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

[TheEntitledOne]

Just starting this. What are the must take/ useless skills?

So far I'm picking spot hidden.

 

[baud]

One other thing I considered is related to the shooting section:

Spoiler

Two of the endings involve shooting and I remember running out of bullets.

Could be a non-factor, though.

Non-factor. I ran out of bullets and the ending I got on my playthrough was the "fight destiny" one.

There's a guide on Steam that claims to have worked what's necessary to reach all the endings: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1553552784

Spoiler

Copy-pasted here to save a click:

Nameless Cults Refuse to take part in the ritual
★ Suicide ending. To obtain this ending, I did:
✔ drink no alcohol
✔ read all unholy books
✔ tell Bradley truth
✔ always choose R'lyeh whenever I could
✔ accept Drake's help
✔ save Drake (I think it doesn't matter for this ending, but still)
✔ accepted Leviathan's knowledge, tried to breath, accepted to drink medicine, but refused to eat flesh and kill Dr. Fuller
✔ give medkit to Cat instead of Mitchell and examine Mitchell's body
✔ kill Bradley

Fight destiny Successfully carry out the counter ritual
★ Counter ritual enging. To obtain this ending, I did:
✔ drink no alcohol
✔ accept Drake's help
✔ read all unholy books
✔ always choose R'lyeh whenever I could
✔ kill Bradley
✔ save Drake (It's important, cause you can't obtain this achievement without him)
✔ accepted Leviathan's knowledge, tried to breath, accepted to drink medicine, but refused to eat flesh and kill Dr. Fuller

The Call of Cthulhu Invoke Cthulhu. I think it's default ending and you can get it whatever choices you made.

Farewell Refuse to all you can ★ Sara's suicide enging. To obtain this ending, I did:
✔ drink alco (I think it doesn't matter, still)
✔ read all unholy books
✔ don't choose answers with R'lyeh language
✔ accept Drake's help + saved Drake
✔ refuse to accept Leviathan's knowledge
✔ refuse to drink medicine, refuse to eat Leviathan's flesh, refuse to take the gun, etc
✔ spare Bradley

 

[Background Character]

I liked the

Spoiler

suicide ending

in fact that's the ending I'm planning for my life

 

[Barbarian]

That is not accurate. Some notes:

Spoiler

I got the "fight destiny" ending and I:
- Drank alcohol
- Didn't always choose the R'lyeh options(I think I chose it only once out of curiosity)
I checked(loaded the last checkpoint save) and the only ending I didn't have access to was the "ít's over" option(arguably the closest thing to a good ending). I don't know if that was due to drinking or low sanity. It turns out that my choices during the game were mostly the best(accepted help from both Bradley and Drake, gave Drake the amulet, saved everybody I could, told the truth to both Drake and the widow, read all books). I tried to get the best ending possible by not doing stupid shit.

Also, for curiosity's sake:

Spoiler

What happens if you don't save Drake? He seems to appear in all endings I saw. Also, how can he die? Aside from the options of accepting his help and giving him the amulet I don't remember anything. During that Shambler sequence it didn't seem like he could die.

 

[Life of the Party]

Spoiler

The Shambler drags him into the painting.

What happens is that you get one ending less since he plays no role in the others.

I'd wager it's basically the default ending, the sane ending, the insane ending and the one where the spoilered character is alive.

 

[Blaine]

Ah, I see that I've reached "loser unignores your posts exclusively to downdoot you" levels of decline-lasering megawattage in this thread.

While it can't remotely compare to the terawattage output by the lighting in this console game's underground caverns and abandoned cellars, I'm pretty proud of it anyway.

 

[Blaine]

I genuinely can't wait until next year's E3 when Cyanide announces the sequel based on the Delta Green Call of Cthulhu campaign setting.

 

[Roguey]

It's a walking sim, does the amount of lighting really even matter?

 

[SumDrunkGuy]

Just starting this. What are the must take/ useless skills?

So far I'm picking spot hidden.

The skills are incredibly arbitrary and meaningless. The game is basically a walking sim, which I'm fine with. SOMA was an enjoyable enough walking sim with it's storytelling and visuals. Would have been nice if Cyanide was more upfront about what kind of game this is though.

 

[TheEntitledOne]

Well I'm glad I didn't remove this from inventory.
If each chapter takes 5 minutes or so I can see where this is going...

 

[Zombra]

Today's big patch revamps RPG mechanics and adds two new layers to the investigation system:

• Iyagovos Community Manager about 16 hours ago
  
  
  Hello Investigators!
  
  Today, we’re very happy to release an update for Call of Cthulhu, addressing feedback that we have received since the release of the game on October 30th.
  
  This update is now live on PS4, Xbox One and PC. Please find the changelog below:
  
  All Platforms:
  • Fixed an issue where players were unable to progress in Chapter 12, due to dying immediately upon respawn
  • Fixed a number of cases where players would be unable to leave scene reconstructions
  • Various minor bug fixes
  PC Only Fixes:
  • Fixed an issue where mouse input was not registered during dialogue
  • Fixed an issue where cutscenes wouldn’t trigger, preventing players from progressing
  • Fixed display issues with 4:3 and 16:10 resolutions in the diary and during dialogue
  • Added options to modify FOV and Motion Blur
  • Added a scroll bar in the graphics menu to include these new options
  Xbox One Only Fixes
  • Fixed an issue where players would lose their weapon in Chapter 12
  In the future, we plan to produce another PC update which addresses performance drops, the frame rate limit and an issue with fullscreen implementation.
  
  As always, please let us know if you have any issues with this latest update, and we hope you continue to enjoy the game!
  
  The Call of Cthulhu Team

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

[Fedora Master]

I looked at a LP of this and I can already tell from the first 30 minutes that it is a disjointed faux-thulhu mess. The dialogues are extremely "mechanical", clone NPCs everywhere and the investigation aspect seems more like "Hey stranger don't go to X, don't do Y, don't ask about Z (unless you want to progress the game)"
e: a female criminal threatening hardened sailors. In 1924. No, fuck you Cyanide.

 

[TheEntitledOne]

I made it to the asylum. One of the worst stealth segments I ever suffered in a game.

Fuck this game.

 

[Wunderbar]

What was so frustrating about asylum stealth segment? Yeah it's dumb, but it's also piss easy.

 

[TheEntitledOne]

It's easy. But at least the guards could have half a brain. And you could have a way of defending yourself, like smash a skull or two if you sneak on them, is not like they have treated you with kiddy gloves.

But like the rest of the game it felt really half assed.

 

[StaticSpine]

It's easy. But at least the guards could have half a brain. And you could have a way of defending yourself, like smash a skull or two if you sneak on them, is not like they have treated you with kiddy gloves.

I have a huge problem with the protagonist. He's a WWI veteran and can't do shit to those skinny keepers. They do not even look menacing or strong and you won't even get in a situation when you encounter more than one of them at a time.

 

[Fedora Master]

Sorry to summon this thread back up from the depths but I gotta say: They got the dimensional shambler wrong. One of the main monsters in the game.

These "hunters from beyond" appear as short crouching creatures with tight grey mummy like skin. Its head is semi ape like and semi canine, and has crooked stained fangs. Its eyes are recessed in deep eye holes and appear as yellow slits. It has long arms with huge claws. Though it has the appearance of being material the Dimensional Shamblers origin in a different dimension makes it immaterial in our world, making it unable to touch or be touched.

When they have chosen a victim they will attempt to suck them into their own dimension calling as many of their cohorts as needed. While they do seem to grab at the victim they actually use a form of hypnosis that can be broken by a strong willed person. Its possible that a larger amount of the Shamblers can be more powerful. When they try to suck a victim in it will seem as if the place around the Shambler disappears behind it and their own dimension will become visible.
The Shamblers can also move and appear at will in our own dimension without apparent effort. When moving around they will seem to jump between places.

They are NOT wild animals that grab and shank people for no reason. Nor do they feed on corpses or leave dead people behind after a kill.

 

[Rahdulan]

Finished the game under duress from Humble Bundle.

It's... actually very disappointing how much it devolves into action during the last quarter versus what early couple of chapters were going for by giving you time to at least pretend you're gathering clues. Not to mention it's a standout case of a game actually using "Spot Hidden" skill, but just like with other skills you're kinda left gypped because you don't really discover alternate solutions as much as potential ones are withheld from you if your percentage roll botches. Earliest example is when you have to get three parts to raise a sewer grate except you need to have invested in Spot Hidden or, as my GF succinctly put it, you'll be left with your dick out wondering where the last part is because you can't find it unless it spawns if dice rolls your way. That was also probably the most grating example in the game and I don't recall by frustrated by said skill later on, though.

In the end it's pretty accurate game falls in very much the same traps as Dark Corners of the Earth but considering it leans way more into "walking simulator" department you could overlook them more easily as well. Would not pay full price for, questionable whether you should even get at 75% off. I did like how it draws from many Lovecraft's stories and atmosphere is arguably CoC's greatest asset. Hope you like ethereal green and letdown endings.

Rating: I'M THE FUCKING UNIVERSE/10.

 

[Alpharius]

Finished it since i didn't have anything else to play and it seemed decent enough after i've read most of this thread. And holy shit, this shit is shit.

Only a retard could recommend this non-game. Fuck you Codex.

 

[Egosphere]

a female criminal threatening hardened sailors. In 1924. No, fuck you Cyanide.

Yeah, but she has a stiletto. A stiletto!

 

[HoboForEternity]

a female criminal threatening hardened sailors. In 1924. No, fuck you Cyanide.

Yeah, but she has a stiletto. A stiletto!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ching_Shih

 

[Egosphere]

a female criminal threatening hardened sailors. In 1924. No, fuck you Cyanide.

Yeah, but she has a stiletto. A stiletto!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ching_Shih

Yeah, but we're not in china. That's like a different species altogether.

 

[fobia]

a female criminal threatening hardened sailors. In 1924. No, fuck you Cyanide.

Yeah, but she has a stiletto. A stiletto!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ching_Shih

Yeah, but we're not in china. That's like a different species altogether.

Resolved that like a pro!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance

 

[Fedora Master]

a female criminal threatening hardened sailors. In 1924. No, fuck you Cyanide.

Yeah, but she has a stiletto. A stiletto!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ching_Shih

Yeah, but we're not in china. That's like a different species altogether.

Resolved that like a pro!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance

Are you honestly trying to argue that some Chinese pirate queen somehow proves that a woman in 1924 America could somehow be the badass leader of a band of thugs?
Game is bad, and this bullshit is symptomatic of why.

 

[Egosphere]

a female criminal threatening hardened sailors. In 1924. No, fuck you Cyanide.

Yeah, but she has a stiletto. A stiletto!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ching_Shih

Yeah, but we're not in china. That's like a different species altogether.

Resolved that like a pro!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance

So I had a longer look at Ching Shih's wiki entry. Worked as a prostitute, married into a family with long history of piracy, participated in the piracy before her husband's death, basically worked her way up to her position. Does that sound like the feminine looking, expensively dressed art collector ( or whatever she is ) with little to no connections who can magically intimidate hordes of drunkards?

A better argument would be Mary Read,but that'd prove my point. That woman could pass herself off as a man for years.