I'm a massive dickhead. (you've got that right)
But more specifically, I'm a massive dickhead when it comes to Lovecraftian games.
Games which claim to be based on the works of American horror author H.P. Lovecraft.
So imagine my glee when I saw a game named after on of Lovecraft's most popular stories,
which specifically namedrops his most popular creation,
that received lukewarm reviews from the general public.
Are you imagining that glee? Good!
Because it doesn't exist.
Now, the game isn't actually named after the story "The Call of Cthulhu,"
It's instead named after the tabletop RPG "Call of Cthulhu,"
which itself is named after the story, but not exclusively based on it,
meanwhile the game is more closely based on another of Lovecraft's stories,
"The Shadow Over Innsmouth."
Confused yet?
Good. Let's jump in.
We're playing as a boy called Edward Pierce,
A WW1 veteran turned detective.
Classic Lovecraft character, indeed.
But there is a twist!
He's already a little bit mad.
He's having crazy dreams and visions,
which isn't particularly standard.
Usually, the Crazy Dreams and Visions and whatnot
aren't there right at the start,
and typically in the detective stories that Lovecraft wrote,
they're not happening to the protagonist.
In fact, the game opens with a dream
so vivid, that it vaguely resembles a tutorial.
And I have to take a quick break here to ask,
when did pre-rendered cutscenes start to look worse than live gameplay?
I mean, this is not the only game with this problem,
but holy hell, it's noticeable here.
I remember in the early 2000's when you'd be shown
these wonderful, well crafted clips before being introduced to the horrifying reality of the game.
But now, it's the other way around.
Game devs, computers are more than capable of rendering in-game cutscenes.
You no longer have to flick on CthulhuCave1.mp4
or ManWalkingUneventfully.mov for dramatic effect.
Anyway, while playing the tutorial, I started getting a rather..
Uneasy feeling.
It's one I've felt twice before.
Once, in Agony, (oh no.)
and once in Lust For Darkness. (oh god)
That is to say,
(oh boy 19 minutes of this.)
There's janky animations,
overly dramatic dialogue,
and way too much environmental debris.
I'm not talking about clutter, you guys know,
I love my clutter,
but everything feels so busy!
Artificially so, I mean, just look at this office, holy hell,
who has this much stuff?
And it also feels like I'm controlling someone who weighs several times
more than a regulation truck.
Honestly, it's like swimming in molasses.
But without the novelty of the word,
"molasses."
So, basically, it's another game developer emulating the clunk
of Good Survival Horror without understanding
what makes that clunkiness good.
And also gets overly ambitious with the set dressing.
Not a great start.
Usually, if a game gave me this impression,
I'd probably just stop playing and decide to cover an entirely different one.
But, y'know, this is Call of Cthulhu,
and this is Painticus. :)
I can't not cover this game,
so let's just give it some more time and hope it gets better.
Anyway, we get our story set up,
DETECTIVE MAN must go and DETECT UNUSUAL MYSTERY
on an UNUSUAL ISLAND.
Is it the most original setup?
No.
Does it have to be?
No, not really.
I've said in the past that Lovecraftian media doesn't have to have wild or unique settings,
All the horror and grandeur of the stories
comes from the events that take place within the area,
and the perception that the characters have of the area.
And god knows how many of Lovecraft's works
involve a detective/scientist investigating a place that needs detecting/sciencing.
While accepting the case, we're introduced to these RPG mechanics
which felt a little out of place at the start,
but then I remembered, this game is, like I mentioned earlier,
based on the Call Of Cthulhu roleplaying game.
Which is,
surprisingly,
a roleplaying game.
Now, I say it feels kind of out of place at the start,
because these gamey mechanics don't fit super well to the
adventure-mystery genre.
Like, y'know, it doesn't feel super good
when I'm no longer allowed to investigate a painting
because I put all of my
Cthulhu Points
into Gymnastics and Animal Handling. (painticus the druid-rogue)
But despite not fitting in super well at the beginning,
the RPG mechanics do start to fit in pretty well as the game progresses
and you're given more and more player freedom,
to the point where this game is (and I don't think I've heard anyone else say this,)
teetering on the edge of the immersive sim genre.
It's not quite there because the game does hold your hand a lot more than most other immersive sims,
And I think, honestly, the game would've been better off if they fully committed to the immersive sim idea.
I mean, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is the game I say is the best Lovecraftian game,
and that is very much an immersive sim.
This is something I actually elaborated on a bit in the comment section of my "Best Lovecraftian Game" video,
where I say,
"I think there's a perfect balance of exploration and linearity that has to be achieved,
where you see enough to raise questions, but not enough to fully answer them."
Now we fall into a problem with Lovecraftian games, where,
we have to ask, is it more important to capure the atmosphere or to follow the format?
Because, objectively speaking, Call Of Cthulhu follows the format better because it's far more linear,
But S.T.A.L.K.E.R. captures the atmosphere way better
by giving you the freedom to find out these dark truths all by yourself.
That's something I'm not entirely sure of myself,
I think I still ultimately prefer S.T.A.L.K.E.R.'s way of doing it,
but I will say Call Of Cthulhu is very faithful to his original formatting and..
I can appreciate that.
Anyway, we're given our case and we're sent off to a Strange Island
by a Strange Boy who Totally Isn't Hiding Anything.
And this opening chapter of the island is genuinely really good.
It showcases all of the staples of Lovecraftian horror, it's got:
^^^^^^^^^^^
I'm sorry, did I say staples of Lovecraftian horror?
I meant staples of film noir.
You might expect me to rant about how this is another game getting
Lovecraft wrong, but it's actually totally okay.
The work of Lovecraft wasn't very far from noir stories.
Make noir more reserved, replace the crime with sci-fi, and more or less you've got the same thing.
Lovecraft was an early adopter of the "I Fucking Despise Life"
subgenre of popular fiction,
and noir is one of the genres that synergized pretty well with Lovecraftian themes.
And here are some more that could do it as well.
Now, I've mentioned before that xenophobia is a big part of Lovecraft's settings,
and that's definitely true here, too, but
rather than outwardly being, like,
"Argh, we don't like outsiders, argh,
we'll call the fuzz on you if you even think about stealing our rations, argh,"
Because you know, that's-
-that's what they're usually like.
Instead, they act like you've just been caught trying to remove those "do not remove" labels from a mattress.
"WOAH there, bucko,
You trying to remove that there label, can't do that under the penalty of law!" (what did i just type,)
No, I'm not trying to remove it.
"Oh, okay, that's fine, then.
Y'alright?"
Except, y'know, replace the whole label thing with the generic idea of Causing Trouble.
Overall, people act far more realistically than they do in, say,
Call Of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth.
The general consensus is not: "Let's kill him and
blame him for our problems!" It's more,
"We're going to have to explain all of our weird customs to the city boy, aren't we?"
And honestly, that may be closer to what Lovecraft wrote in a lot of his stories.
It installs xenophobia, but it's not cartoonish.
Anyway, we finish up with the town, and,
Wait.
What the FUCK
is this geography?
This is NOT regulation!
This is more outlandish than anything I've ever seen a semi-realistic game try to pass off as nothing!
And I've seen what Human Revolution thought the 20's were gonna be like!
Like, this is where I'm from,
And THIS makes THIS look accessible by comparison!
Holy SHIT.
And the next place we're going to is teetering on the shelves of..
THAT!
Looking like the setting of one of those lower-effort Scooby-Doo episodes!
Anyway, with that rant aside,
we move on to Chapter 3,
:)
And suddenly we're no longer in the land of insane geology,
Instead, we're into one of the most beautifully bleak landscapes I've ever been presented with.
And I've played S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
Unfortunately, the way most video renderers and the way YouTube handles low light conditions,
it's probably going to be massacred by the time it reaches you.
So, instead, look at these screenshots.
This looks amazing.
And inside the house is pretty pretty as well!
If not a bit dark.
Ridiculously so.
And it's at this point the game starts to give you options.
Now, I don't really know how significantly these options actually effect
the game, but it feels like things could play out in
dozens of different ways.
Now that could just be the illusion of choice,
these options might be completely redundant.
But on my first playthrough I genuinely felt that my actions had consequences.
What would happen if I didn't take the police officer with me?
What would happen if I chose to fight this guy rather than reason with him?
What if I hadn't found this clue?
There are so many variables at play and that does so much to help immerse you.
Sometimes it feels like your choices are completely random, though.
Like, I move this metal sheet.
:)
I don't know.
It was well-hidden though.
And the character thought, "Yeah, that seems important."
And then I left.
Now, this area brings up an interesting question about Lovecraftian media.
That question being:
why do you guys spell color with a 'u'
Well, I don't think there's a specific answer to that,
Y'know, noir has black and white,
westerns have beige and brown.
Cyberpunk has neon, and
more neon. And so on.
I think the key to Lovecraftian color schemes is consistency.
Make everything uniform and recognizable,
so that you can later break that consistency to great effect.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. does this by having everything be
S.T.A.L.K.E.R-colored.
But every-so-often you'd find an artifact
that is definitely Not- S.T.A.L.K.E.R-colored,
and it stands out massively.
In Call Of Cthulhu, everything is..
Call Of Cthulhu colored.
Except for the sp00kies. (i spy a claymore skeleton)
It's all very well utilized here and shows an excellent understanding of the visual identity of Lovecraft.
Now, I know what you're thinking.
"paINTICUS! WHERE ARE THESE FABLED SPOOKIES?"
Well, buckle in, cowboy, because they're coming.
Very slowly.
Verrry slowly.
Because that's Lovecraft.
When we get into the mansion,
there is an immediate atmosphere shift.
It goes from:
I am Not Welcome Here,
to, Nothing Is Welcome Here.
When exploring the house, you'll feel..
Uneasy.
Not that there's a feeling of danger, just,
Concern.
Lovecraft had a talent for turning the home into the least welcoming place on earth,
and Call Of Cthulhu emulates that well.
Every so often you'll hear a noise,
see a shadow, notice a reflection, or find an item that just puts you on edge.
It keeps you there.
I adored this section of the game.
Well,
until this part.
So, there's a bit when you hear somebody stumbling around, and you ask if it was your friend.
as you would,
but you get no answer.
But you can go and see your friend, just standing around, doing fuck-all,
and neither of you bring it up.
Little (or large) inconsistencies like this bother me immensely.
DO YOU TAKE ME FOR A FOOL,
BRAD
LEY?
The culty stuff is then introduced and we're on to the next chapter.
:^)
:^) (^:
Now, my notes for this chapter are pretty thin,
because what I usually do is play a chapter and then write all of my notes about it.
But, I played this chapter, and then the next five, all in one sitting.
And, yes,
that's a good sign.
The atmosphere and tone that is established from this point onwards is wonderful.
And a few of the potential gripes with the game I had are more or less eliminated.
For example, the main character being very noir-y, which,
I didn't really mind anyway,
gets completely overwhelmed upon seeing some creepy stuff.
And you get to see this gruff, hardened dude have a full-blown panic attack.
And those aren't my words, that's literally what the game says.
That's a nice little version of a character archetype, and I really enjoyed it.
There are also a few moments here that provide such a creeping sense of dread that really impressed me.
I won't spoil them, but trust me,
they're there.
After the cave-y stuff, we get one of the best (and
by best I do not mean accurate,)
representations of madness that I've seen in media.
It genuinely has you questioning what's real and what's not,
and that feeling persists for the rest of the game.
Which is a wonderful trait if you're committing to the madness element of Lovecraft's work.
I'm going to stop covering the main story bits at this point,
for two reasons.
One; I don't want to spoil anything,
and two,
at the end I have very little idea of what's actually happening.
For real, shit gets very Penumbra: Requiem-y.
And that's.. half-good, half-bad.
Good, because it adds a lot to the themes of madness,
bad, because What's Happening?
This is why the past-tense format is so key to Lovecraft's work.
It hints at the madness without you getting lost in it.
Now, it's not easy to achieve that in games, though,
not even S.T.A.L.K.E.R attempts it.
But, if you do want to know what happens in the game and don't want to play it yourself,
i'm going to miss this stream again
If you miss that, the VOD will be available on my second channel.
Now, there's a pretty big thing I've neglected to mention so far.
This is a sp00ky sp00ky horror game.
So,
Well, that's a loaded question.
Because Lovecraft's style of horror isn't the most visceral, immediate kind of horror.
It has, at points,
gore, and disgust, but most of it's psychological.
And I don't mean psychological horror in the sense that many use it,
Wikipedia lists Cry Of Fear, Dead Space, and Silent Hill as psychological horror,
because, yes, when I see necromorphs scrambling towards me as I rip and crush them to death,
I'm thinking, "Hmm. Mindgames."
True psychological horror can't be as easily ignored as ghosts,
or zombies, or demons.
Sure, we can safely say that Cthulhu might possibly not exist,
but we can't deny what we are. What surrounds us.
What might be out there.
Our own fragility, mortality, perception.
These are the things that cosmic horror targets, not outright fear. So, I'll ask again,
Is it (Call Of Cthulhu) scary?
Not extremely, but yes.
In most ways, in fact.
So, that kind of renders that whole spiel more or less redundant,
but this is Painticus, get used to it.
It has excellent moments of cosmic horror, as well as
body horror, unnerving stuff,
decent use of darkness,
creepy level design, and medical..
gunk.
What's-
-I hear you say.
Well, I'm glad you asked.
labor voucher?
martyr is restrained.
Somebody asked me recently if there was a way to make things sound creepy (or ominous,)
and as it turns out,
there isn't.
So, I've tried to pay more attention to word choices and the meanings of certain names,
and The Shambler gives me a good place to start.
So,
What is it? It's an enemy.
I won't show it, I don't wanna spoil it, but I'll just say this.
Why is it called the Shambler?
That might not seem important to some of you, but think
about the names of other cryptids.
Slenderman.
What makes The Shambler sound unnerving?
Each of these above names describes what it looks like, or where you'll find it.
Well, what happens when something can appear anywhere, and is beyond physical description?
You describe whatever you can.
In this case,
it's 'most basic kind of movement.'
The insinuation that it is beyond earthly equation is
truly sinister, and Lovecraft was great at these names.
My personal favorite of Lovecraft's would be:
Nice and ominous.
But this kind of thing isn't exclusive to HPL, here are a few other good ones.
did i hear martyr
That last one is my favorite.
But honestly, the game wasn't..
..too scary?
Until Chapter Nine.
Fuck Chapter Nine.
There's not many jumpscares in the game, but there is that one. Yowza.
Have fun with that when you get to it.
I will show this mini-jumpscare that I had in Chapter Eight.
Now for people to compare the gameplay of Call Of Cthulhu to.. Amnesia,
Call Of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth,
and even the Call Of Cthulhu roleplaying game, but none of those really sat right with me.
Honestly, the game that it felt closest to,
was Dishonored.
Another immersive sim.
The world interactions, character interactions,
level design and stealth,
(yes, there's stealth,)
all felt very similar.
It stops having that Lust For Darkness/Agony feel in the second chapter,
which makes me wonder,
why is the first chapter so bad?
You have the dream sequence, (which shouldn't exist,)
the clunky walking sim gameplay in the tutorial, (which shouldn't exist,)
the intrusive RPG mechanics, which are introduced in the weirdest way,
and yet, as soon as we get to the second chapter, it all just, kind of..
comes together.
I think it's because Chapter One is ripped straight from the "2010's Horror Handbook for Dummies,"
while the rest of the game genuinely inspired by games like
Dishonored, Thief, and at times, Scratches.
The inconsistency of the opening really put me off, but,
the rest of the game, is, in my opinion..
stellar.
Do you get it?
Stars, stellar,
(what the hell is he talking about? you ask)
Okay, so this is for the scholars out there, it's all about stars because
Lovecraft really liked space,
and in space there's loads of spooky stuff,
and stellar means something to do with stars.
Until the ending, that is,
the ending(s) are..
very underwhelming.
Not because of their content, because it's very much a Mass Effect 3 style of:
Choose which one you like!
Right at the end!
And maybe, if you've been good, there will be an extra ending.
And I'm not a huge fan of things like that, but..
I can't complain too much. It's more about the journey than the destination.
Now, a huge gripe that people had with Call Of Cthulhu: Dark Corners Of The Earth,
was the gunplay. Because, for
whatever reason-
(pissed off fanboy noises)
-people think that Lovecraftian games shouldn't have combat.
Well, Call Of Cthulhu has combat towards the end.
And it's fucking hilarious.
(true man noises)
And y'know what?
The combat does not feel that out of place.
I'm okay with it. Now, before I get on to judging it as a Lovecraftian game,
I'll mention some minor things that I really liked.
And some others that I really didn't liked.
that hurt to type.
So, when you sprint with your lighter out,
the flame dies down.
When you see some disturbing stuff, you get this electronic screen distortion that's super out of place.
But that's good!
It shows how unnatural the sp00kies are!
The audio in general is poorly mixed, and the animations aren't good at all.
Especially lip-syncing. (dude that shit is HARD)
However, there is some spectacular voice-acting in there, especially towards the end.
There are two characters I would've done differently,
the policeman and the doctor, but the detective and the artist
truly carry the last act of the game with their performance.
And the game didn't need carried. (what?)
All in all, aside from the shaky into and endings,
I really like this game.
Much more than I thought I would,
and I look forward to my second playthrough.
I think Call of Cthulhu, for the problems it has,
goes in the Great category for me.
But now for the main question,
does it succeed at being Lovecraftian?
Well, let's look at the criteria I set up in my Best Lovecraftian Game video.
And if you play the game, you'll see that it fits the bill of these
very well. (please my hands need a rest)
Extremely well, in fact.
Though, due to the gaminess of the RPG mechanics and the at times forced nature of Lovecraft,
like the player having visions at the start, which is totally unnecessary,
I won't say it's the best or most Lovecraftian game,
it was, however, a valiant effort that Lovecraft fans will likely enjoy.
Minus a few minor gripes here or there.
Kind of implies that Cthulhu will rise near the island that the game is set on,
but it's actually on the wrong side of the planet.
And it kinda mashes up several of his stories in a somewhat messy way, but oh well.
It tries and largely succeeds, and I enjoyed it.
Anyway, like I mentioned, I'll be streaming a full playthough of the game at-
(shameless self-promotion)
Chances are, if you've stuck around for this long in the video, you might quite enjoy what I make.
(sponsor Painticus on Patreon.)
yep see i was right
(sponsor Painticus on Patreon.)
(DONATE OR DIE)
(sponsor Painticus on Patreon.)
And with that, I'm brought to the end of the video.
I'll see you next time!
(English captions transcribed by idiotincommand)
