Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth - a humble review by a humble man.

[VonGentlemen]

Cthulhu is a manner long since weighing on the human mind. "When will he awake from his slumber and devour us all?" wonder some. "How shall I die when the time comes?" Other think. Some think back at the originator of the craze and think "H.P Lovecraft? Wasn't he that guy who wrote that book about Jean Valjean?". However, some of us (those who wear full black suits on a frequent basis) think on a more intellectual level, asking questions like "What is the symbolic link between the perceptions of Cthulhu and man's mental determination to atone for sins?" or, in my case "Holy Odin! There's a game about the Cthulhu world?".

So, after acquiring the game through perfectly legal means which I will not discuss in great detail here, Von Gentlemen sat down to begin playing the game. In a perfectly legal fashion. Without further ado, here are his observations:

Sound
One may wonder why Von Gentlemen opted to start his review by talking about the sound. Von Gentlemen agrees.

That aside, the sound can be summed up in a single word; unnerving. The game recognizes times of potential insanity and adjusts the sound to mimic whispers, gunshots, sounds of enemies or erotic moans, for the sake of almost guaranteeing that the player will spend a few seconds handicapped, usually from opting to take a moment, remove one hand from the key board and quickly putting it down his pants.

The sound in normal areas is also consistent. All doors make accurate sounds, the enemies cast quite a presence on the player and all of the non-white people in the game very accurately shut up and not exist.

Video
Von Gentlemen's computer was made in 1941 in Transylvania, so he always plays with the graphic on minimum. Always. Even when playing flash games.

The slime is slimy, the wood is woody, the flesh is fleshy, the quizzes are quizzical and the tests are, well, ...testicle (?).
Although if the graphics were not at pong quality, they might be pretty cool.
All in all, the graphic don't take away from the game, so everything is chill.
(Von Gentlemen does not believe that a good game does graphics make).

Atmosphere
The game keeps a very creepy and chilling atmosphere most of the time. The areas are not always well lit, and when they are, situations usually do not calm down much. The majority of the game is either in wet and dank environments where the enemies are likely to trash you on sight, well lit industrial areas where the enemy is likely to burn you on sight or dark and moody areas, where the enemy is likely to drag you into a jail and sodomize you on sight.

In short, the atmosphere is solid and creepy. It gains +5 to creepy if you grew up like me, in which this game reminds you of just about every foster home you've been to.

Gameplay
The gameplay is another area where the game really shines.
The main character, Jack (a name that proves the developers have bundles of originality) is not a greatly physically adept character and the game frequently reminds you of this by ROFLPWNing you a lot. You can be killed off by so much as fowl language which adds the necessity to approach the inevitable combat with great care and the luck of a Vegas dweller.

In the event that profanity does not kill you off (if one of the enemies throws a "Gosh" or "Darn" into his attacks), the player gets a chance to see the excellent healing system that the game provides. The game forces you to use medkits stationed at different parts of the levels. Once you acquire one, you use different types of medical supplies to patch up Jack's injuries and prepare him for another bout of being tossed around like a triple amputee in a ghetto county jail.

The game is not without some empowering moments though. Once you acquire a few certain weapons, you can reasonably take on enemies with usually good results. The game does retaliate by throwing tougher enemies at you, including a machine firing man in a gimp suit that Jack teams up with J. Edgar Hoover to kill. Seriously, I did not make that up.



All in all, Call Of Cthulhu is a beautifully made game, and I recommend getting it in a perfectly legal way as soon as you can. The game provides many hours of mind warping fun, tongue biting survival, brain bending puzzles and lots and lots of masochism. For those interested, it also offers a unique approach to exactly what you will be doing when Cthulhu is woken (Hint:dying)

For the sake of being formal though, I give this game an 'Eyepatch' out of 'Gentlemen'.


Until next time.

~ Von Gentlemen.

 

[Random Argument Man]

Wait, you're speaking about yourself in the 3rd person?!?!

Second, Are you speaking about http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_of_Cthulhu:_Dark_Corners_of_the_Earth ?

 

[Incredible Bullshitting Man]

I kinda liked this review. I bit more in-depth and better illustrated could have been nice; Now it concentrates more on being (successfully) entertaining rather than informative, I think.

Haven´t played the game myself, although being a fan of Lovecraft´s work I probably should. Anyway, well done. Great scoring system.

EDIT: Oh yeah, almost forgot:

This is a quote

Fancy meeting you here after all these drinks. How have you been doing?

 

[Random Argument Man]

EDIT: Oh yeah, almost forgot:

This is a quote

Fancy meeting you here after all these drinks. How have you been doing?

So-So, university keeps me occupied... I have less time to pin-point every comments you make on this forum during these days..

EDIT: Oh and OP...IBM is right. I would've been nice if you could've expand a little.

 

[Incredible Bullshitting Man]

Quote returns

No wonder the nearby shadows have been suspiciously vacant lately (not that I have been any more hyperactive these few weeks).
But yeah, universities have this nasty habit of dumping a truckload of miscellaneous chores onto you every time you dare to think it´s safe to breath freely again. And I thought I chose all the slacker courses.

 

[riskroWe]

I disagree, the graphics were pretty bad, really killed the illusion. And the main character's narrated approach to everything kept getting on my nerves. The game made me hate myself by forcing me to play as a person I hated.

It wasn't always clear what I, the player, was supposed to be doing. And everything seemed to have a time limit... hence very repetitive. And after you've seen a dead body hung up on the wall 8 times it stops being shocking and the insanity that results from it seems less reasonable.

I would've preferred it if the tasks at hand were explained MORE and the narrative was explained LESS.

Note: This game crashed on me a few dozen times, so I'm probably just bitter from seeing the same stupid cutscenes over and over again.

 

[PurpleRain]

I only realized you were talking about Dark Corners of the Earth when you said the main character's name was Jack which was near the end of the review! This is poor reviewing if your audience does not know what you are actually talking about.

Okay, I may be a little harsh, but there are a lot of CoC games out there. First I thought you were talking of either the RPG or the Card Game. Then I thought you were then talking about the point and click adventure before realizing it was DCotE.

You should really make things clear next review. What is Cthulhu? What is the game about? What is so important (or not) about this game?

 

[Gigantor]

It might have just been the third-person, but the review had quite an eerie feel to it. A bit like a weird figure in my dreams reviewing a game for me.

Like people have said, though, more content would be good. At the moment the review feels much more for VonGentlemen's benefit than for the reader. If you put effort into providing us with more context and content, I think your writing, which is enjoyably weird (in a nice way) would shine through.

Also, "foul" language would probably be better, unless there was a very subtle chicken joke in there.

 

[Aunel]

nicely done
I tip my hat to you, sir

although I was expecting at least one Metallica reference.

 

[VonGentlemen]

I dare say I appropriate the positive reviews that my review has been getting.
I probably should have done more, but I was in a rather tired mood and eager to return to my Gentlemen bed.

Also, if you feel the general balanced conclusive view on the game was a bit lacking, it is for the reason that I intentionally made it so. Many people read reviews just to bolster their support or distaste for the game, therefore there is not much sense in pretending otherwise.

 

[Fasckira]

What on earth is an eyepatch out of gentlemen? CoC was a bit of a let down for me as Im a huge fan of the pen and paper edition and I had got my expectations up due to the secrecy it kept in the run up to its release date (for a long time there was only like 2 screenshots floating around the web).
In the end though it turned out very slow paced though certain brief moments of action were often unforgiving and you spent considerable time loading the last save to get certain things done quick enough. The graphics were good for its day, though it would be nice to see a fresh take on the game to see if it could be awakened like Cthulhu himself.

 

[Drake the Dragonheart]

You certainly have found a very unique style, and I would be lying if I said I didn't find it entertaining.
Generally when reviewing a game it is a good idea to include at the start or close to the start of the review what platform it was on.
Like others have said a bit more detail would be helpful, and I would like to see a bit more I guess balance between negative and positive aspects, though it was obvious from the review you enjoyed the game, so naturally a positive leaning was to be expected.

I am assuming this was your first review? If so, it was certainly in my opinion a positive first step. Expand on the detail just a bit, otherwise, it was good.