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

Nines

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Nov 16, 2015
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I don't remember PnP CoC having real time shooting segments, so no.
Well, if you remove every combat sequence from the game, it will be even farther from the source, so.. yes.
I'm not saying I'm a big fan of shooting part in DCotE, but defenseless cameramans who can't do shit in dangerous situations are getting on my nerves. There are enough of them already.
 

Matalarata

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I'm such a sucker for anything Lovecraftian that I actually enjoied DCotE but don't tell me the refinery section, where you kill dozens of endlessly respawning enemies, was well done...
It was utter shit, I remember the first time through it was such a slog, although I must admit that when I replayed the game last year it was much less of a pita, due to me remembering the general layout of the place.

Then you have the Shoggoth flushing which is on another level of :retarded:

After that the game is enjoyable again imho, starspawns are whimps but I can live with that in an action game...
 

Calcium

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Dec 6, 2015
Messages
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I never understood the insistence of game developers to completely miss the point of Lovecraft's cosmic horror. It wasn't about fighting the demons/monsters, it was about being entirely powerless and ignorant to the will of beings beyond human comprehension. I recall enjoying the PnP system - as bad as it was - because it made the players incredibly weak compared to the things they were facing as well as slowly whittling away their sanity with each encounter.
 

sser

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I like Cyanide Games, but Frogware was the dev team for something like this based on what they did with Sherlock Holmes. Still expect good writing, some shaky gameplay mechanics, serviceable graphics, and great trailers in the lead-up.
 

Roguey

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I'm not saying I'm a big fan of shooting part in DCotE, but defenseless cameramans who can't do shit in dangerous situations are getting on my nerves

Yet appropriate for a Lovecraft game, given his protagonists really weren't the kind who were able or willing to fight.

Number of fishmen punched out or shot by the protagonist in Shadow over Innsmouth: Zero.
 

A user named cat

Guest
How can someone seriously insinuate that we already have enough adventure games compared to the plethora of popayolo shooters and survival horror gunfests? GET OUT OF HERE STALKER.

Give me defenseless cameraman solving puzzles, feeling vulnerable and exploring dangerous areas without a crutch any day over Suddenly Susan Sam mowing down cthulhu hoards with my N.W.A. uzi.
 

Siveon

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I'd like to see an attempt to do both. I've never played Call of Cthulhu (the P&P game) but as far as I've heard/read, characters fought off cultists and smaller beings with greater effort while being usually decimated when faced with anything grander than a shaggoth. Why gut out a greater part of the game by making it an Amnesia clone (or should I say Penumbra clone)?

Personally, I'm getting kind of annoyed with most of the horror games being pure running-away-simulators lately. I'm not saying we should take a shotgun and try to take on an Old One mono-a-mono, but c'mon. Camerman? Just play the latest Slenderman crap.
 

Nines

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Actually, Steam is getting flooded with horror walking simulators in the recent years, while the true survival horror genre is almost extinct. They're doing it not because they feel like this is the right way to do it. They're doing it because they don't have experience and/or money to make something greater, and they know people will buy it anyway. Amnesia became something of a standard of a horror game in the industry, while being miles away from the old survival horror games like Silent Hill, and offering less what they were able to offer.

Being vulnerable and being defenseless are two different things. I think a good horror game must feature several level of threats, including the ones that you can handle (not necessary through a gunfight) while still being vulnerable, and the ones that you can't, thus being defenseless. This adds another layer of depth, since you need to count your resources, sneak past or avoid enemies when it's possible and when it's not worth it. All of this is stripped if you don't have any means to protect yourself by design, and I don't understand how this can add anything to the suspense, neither I can't find it more enjoyable.
 
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Explorerbc

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Couldn't you whack people creatures with a hammer in Penumbra? Or at least in Overture you could. I also remember being able to do it in the tech demo.

Only in Overture, they dropped the combat in Black Plague. The only real enemy in Overture was a bunch of dogs though.
 

ColCol

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Jul 12, 2012
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The weapons didn't actually do anything though, except to troll the player, IIRC. :M


In what? Penumbra one? I killed most of the enemies.


Also, anyone else remember that short lived Iron Tower backed Cthulhu-esque game?
 

LESS T_T

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Codex 2014
PCGN preview: http://www.pcgamesn.com/call-of-cth...youll-need-to-bargain-your-sanity-for-answers

While Cyanide’s Call of Cthulhu is a single-player, first-person adventure, it retains much of what makes the source material so strange and compelling. It’s an RPG investigation game, dropping the PI protagonist on a peculiar island known as Dark Waters in the 1920s, as he attempts to uncover the truth behind the murder of an artist and her family.

The core of the game, according to Cyanide, is player-driven exploration and mystery. Evil will be fought, but unravelling enigmas takes precedence. Wits, stealth and persuasion are significantly more helpful than firearms. Much like the tabletop RPG, guns are often more hazardous than helpful. For instance, the player might find themselves in a network of caves, witnessing a twisted cult performing dark rituals. If they grab their gun and go in blazing, then they might be able to take out one or two enemies, but the noise will just bring the rest right on top of them, putting a stop to the search for truth with deadly finality.

It’s the more cautious approach that will pay off in the end. Exploring the island, players will meet its residents, its shopkeepers, its local weirdos, and to gobble up all the lovely information that’s locked in their heads, persuasion, infiltration and nimble fingers are called on. How those skills are employed depends on the situation. Persuading one person might require a heavy hand, a bit of intimidation; another islander might react better to a silver tongue and some seduction. These characters will remember how they were treated, too.

Like the tabletop game before it – along with several Lovecraft-inspired games, like Amnesia and Darkest Dungeon – madness is Call of Cthulhu’s most dangerous foe. A multitude of things have threatened my tenuous grasp on reality in the original game. Flesh-bound tomes, watching friends get slaughtered, dark magic – everything wants to drive players mad. Countless things promise to send you round the bend in the adaption as well.

The specific malady you get in the tabletop game is determined by a dice roll, but in Cyanide’s Call of Cthulhu, it depends on what you are doing when you lose your grip on reality – on what has actually driven you mad. For instance, if you stupidly find yourself lost and stuck in some caves, you might develop a phobia of the dark. And as you grow more insane, reality starts to warp around you. In boring old RPG terms, it sounds a bit like a debuff, but one with oodles of flavour. While playing an unhinged private dick might sound like a lark, you’ll want to keep as much sanity as possible. Not only is it like a health bar, sanity is also a resource that can be spent on uncovering the truth. Essentially, you are bargaining your mental health by going to dark and dangerous places in search of more information.

Thankfully, this isn’t a solo job. While Call of Cthulhu is single-player, allies can be recruited to lend a helping hand, and the people living on the island might want to assist as well – though friendly NPCs might become enemies.

Your crew of fellow sleuths all have their own strengths and weaknesses, and they’re not immune to the horrors of the island. They help by going on missions, like breaking into a building to steal some documents or doing some important research. What they find very much depends on who they are, however. An academic might not be the best choice for a B&E, but if the place they’re infiltrating is full of arcane tomes, then they’ll have a better chance of understanding them than a thief.

Things can and probably will go wrong for these NPC allies. Not only can they develop their own psychoses and descend into madness, they can also go missing while on the job. If that’s the case, then a new mission opens up, so players can find out what exactly happened to them. Something horrible, no doubt.

Call of Cthulhu’s companion system sounds like a decent solution to the problem of making a single-player videogame based on a multiplayer RPG. In the tabletop game, investigators can go it alone and follow their own leads, get into trouble and end up hoping their allies will find them before they are done for, and this system has the potential to capture this quite well.

Other concessions and changes have been made in the shift from tabletop to PC. Magic’s a notable one. Because, in the former, campaigns can go on for months (in-game) and involve a plethora of different characters, you may very well find yourself playing with or as a magic user or someone who has, over a long period, learned some spells and tricks. Cyanide’s Call of Cthulhu, however, takes place over a short period of time and essentially starts you out at level one. So no magic for you. Well, no spells anyway.

Magic is a big part of the universe, so it can’t be ignored entirely. Players, then, can uncover magical artefacts that can help them – if they aren’t driven mad first – and some companions are arcane dabblers, conveniently.

While Call of Cthulhu is not based on any one tabletop campaign, it might seem familiar thanks to the involvement of game designer Mark Morrison. His tabletop credits include Horror on the Orient Express as well as campaigns set in his native Australia. So while the systems may have been tweaked to fit around the frame of a first-person RPG, it’ll still hopefully feel like an authentic Call of Cthulhu adventure.

It’s in pre-alpha at the moment, so aside from a trailer, some screens and a bunch of delightfully grotesque concept art, Cyanide weren’t ready to show off much of the game. A lot of intriguing promises are being made, though. And, importantly, it looks like it won’t be a victim of one of the major issues that plagued the last – otherwise excellent – Call of Cthulhu adaptation, Dark Corners of the Earth, by focusing on stealth and exploration and not combat.
 

ArchAngel

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Mar 16, 2015
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Well this sounds interesting. I am not much into adventure games, but I might make an exception for Call of Cthulhu. The last one was fun until gunplay become more often as enemy respawned endlessly and was stupid.
 

Nines

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TmbFEIS.gif
 

Zombra

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I'm scared at the mention of companion NPCs. I've played too many Bethesda games I guess. Can't help but picture sneaking through a deep series of caves and my anthropologist sidekick screams, "Look! A fish man! Let's run towards it!" BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM!

Of course if it's done right, it will be wonderful. Looking forward to seeing where this goes.
 

LESS T_T

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Codex 2014
Two new screenshots:

callofcthulhu-04.jpg


callofcthulhu-03.jpg


Call of Cthulhu, the official video game adaptation of Chaosium's pen & paper RPG of the same name, unveils 2 new images today from Darkwater Island. It is a disturbing place that players will have to explore during their investigation while Cthulhu, the Great Dreamer, prepares its awakening.

In Call of Cthulhu, players will control Edward Pierce, a former veteran and private investigator in 1920s Boston. Pierce will be investigating the tragic and mysterious death of Sarah Hawkins and her family in Darkwater Island. Today's images give you a first glimpse of the locations players will have to visit: from the sinister docks, to the manor of the deceased family, Call of Cthulhu offers a dark and oppressive ambiance that shall pay tribute to Lovecraft's work and universe. Indeed, this banal investigation might lead you to more sinister forces and darker secrets buried deep within Darkwater Island.

The Cthulhu Mythos has grown to become one of the largest shared universes ever envisioned, giving birth to countless stories, novels, and even movies ever since the original publication of Lovecraft's The Call of Cthulhu. This official adaptation of Chaosium's pen & paper RPG in video game form will offer an RPG-Investigation title, packed with psychological horror and stealth mechanics.

Call of Cthulhu will release in 2017 on consoles and PC

http://focus-home.com/en/news/1051-...l-video-game-images-creep-out-of-the-darkness
 

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Arcane
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Trailer time :yeah:

 

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