It's very annoying, EXTREMELY annoying, to make it through a difficult level only to die in a new unexplored area and have to go back, and do it all over again.

The game has some interesting graphic effects and I did like the eerie sounds and quick flashes with the fish eye point of view. However, at times during gameplay the screen will blur (reminding you of your mental state) to the point that it is very difficult to maneuver yourself. I found it was just better to stand still and let the effect run its course and then continue with the game. This gets old after a while.

So..

Invisible barriers, characters partially walking into walls, a subpar aiming system, and the fact that you cant skip the movies leaves much to be desired. G4 gave this game 3/5 stars. I think that's being a little too nice.

Final Thoughts: Skip this.
I hope the next game based on the world of HP Lovecraft is much better than this. There is so much they can do in his world. It's a shame they didn't spend more time polishing this game to perfection.

Call of Cthulhu