Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth review

Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth has been in development for close to six years. The public – including yours truly - only knew of its existence for four. In that time development was plagued with so many problems the prospect of its eventual release was doubtful. But Headfirst stuck in there because it knew it had something special to show the world.

Now the game’s been released it’s easy to see what that is: absolutely everything.

Not only are we talking about one of the last great current-gen Xbox games – we are talking about something truly special. A genuine horror classic. And the fact it has received little to no advertising or publicity is appalling. One of the year’s best titles may just pass everyone by.

The Dark and Baroque Prince

Based on the writings of HP Lovecraft, Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth blends The Shadow Over Innsmouth with The Shadow Over Time. You play Jack Walters – a man who, at the start of the game, throws a noose around his neck and kicks a chair from under his legs in his cell at Arkham Asylum.

It’s not the most traditional of ways to introduce the game's protagonist, though it is in keeping with Lovecraft’s literature. Questions are naturally raised. What was it that ultimately drove Walters to suicide and what horrors are written in the little red diary he holds as though his life depended on it?

Strangely, several years pass and it seems Walters is fine and well. He returns to his previous job as a private investigator with the past six years of his life now a mystery. Before he even has chance to warm the seat his phone rings and a potential client tells him of a missing shop owner in the small port town of Innsmouth.

The Shadow Over Innsmouth

It’s going to be several hours before you get to arm yourself with a weapon so your time in Innsmouth is mostly spent utilizing Walters’ investigative skills. Innsmouth is a beautifully macabre place – as are its residents. The gills on their necks aren’t that attractive, however.

Idly searching its streets and back alleys, you find drunkards merrily referring to past horrors, scared residents telling you to flee, police officers that are more scary than helpful, POV shots of monsters lurking on the nearby rooftops and dead bodies hanging from rafters in basements.

Innsmouth shows a confidence in Headfirst because in every sense this is a slow burn adventure. This opening section is not driven by action, but by immersion, and that’s something the game never loses sight of – even when the shooting starts. And when it does start, it happens in such a way that you experience everything similar to Walters.

His frame of mind can take serious hits depending on situations. While climbing rooftops he may undergo a sense of vertigo. If he looks at a dead body for too long his morale may drop and you may hear him muttering to himself. If you take too much damage his sense of perception might blur. And more drastically, if he becomes too frightened he might just stick the gun he’s holding to his head and blow his brains out.

The Call of Cthulhu

It works in a similar way to the sanity meter in Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem, albeit much more realistically this time because of how immersive the game is. Call of Cthulhu is so immersive partly because there is no on-screen HUD. Not even for your weapons.

You gauge what state Jack’s life is in by monitoring his movements. You know when to reload weapons because you count how many bullets fit the cartridge and how many you have used.

Furthermore, if you should need to administer treatment to Walter’s the game never leaves its sense of immersion. Throughout the game are first aid kits. Each contains a number of bandages, splints, sutures and antidotes. Depending on the damage – such as a gunshot, a bloody eye or a broken bone – you must apply the treatments accordingly.

You can do this by either pressing the white button for Jack to do it automatically, or by pressing black you raise the inventory. Here we can see a full figure shot of Jack and where the damage applies. Journal entries, morphine and any items or pickups are stored here too. The same applies to the way the game handles gunplay. You will find no crosshairs here. If you wish to aim properly you must pull the left trigger to enable precision aiming.

It all sounds like a recipe for disaster (Does anyone remember The Getaway’s claims of immersive players through similar means) but Headfirst has made it work effortlessly.

The Shadow Out of Time

Unfortunately the game does have its downsides – and they ultimately stopped this reviewer awarding the game a ten. For a start Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth is extremely dark – and not in the sense Doom III was dark. In Doom you could use a flashlight, whereas here you cannot.

Sometimes it would have really helped the gamer if you could use one – rather than having to resort to turning the games brightness to maximum. Even then it does little because not only is the game dark, it’s extremely dull and gloomy. The graphics – despite their sometimes aged look – are at times its greatest asset. It’s just a shame that couldn’t have been exploited with a torch.

While the gunplay works a charm, there are situations when you are forced to shoot to survive. Never is this more evident than in an escape via the back of a truck shootout in the first third of the game. It’s a sequence we had to replay several times, and one we wish Headfirst had rescinded.

Lastly, while the game does feature a fantastic story that isn’t spoon-fed to the player, having to re-watch unskippable cutscenes after dying in tougher spots is just plain annoying. This becomes a serious problem towards the end of the game, where trial and error gameplay and a particular boss fight centre into play.

Beyond the Mountains of Madness

These frustrating elements are ultimately born from the ambitious nature of the game. That it tries to be different is commendable – that it pulls it off with aplomb is exceptional. Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth has something to appeal to every gamer out there. It has a gripping plot, well-realised locations, cerebral puzzles (especially the ones involving safes), a unique sanity system, a good length and one of the most unsettling atmosphere’s we’ve encountered.

It’s also one of the most consistently entertaining games – regardless of its problems – that has come along in quite some time. There is never a dull moment, even when you must repeat some sections because of how tough they are. We can forgive many of its problems when we consider how much Headfirst went through to get the game finished.

In the face of adversity Headfirst has risen to offer gamers a truly exceptional gaming experience – marred only by its ambitions. And while the devil is in the details, the game as a whole forms such a genuinely immersive and unique experience that to let it go unnoticed would be a disservice not only to Lovecraft but one extremely talented bunch of developers.