Game News Call of Cthulhu RPG by Cyanide Announced for 2017

[Crooked Bee]

Tags: Call of Cthulhu; Cyanide; Focus Home Interactive

You may recall the Call of Cthulhu game previously in development at Frogwares. Well, that is officially no longer the case (unofficially, this has been rumored to be the case for several months already). Instead, Focus Home Interactive have partnered up with the Styx, Bloodbowl and Game of Thrones RPG developer Cyanide for a PC and consoles "investigation RPG" using the Call of Cthulhu PnP ruleset, forthcoming in 2017.

Here's the press release, revealing the premise and the engine, together with the first two screenshots:

Cyanide Studio and Focus Home Interactive unveil Call of Cthulhu

H. P. Lovecraft's famously twisted universe will be coming alive on consoles and PC in 2017, in the official video game adaptation of Chaosium's pen & paper RPG Call of Cthulhu. 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. Today, discover the game's first screenshots, which showcase the dark, oppressive ambiance of the game's semi-open environments built in Unreal Engine 4.

Developed by seasoned studio Cyanide, Call of Cthulhu is an RPG-Investigation game with psychological horror and stealth mechanics, set in a deeply immersive world. On a mission to find the truth behind the death of an acclaimed artist and her family on a backwater island, the player will soon uncover a more disturbing truth as the Great Dreamer, Cthulhu, prepares its awakening...

"We are happy that Focus entrusted us with the development of a videogame adaptation of the legendary RPG Call of Cthulhu. As long-time fans of the license, working with longtime partner publisher Focus Home Interactive on such an original and exciting project is, once again, a privilege. We hope to offer fans the game they've long been waiting for."
Patrick Pligersdorffer - CEO of Cyanide Studio

"We are deeply honored to be partnering with Cyanide again. They've grown alongside us for the past 10 years, to become today one of the best independent developers in Europe. With titles such as Styx: Master of Shadows and the Blood Bowl series, they've proved their creativity and ability to offer strong gaming experiences in original worlds. Cyanide has been wanting to make a Call of Cthulhu adaptation for years. They now hold all the cards to create a game that will please fans of the Cthulhu mythos, as well as players eager for rich and original gaming experiences."
Cédric Lagarrigue - President of Focus Home Interactive ​

Just how faithful an adaptation this is going to be, or where they are taking this in general mechanics-wise, remains to be seen.

UPDATE: Apparently, Frogwares may still be working on their own Lovecraftian game, even though it seems to be no longer official (and thus not based on the PnP license).

 

[Plane Escapee]

I'm way more excited about this than it deserves. Probably.
... please be good!

 

[Kem0sabe]

We are coming for you blasphemous motherfucking french

 

[M0RBUS]

I think this might be good. It should be pretty simple to make a great Chtulhu RPG I'd say. All you need is turn based combat, exploration, proper inventory management and no cheap jumpscares or filler combat.

 

[Jaesun]

In before horrible action garbage (and stealth mechanics). Why do these people get to develop a PnP RPG system to the computer? Pick somebody else FFS.

 

[Roguey]

semi-open environments built in Unreal Engine 4
...
stealth mechanics

Taking advantage of all that Styx code, eh?

All you need is turn based combat,

Delta Green? Sure. Not in Call though.

 

[vonAchdorf]

Styx and GoT mashup incoming Could be worse though.

 

[Crescent Hawk]

Fucking hope its good. Dark Corners of the earth was already quite decent, at least the first part of the game.

 

[Alex]

I think this might be good. It should be pretty simple to make a great Chtulhu RPG I'd say. All you need is turn based combat, exploration, proper inventory management and no cheap jumpscares or filler combat.

Combat is probably the least important thing in a Call of C'thulhu game, at least if it is going to be based on the P&P game. I know I mention it a lot, but a good basis for it would be that Neuromancer game from Interplay. That is, investigation should be the center of the game, and you don't want to give the answers away in a skill test or something like that.

 

[M0RBUS]

Delta Green? Sure. Not in Call though.

Not in Call? That's cute. If they base it on the PnP ruileset, they might as well get a proper combat system.
Granted, my experience with the PnP ruleset is watching about an hour of a play session of a campaign that seemed, to me, absolutely impossible to take on, so I have no idea if the PnP ruleset would make for a good computer game. It oughta though...

Combat is probably the least important thing in a Call of C'thulhu game, at least if it is going to be based on the P&P game. I know I mention it a lot, but a good basis for it would be that Neuromancer game from Interplay. That is, investigation should be the center of the game, and you don't want to give the answers away in a skill test or something like that.

I totally agree (although skill checks have nothing to do with what I said). But you can be damn sure that if they have real time combat, COMBAT is gonna be the center of the game. That or stealth mechanics to avoid said combat, or to make it go by a bit faster,. i.e. stealth kills.

Which, as we all know, is totally what Lovecraft is all about.

Sarcasm aside, investigation and mystery and good writing is all that maters.

 

[Alex]

Delta Green? Sure. Not in Call though.

Not in Call? That's cute. If they base it on the PnP ruileset, they might as well get a proper combat system.
Granted, my experience with the PnP ruleset is watching about an hour of a play session of a campaign that seemed, to me, absolutely impossible to take on, so I have no idea if the PnP ruleset would make for a good computer game. It oughta though...

For CoC, you might as well not include combat at all. Like, in any combat situations, you could make a check based on the equipment, numbers and skills on both sides and present the player with a text describing the conflict. The design of the adventures always focused on investigations, and while combat (mostly with cultists) wasn't completely absent, it just wasn't the focus.

 

[MrE]

backwater island

Good explanation for limited scope in terms of both number of NPCs and area. I guess every time you try to get too far in the water you'll get attacked by a group of Deep Ones (if they don't just say that water is just too cold in New England to survive swimming around the island - I assume that's where the location will be placed.)

 

[Roguey]

But you can be damn sure that if they have real time combat, COMBAT is gonna be the center of the game.

What an odd assumption to make, especially given that they specificially refer to it as an investigation game with stealth mechanics. Y'know, like those Frictional game things. I'm getting the impression it's going to be like that, with the CoC license and I guess character customization and/or role playing?

 

[Burning Bridges]

In any event it's good that they took this from Frogware unless you like boring adventure games. Under Frogware it could only be shit / now only very likely going to be shit.

Call of Cthulhu is an RPG-Investigation game with psychological horror and stealth mechanics, set in a deeply immersive world.

What exactly does that mean these days??

RPG-Investigation = adventure with superficial rpg?
psychological horror = Penumbra/Amnesia/DCotE clone?
stealth mechanics = ??
deeply immersive world = meaningless

But this is all quite uninteresting to me unless Cyanide state that they are going to derive from the common conception of a game these days, which is to make a huge amount of scripted movie sequences with a little bit of action to string them together.

 

[Darth Roxor]

why does it have to be cyanide

 

[Burning Bridges]

Most of the Nazis liked cyanide very much.

 

[Azael]

Will it be as awesome as Blood Bowl?

 

[commie]

Aarklash Legacy is very good, and GoT RPG had actually a good story (Mors kicks arse) even if the game itself is a bit 'shit'(like MARS and Demonicon, Of Orcs and Men, which use same engine, but are still ok low budget RPG's(I don't regret finishing and finding them fun enough,their short length certainly helps).

Probably will be the usual decent story and shitty execution which Cyanide are good at as I can't see Aarklash style combat here...

 

[V_K]

But you can be damn sure that if they have real time combat, COMBAT is gonna be the center of the game.

Unfortunately, even if it isn't the center of the game, the retarded players would still treat it as if it is - and then go online and whine tha the game is teh hard and unfair. Has always been like this, the creators of The Legacy (a 1994 game) even had to issue a statement that their game wasn't about fighting and the players weren't supposed to kill every enemy they meet but figure out workarounds. But I don't think that going turn-base would remedy such behaviour. That's probably the reason contemporary horror games like Amnesia tend to have no combat at all.

 

[DarkArcher]

Sadly, there is no way this can live up to our expectations.

 

[I'm Big Into Anal]

isnt hp lovecraft hitler these days?

will be interesting how small they make the font for his name on the box

 

[I'm Big Into Anal]

hp lovecraft's


CALL OF CTHULHU (SJW APPROVED)

 

[mike73]

seeing these 2 screenshots, you sure they're not aiming for hidden object game?

 

[Xzylvador]

Looks to me like they borrowed Fallout's* color filter.
Very immersive!




(* FO3: the original fallout game)