Cyanide's Call of Cthulhu - "RPG-Investigation" game based on tabletop ruleset

[Serious_Business]

It is already on deep sale brother, just like your soul

If this is anything compared to Dark Corners, I'd say it's worth a play

 

[TheWorld]

I don't think that the stealth is so horrible btw. Granted, it's not good. But I didn't find ti "broken". The enemies have very simple patterns and I didn't have any problems avoiding them. You couldn't do a full game like this, but for some short sections its okay... it helps break the monotony of just walking and clicking hotspots.

I'm close to the end now. Still enjoying this. I'd say 3.5/5 and worth it if you like the cthulhu mythos. I still prefer dark corners (and, if we go way back, shadow of the comet) but it's a nice little game. I think i will replay it to check if my choices change anything. For example, I'd like to try a build more focused on occult.

 

[Barbarian]

I will probably replay it too. Will post my impressions here once I get around to it.

 

[vota DC]

But all skills matter equally?
Right now I am in

Spoiler

asylum

, couldn't open the passage near the warehouse because I broken the lever (low strenght I guess), right now I never had a check of eloquence

Spoiler

The guard in front the other warehouse? Too bad I went the other warehouse and was beat by Cat so I never spoke with that guard, for Silas I just used unlocked answer without any check

and all psychology check are passed despite never put points on them. I just put points on investigation (maxed) and spot hidden (level 4). It seems investigation is used very often and spot hidden give tons of "green" items that usually are clues (skillbooks seems easy to find, maybe I could find them without spot hidden).

Also I noticed that occultism stuff give more experience than medicine book, I stockpiled medicine books from the start and still level 1 while I found occultism stuff later but I am already level 2. It is funny because it is realistic, medicine university is very long.

 

[Barbarian]

As you progress further in the game there will be skill checks that will be actually locked if you don't have a certain amount of points(I remember a few occultism and psychology checks which I couldn't even perform). I saw very few medicine checks, it seems to be the least valuable skill.

My impression is that most checks are for flavor or perhaps revealing a little more background. The only way to confirm the existence of alternative paths and etc is to replay the game I guess. Right now the only confirmed scene you can lose due to failing skill checks is the underground scene in the warehouse.

Also, regarding the ending:

Spoiler

I didn't summon Cthulhu and I got the ending where pierce ends up as a patient in the asylum. I suppose because my insanity meter was pretty high. Curious about the other endings.

Also:

Spoiler

Can you actually keep the amulet? I gave it to Algernon, I suppose keeping could change the scene with the Hawkings woman a lot and also the ending

 

[Barbarian]

Meh, disregard what I said about the endings. There are 4 of them and the one you get is only determined by your actions in the last conversation.

Basically all the "this will affect your destiny" messages you get throughout the game don't mean absolute shit. Telltale lives.

 

[ortucis]

It is already on deep sale brother, just like your soul

If this is anything compared to Dark Corners, I'd say it's worth a play

Yeah but Dark Corners is a fucking horrible game the moment you start getting chased. And the shitty ride doesn't end afterwards.

 

[DJOGamer PT]

Yeah but Dark Corners is simply a fucking horrible game

Fixed.

 

[Barbarian]

All things considered I would say this game is better than Dark Corners. Killing a motherfucking Shoggoth, shooting Dagon down with a harpoon and going all out Rambo style on innsmouth critters isn't compatible with the setting. This game on the other hand got everything right in that regard, you are an insignificant alcoholic WWI vet who dives headfirst into a conspiracy of horrors beyond his ability to comprehend. And as in true lovecraftian horror, he doesn't have the power to fight back.

Spoiler

You can only use the pistol effectively on zombie-like cultists and you only get it near the end of the game. You also can't effectively fight "the shambler".

The game has its flaws, but I don't regret playing it and might replay it(still considering it). I just don't think it is worth the release price. I still reccomend it to all fans of Lovecrat.

Eagerly awaiting for the Sinking City now.

 

[DeepOcean]

you may want to skip this one.

This is what I will do.

 

[Child of Malkav]

Very disappointed in this game and this is an understatement.
This.....game movie......interactive movie......thing encompasses every single thing that's wrong with the industry today. Cliche I know but it's unbelievable.
Railroading, invisible walls, frustrating trial and error segments near the end, boss battle where the guy helping you repeats the same lines about what you need to do over and over every few seconds, the asylum section where you need to change lanterns and go around finding different paths to something (they overstayed their welcome), the "magic" power of Pierce to investigate and somehow know exactly from a few drops of blood what happened and how and who was there and......fucking making CSI look like amateur work. Finding books and not being able to read a few pages (wtf, Bethesda puts more effort into this stuff, TES games being filled with books you could read).
I'm just before the final decision to make but.....RIP.
The good things about this....whatever it is: good atmosphere, no combat (except near the end and they go away fast), they manage to keep the mystery all the way through, a few moments where I thought that the story reaches it's conclusion but it actually kept going with some new stuff, good choice of environments and places, interesting lore (for someone not familiar with Lovecraft's themes in his works), finally being offered a choice of who to save and offing that bitch (you probably know who I'm referring to).... and that's about it.
Overall, shameful display from Cyanide especially after the Styx games.
Hopefully Werewolf Apocalypse won't suck but then again, I know better.

 

[DeepOcean]

I always had a suspicion this would be a walking simulator with stat checks, it would be surprising if this didn't take that road.Yeah, we are on a good place, AAA publishers only care about the next fad that will make tons of money for them, AA publishers finally are coming in but the same vices of AAA design continue and indies ( the only ones that actually implement interesting gameplay don't have enough money to pull out bigger projects... oh boy... imagine if we actually had a real Call of Cuthulu RPG instead of this farce...

 

[Life of the Party]

Finished it.

Yeah, it's mostly a mixture of good atmosphere, good writing and bad gameplay.

As far as the endings go, I had only one option available.

Spoiler

 

[GandGolf]

After completing the game, does it need to be replayed in it's entirety to view the other endings?

 

[StaticSpine]

After completing the game, does it need to be replayed in it's entirety to view the other endings?

You can choose the available options in the final conversation - I believe you can reload the last section (I had three of them and I heard there are four endings total).

Finished it yesterday. 8 hour. Pretty disappointed. I was hooked after the dev stream - they showed how you can solve the first quest (getting into the warehouse) using several methods according your stats. But it's the only place where this works, after it's just a series of corridors, stealth and running sections.

Not worth the money for sure. Probably worth the time for atmosphere.

 

[Life of the Party]

Like I said, I had only one option available. The other three were invisible because of things like sanity, drinking, reading books, giving an item to this guy or that guy, etc. It's hard to say what matters and what doesn't, but I guess it's better that way.

 

[Beowulf]

Perhaps move it to adventure games, where it apparently belongs; like other walking sims with minimal gameplay.

 

[Roguey]

Perhaps move it to adventure games, where it apparently belongs; like other walking sims with minimal gameplay.

It's marketed as an RPG so that's what it is.

Meanwhile, The Sinking City is being marketed as an open world investigation game so it would not be here.

 

[Zombra]

Perhaps move it to adventure games, where it apparently belongs; like other walking sims with minimal gameplay.

It's marketed as an RPG so that's what it is.
Meanwhile, The Sinking City is being marketed as an open world investigation game so it would not be here.

Eh. CoC qualifies as RPG due to substantial difference in options based on character build unless Barbarian is a liar.

 

[Great Deceiver]

Started playing this and it seems there's an overall postprocessing effect that annoys me to no end - it's a sort of sharpening filter applied to the whole image. Setting 'postprocessing' to low in the options doesn't seem to do anything.

I haven't read the whole thread, but has anyone else noticed this?

I usually like Cyanide games. Game of Thrones was a Bioware-style game that was much better than Bioware's games and Styx (especially the sequel) was the best stealth game in recent memory. This however seems to be more of a walking simulator with very little interactivity than anything else. I grew up playing Lovecraft-inspired games (Shadow of the Comet and Alone in the Dark were two of the games I played the most during my formative years), and I thought Dark Corners of the Earth was alright despite its rough edges, but there seems to be much less gameplay here.

I'll give them the benefit of the doubt, though. So far it's pretty bog standard Red Hook-style Lovecraft - in my old age I prefer his Dreamlands cycle and Dunsany-inspired stuff much more, I wish someone would do something with it.

 

[Barbarian]

Perhaps move it to adventure games, where it apparently belongs; like other walking sims with minimal gameplay.

It's marketed as an RPG so that's what it is.
Meanwhile, The Sinking City is being marketed as an open world investigation game so it would not be here.

Eh. CoC qualifies as RPG due to substantial difference in options based on character build unless Barbarian is a liar.

If you call "substantial difference in options" some flavor dialogue and some different ways to solve things...

To be completely fair to the game the only way to confirm the weight of skills is to replay the game. But as of now it appears they kind of cheated us with that Darkwater first section which served as a demo(and which pretty much worked as an rpg in that department, with several alternate paths). Rest of the game seems to be mostly railroaded and filled with fake Telltale style choices.

 

[Zombra]

If you call "substantial difference in options" some flavor dialogue and some different ways to solve things...

Yes, without wanting to go down the rabbit hole here, solving things in different ways depending on character/party build is one reasonable definition of RPG.

 

[Cromwell]

Not in defense of cyanide but what are these rpgs were you get substanially different outcomes in story and ways to play depending on what and how you skilled?

 

[Roguey]

Not in defense of cyanide but what are these rpgs were you get substanially different outcomes in story and ways to play depending on what and how you skilled?

It's pretty much just Age of Decadence.

 

[BlackAdderBG]

Not in defense of cyanide but what are these rpgs were you get substanially different outcomes in story and ways to play depending on what and how you skilled?

It doesn't matter as CnC and multiple approaches for quests doesn't make a game RPG.