Review of the game Call of Cthulhu. Terror from the depths. Review of Call of Cthulhu Horror, but not space

), Xbox One, PlayStation 4

Introduction

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Nine years later, in 2014, Focus Home Interactive, to the delight of all fans, announced that a completely new game was in development (but with a familiar name!), But happiness did not last long. Over time, “The Call ...” changed the developer (the Ukrainian one was replaced by the French one), and it seemed that the misadventures were over - three years later the game got to the release, but ...

You know, it would be better not to get there.

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Horror, but not cosmic

Oddly enough, the problems of the new and old Call of Cthulhu are strikingly similar. An encouraging, cool start and a gradual slide into the abyss of game design hell. Edward Pierce - main character novelty and part-time detective, World War I veteran and alcoholic.

Things are going from bad to worse at work: the last investigation was a long time ago, and Pierce risks losing his license. Therefore, the main salvation of the hero is a certain Stephen Webster - a gray-haired man who instructs Edward to find his daughter Sarah. She disappeared on the island of Darkwater, and our hero immediately boards the nearest ship and sails towards fate.

Dream visions of the protagonist are the few things that connect the original work and the game.

And now, it seems, now a cool adventure will begin. After all, the beginning cannot lie! RPG elements, an election system, good-looking graphics - all this sets you up for a big and complex (in a good sense of the word) adventure.

However, already at the twentieth minute you begin to suspect something is amiss. The city of Darkwater is strikingly small (even smaller than Innsmouth in the Dark Corners of the Earth!), and the same atmosphere is somehow not felt.

Seven characteristics are available for pumping (only five can be improved directly, occultism and medicine are pumped only if you find treatises and books scattered across the levels), each of which slightly affects dialogues and investigations.

For example, in the Hawkins mansion, a puzzle with a globe can be solved in two ways: honestly break your head or find a mount and hack the activating mechanism (you can hack it without a tool, just invest in pumping strength in advance). Perhaps this moment can be called the highest point of the whole game, because you will not see anything like this further.

And the more you progress through the story, the more flaws begin to catch your eye. The gameplay in front of us is a typical walking simulator, in which you need to periodically interact with certain objects in order to move further along the plot.

Compositionally, the gameplay consists of the following parts: investigation, hiding from monsters (or people) and solving puzzles. At the same time, each of the three elements does not claim any originality - the main driving force behind the novelty is pixel hunting in its most dense manifestation.

The riddles are simple (except for one) and it will not be difficult to solve them.

For a better understanding of what is at stake, I will say that the quintessence of this nightmare is the level in the hospital, when game designers literally force the player to collect notes, signs, just like in the very free game about Slender.

And one day the hero (more precisely, the heroine, because in the new product you will have to try on the roles of as many as three characters!) Will be forced to run from a boring, slow monster in a small location, collecting so-called “glyphs” along the way. Is it necessary to say that this does not stand up to scrutiny?

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The investigation system, as it were, takes the hero in time and allows him to see the events that have taken place. Not only does it look very secondary, but not only Edward, but also other heroes can restore the entire chain of events in their head. A logical question arises: why are detectives needed in this world if an ordinary nurse can conduct an investigation? Now it’s clear why Pierce wasn’t doing very well!

Even the dialogues are incredibly boring to read here. The characters speak as if they live in the twenty-first century: no archaisms, tricky words and everything else. The dialogues themselves are the most buggy part of the game, so one day you run the risk of getting stuck on one of these conversations simply because none of the answer options will be clicked. Everything is treated with a reboot, but start from the nearest checkpoint (the save system is standard, according to checkpoints) is not very pleasant.

But the boring gameplay could be turned a blind eye if it was backed up by a successful story in the spirit of Lovecraft's works. Unfortunately, this is about as bad as it gets. gameplay. If not worse.

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In Lovecraft's stories, a lot of attention was paid to loneliness and situations when a person is left alone with something unknown and ancient. In the new Call of Cthulhu, everything is different. In the course of the story, the main character will find understanding friends who will not let him fall. And yet (perhaps this will shock someone) there is a kind of romantic line between the characters, while in the original stories the theme of love was NEVER touched upon. Sometimes there are thoughts that the developers from Cyanide Studio thus show the true attitude towards the personality of the (very ambiguous) writer.

The second claim that breaks the atmosphere (although it is completely broken from the very start) is art design. Here everything is also “not very good” with him, and this is putting it mildly. The one and only monster in the game (localizers called it "Tramp", for which, of course, there is no forgiveness for them, because the most correct option would be "Wanderer") looks like a hybrid of a Necromorph from dead space and Alien.

In addition, there are few successful locations and all of them can be counted on the fingers of one hand, all the rest look like a secondary copy from other horror projects. The levels in the hospital are especially terrible - at this point the game starts to look like (the game has the same publisher, coincidence?), which does not add points to it.

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Call of Cthulhu is unable to scare even a child. Just look at these characters! No, really, look at these cheerful bright green abscesses - is that marmalade? And the tentacles—he stole them from the nearest seafood store? What is this cosplay nightmare?

And this despite the fact that the visual performance itself, for which it is responsible, is not bad. Of course, there is something to complain about (after a disgusting green filter, after an hour or two, games begin to watery eyes and have a headache), but the graphics, compared to everything else, are kept at an acceptable level and cause a minimum of complaints.

However, someone system requirements may seem overpriced: and an Intel Core i7-3820, 8 GB of RAM and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 graphics card will be enough to plunge into madness.

They will also let you shoot, but the action resembles a shooting range a la The House of the Dead(unless you control the hero yourself): there are no tactics, not even reloading. It's enough just to shoot the zombified inhabitants of Darkwater from afar (following the principle of "one bullet - one corpse") and not come close to them. The only difficulty is that there will not be enough ammo for everyone, so after a short time the boring action will be replaced by no less boring stealth.

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Can anyone explain why this man straight out of the twenties has such a trendy hairstyle? Is he a time traveler? Or do we not know something, and it was he who set the fashion for shaved whiskey? Unclear. But one thing is clear - the developers could not convey the atmosphere of that time: the game has too many such minor flaws to be taken seriously.

Conclusion

Call of Cthulhu is an amazing game in its mediocrity. In short, we got the usual five-hour walking simulator released under a high-profile brand. And it is not clear what rating can be put, because at times the novelty is so bad that you begin to experience that same indescribable cosmic horror that Lovecraft wrote about in his works.

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Verdict: defiant bad game based on the stories of G.F. Lovecraft.

Rating: no ("Cosmic Horror").

Ruslan Gubaidullin

The terrifying myths of Howard Phillips Lovecraft excite the imagination of our contemporaries, and at times it seems that the writer's popularity is only growing. Movies, board and computer games, thousands of professional and amateur art, music albums, architectural design, culinary dishes ... Wherever you step, you run into something based on motives. It is difficult to choose something suitable from this variety, but it is possible, and the current game immediately makes it clear that it has no competitors, since the first name of the project was Call of Cthulhu: The Official Videogame. So here it is - and nothing else! She seems to be the main one among the whole mass: genuine, approved by Lovecraft himself, flesh of his flesh ...

It's just that something went wrong. The studio, which started creating under the Call of Cthulhu label, successfully faded with developments, and the right and obligation to release the game under license hastily transferred to the authors of Of Orcs and Men and the Styx duology. Cyanide is a good and talented studio, but any of its previous big developments look much richer than Call of Cthulhu.

Perhaps the Ukrainians who were involved in the project earlier took the entire budget with them? Who knows now, but for some reason, the next "Call" looks almost worse than Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth, and the facial animation of all the characters causes genuine horror. It looks like it was stolen directly from the first version mass effect: Andromeda, she is like a nightmare made by blind people who do not realize the extent of the evil they do. Call of Cthulhu will make the blood freeze in the veins, because teeth and eyes can be seen through the faces of heroes and minor NPCs, and the lips move bizarrely and do not correspond to the sounds coming from the mouth. Lovecraft did not write about such horrors, but the animations, although not as planned by the authors, turned out to be firmly imbued with the spirit of his work. Artists tried to keep up with the geniuses, but their work does not frighten, but rather repels. Late PS2 textures and 10 NPC models for seven hours of play - that's the whole result of many years of work. If you learn to distinguish the main character from the heroine's husband, and that from any bearded man of the city of Darkwater from the first time, then consider that you will never be at a loss to identify any criminal.

With music in the game, things are much better, yet in horror, the atmosphere is important first of all, and the sounds in such a case are far from the last thing in importance. And indeed, the composer wrote an excellent theme for the final level: wild, tearing the soul and excellently playing on the nerves. However, before that, he occupied all 14 chapters of the story with unremarkable ambient, which complements the passage, but in no way enhances the impression of it.

What doesn't sound very good? So far, yes, but now we will try to understand why a positive rating hangs at the end of this review. Yes, Call of Cthulhu is extremely poor in appearance and sound. However, in the absence of a horror atmosphere, the game captivates with its excellent story and variety of gameplay. The protagonist arrives in a remote fishing town in the north of the United States and almost immediately finds himself drawn into Lovecraftianism: fights with rabid fishermen and cultists, investigating the mysteries of mansions and underground caves, escaping from a psychiatric hospital - and all this is decently flavored with hallucinations. History rushes forward and runs away from rationality towards the phantasmagoria of narration and the surrealism of images. Episodes with detective vision to search for objects are replaced by stealth, one with logic puzzles, then again stealth, but aggressive, and at the end, apparently, to add more variety, the authors insert a section with shooting. The short duration of the game allowed the developers to make the story short and very fast, and the story chapters short and rich. There is only one complaint about the gameplay: sometimes there are terribly few checkpoints in the stealth sections, and those that are are not always obvious, and no other saves are provided. Got caught after 20 minutes of wandering? Blow to the beginning, unfortunate. Decided not to take the plot key and open the door with the help of a pumped lockpicking skill? In vain, because if I had taken the key, I would have received a checkpoint in the load.

As befits a game based on the works of Lovecraft, you should not expect a bright ending in Call of Cthulhu - at least on the first playthrough. But then how lucky - an active search for items opens up additional options in the dialogues that can change the fate of the hero. Helps to incite to replay and a curious pumping system that provides a small percentage of non-linearity. However, if the hero receives the main pumping points in any case in order to strengthen observation, eloquence, knowledge of psychology and the like at their expense, then skills such as "Occultism" and "Medicine" can only be gleaned from those hidden in all sorts of secret places books. Rummaging around locations and reading are welcome - what if you get lucky and it is the knowledge of the occult that will turn an important dialogue in the right direction?

Here, of course, you should not expect much. Call of Cthulhu is not an RPG, but just a linear adventure with good plot, but he is quite capable of compensating for the work of artists and musicians. So if you really play, it's for the sake of history.

From Cyanide Studio is not a remake of the eponymous part of the Dark Corners of the Earth, which entered the market back in 2006. This is more of a digital version of the role-playing game. Here the storyline is not based on one of Lovecraft's works. The action will take place in areas that are absent in the stories of the famous writer. In addition, in this novelty you will see many creatures that the creator of Cthulhu knows nothing about. They were created by his followers.

However, this did not get in the way of developers from France. They managed to translate into reality the main and most difficult feature - to convey the spirit of Lovecraft as strongly as possible. Interested? Then let's get to the full call games of Cthulhu 2018.

mass insanity

Today, the roaring twenties are already on the street, but Darkwater is gradually dying out. Its prototype, which appeared in Lovecraft's story, Innsmouth, was able to survive with the help of an agreement with the Deep Ones. Those for the sacrifices they made shared with the inhabitants of Innsmouth sea food and gold. Only here the deal is concluded with slightly different conditions. Therefore, only bootleggers live well on the island, who conduct their business without much difficulty and do not encounter policemen on the mainland. And, of course, the clergy, whose goal in life is to awaken the Lord of the Worlds.

Around this moment, the story of the protagonist, investigator Edward Pierce, starts. He sails to this accursed settlement in order to investigate the death of Sarah Hawkins, who was engaged in painting and was married to a local aristocrat. But along the small streets of the village, where nothing is visible through the fog, and in the dark waters (with tentacles hidden in them) there are more terrible secrets than the detective was going to reveal.


In the review of the demo version, we expected that we would be transferred to a terrible and insane atmosphere. Then our expectations were justified. However, the demo was somewhat different. For the first three hours, the impression was that the pace would be unhurried and measured, like the writer's prose. It also seemed like more investigative work would be required than hide and seek. However, it ended just as events began to unfold at an extraordinary speed.

This is not a bad decision, even an excellent one. Moreover, the author also spoke about persecution and hide and seek in his works. For four episodes, the man meticulously examines the place of investigation. He is trying to figure out if Sarah really tried to destroy other members of her family. However, already in the next chapter, a sharp turn of the plot appears and then the next question is asked - what is going on here and how to find out the truth. As the action developed, they moved away from predictability, and this allowed us to go beyond reality in the final part. And this happens in the truest sense.

The Labyrinth of Terror in Call of Cthulhu

All episodes have something unique to offer. At the Hawkins estate, the task is to examine the place of death and find evidence. Under it are catacombs in which you need to run away at full speed so as not to fall under the rubble. In the art gallery, you need to use stealth to the maximum, but in the bookstore there is an interesting task. Already under the finale, you will need to use your weapon and see what is hidden in someone else's head. Lovecraft liked the theme of transference of creation, so Pierce also knows how to briefly become a different person.


However, there are some differences compared to the original. The cop can only watch what others are doing, not use a whole new body. Such a skill was characteristic of Ephraim Waite from "The Thing on the Threshold". However, this is a good decision in terms of storytelling - there is an opportunity to see something important, because it might not be in the frame.

If you return to an already explored location, you will not be bored. It's about not only about great landscapes, deep atmosphere and random events characteristic of the desktop. After the return of the hero, new tasks are always waiting, which are special each time. So, in the basement of the Institute in Riverside, you will have to find yourself a couple of times and always for other characters. And there will always be something to surprise.

It suffices to give the following example. In one episode, you will be walking along the dark wing of the hospital, almost beyond reality. Two lanterns are offered to help him - green and red. The first shows the direction and opens closed enchanted passages, and the second allows you to pass through invisible doors with a green light. If you go in the wrong direction, the space changes and the hero is at the beginning.


The problem is that lamps can only be changed at designated points. However, when the green lantern is lit, a toothy beast from the darkness will be visible, which is also watching Edward. It will be necessary not only to combine the burning of the lamps well, but also to run to the required point for the exchange as soon as possible. Finally, self-control is necessary, since hoarse sounds in the dark can be pretty scary.

Together with tasks in all locations, the latter are suitably interleaved. After the terrible catacombs, there is a turn of the mental hospital, so you have to hide from the doctors for another half an hour, and feel like you are in Outlast. However, after the old hospital, a calm mansion opens before your eyes, where even in a cozy living room with a burning fireplace, horrors are hidden. And like Alien: Isolation remains to hide in the closet and wait for the creature with fangs to leave.

Most importantly, in Call of Cthulhu fears change in turn. The fear of the unknown is what the writer called the most ancient and powerful. Then you have to be afraid that Pierce will be seen and caught. Also, this feeling is caused by darkness and creeping madness - at some points, the passage takes on the appearance of surrealism, similar to Layers of Fear. And so it will play with the protagonist itself - everything will change even after turning away. Well, each nightmare ends with a transition to the next chapter, where you can relax a bit and look at the sun. True, only in order to be afraid not tired. After all, every fear has its own stage of freshness.

Lack of choice

We went through the game several times, constantly choosing other paths. The catch is that almost nothing influences the player's choice, except for the final. Of course, if Pierce says other phrases in the dialogues, you can get Additional information. Yes, and with another branch of pumping, other conclusions will appear at the crime scene and you will see what was not noticed before. The plot is completely linear and you have to watch the same cutscenes with small differences.


During communication with the inhabitants of the city, significant hints appear that the answer can change fate dramatically. And as a result, everything goes along the knurled path and expectations are not justified. Story Events lots of lesser heroes are sure to end up crumpled up, and often just end up for no apparent reason. You can make friends, insult someone, but all this affects a few phrases in the following conversations. Even if there is a choice of which of the two people to save, this does not really change the picture.

Pay attention to the icon in the left corner on the left. And at the same time on what is happening on the screen. Leviathan appeared not thanks to the writer, but to his admirer Ross Bagby from "Artifacts from Quivira".


I also wanted more from the skill swing system than you can get. Some skills are more useful, and already at the end of the second playthrough, it becomes unclear why the development branch is made that way. The ability to look for something you need without fail will be more in demand, compared to oratory or strength. In general, before the final, the last two become meaningless. To deal with last opponents, words are not needed, and regardless of the strength of the policeman, the zombie fisherman will calmly fill up the blow.

From this follow stable problems with the phobia mechanic, which could be heard about many times from the creators. Some fears are acquired by storyline and it's impossible to change it. In the end, you can remain approximately sane, but not completely (which corresponds to the rules of Lovecraft's myths). The rest can be obtained depending on your decisions. You can get into an unnecessary room, where there are many remains of bodies - psychotrauma is guaranteed. If there are too many of the latter, madness will soon come.

Although it is beautifully said, the mechanic only has an influence on the ending and dialogue lines. The consequences of the gameplay are not expected. After the 5th chapter, the hero begins to deal with panic in enclosed spaces. And here nothing depends on the number of injuries. This can be finished.

But the main thing is that you can ignore the panic. Yes, shortness of breath, frantic heart rate, blurry fog around the screen - and that's all. After hide-and-seek in the closet, we waited for death, or at least for the protagonist to fall out of cover directly to his hunter. As a result, only interesting visual effects appeared before us, and no punishment followed. You can sit in the closet as much as you like, but why was it introduced then? For some unknown threat?


So in the conditions of a closed game space, small locations and a not too long plot placed in one of the short stories about Cthulhu, I would like to get much more replay value.

The advantages of the new product significantly outweigh the disadvantages. Even after the second playthrough, there will be a desire to play again to open all four endings. The story is the best addition to the original tales of the mythical creature, but it also adds a great picture.

It remains only to express respect to the specialists from Cyanide for the difficult path they have chosen. They could take advantage of external elements, add famous names and stuff the world with standard monsters, while forgetting about the main thing. Here, the same fishmen are available (although not canonical), a lot of interesting small details with a reference to Howard's myths, but the story itself turned out not so much according to his opuses, but to his spirit.


Among such a huge Lovecraftian "zoo", the inhabitants of which were supposed to hunt for Edward all the way, the creators abandoned the already boring Shoggoths, Mi-Go, Elders, and chose the Wandering between the worlds. The first time this creature got into the short story "The Horror in the Museum" and here it is very similar.

Of course, there is disappointment that there are simply no important forks in the plot. However, there is a logical explanation here as well. People will never be able to wage an equal fight against the Ancients. Whatever the attempts, they will be much stronger. So after floundering, you still need to tune in to rock.

The detective will try not to face the truth, but to arm himself with materialism, common sense and reality. However, as he learns about what is all of everyday life, he has no choice but to go gradually crazy. Although he will get new opportunities, because there are answers that the mind cannot give. To get a complete picture of what is happening, you need to climb all the suspicious nooks and crannies, read the treatises of the occultists and violate your own psyche. It won't work otherwise. Obviously, everything has its price - this will help you feel your helplessness in front of the mighty evil forces.

It remains only to say thanks to the developers for such a fascinating story, after which you can also think a little while watching at the end of the credits. The project deserves the highest rating.

The last time Cthulhu called us over ten years ago - Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth was an exemplary horror movie, but he could only find success in the minds of ideological fans of Howard Phillips Lovecraft's work. With all its many advantages, that game lacked the main thing - modernity and gloss, because even by the standards of 2005 it looked very primitive.

The new Cyanide Studios game seems to be destined for a similar fate - except that it is unlikely to receive the same cult worship as the long-term construction of Headfirst Productions. Decently referring to the original source and its adaptations (primarily, board game"Call of Cthulhu"), Call of Cthulhu can easily scare players with its appearance, and lovers of everything terrible - with an extremely primitive performance of some elements.

Horror within

Our protagonist, Detective Edward Pierce, who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder while serving in the First World War, travels to a lost New England village to investigate the murder of a wealthy man's daughter. Naturally, the locals will not be happy with the new guest, and the precarious mental state of the protagonist will manifest itself more than once in the most awkward and unexpected forms.

Arranged Call of Cthulhu almost linearly - chapter by chapter we gradually explore locations, explore evidence and communicate a lot with the locals. Variability is manifested only in those very role-playing elements and the use of skills that can and should be pumped by the hero. Knowledge of medicine, psychology, eloquence, secret knowledge and banal strength - sometimes mastery in some craft opens up unexpected dialogue options or additional solutions, but they have little effect on the overall course of history. Even the ending depends more on the final choice than on the events that took place in the course of the action and the objects studied.

Horror outside

An intriguing detective story about the occult and the Old Gods, unfortunately, is interrupted by primitive stealth, casual gunfights and goofy mysteries. With the latest Cyanide, it seems, they did not bother at all, taking as a model the most banal and dreary puzzles from the quests of the late 90s.

And the further to the finale, the more chaotic and strange it becomes Call of Cthulhu. We will not spoil, but it seems that the last third was done in a terrible emergency, throwing everything that comes to mind into a pile. In this sense, perhaps, the main problem of the game lies - it often gives the impression of not a budget, but a carelessly done work. Even the script, which is incredibly addictive at first, literally begins to feverish before our very eyes with completely senseless and merciless twists and turns.

Irregularities are especially visible Call of Cthulhu by picture. Only models and animations came out frankly weak here, but the environment - how lucky. One room can be gorgeously detailed and filled with small things, and beyond it will be a blue-green cave with no decorations and terrible textures.

True, you notice these nasty things sooner after you leave the game. Call of Chtulhu does a good job of conveying the macabre sticky Lovecraftian horror, immersing you in the uncomfortable atmosphere of a psychological thriller and luring you into yourself. And this is still a little more important than a far from flawless performance.

Uneven, in places causing bewilderment or even irritation, Call of Cthulhu was still able to quite convincingly convey the spirit and essence of the works of Howard F. Lovecraft. Fans of the writer's work and fans of the genre should definitely watch it, but for everyone else it's better not to wake the Great Old Ones.

There are different books, games and movies in the horror genre. Some methodically lay out the insides around the hero, forcing them to experience fear and disgust, others throw corpses and monsters around the corner, trying to cause a sharp fright. But the best works in the genre are always obtained thanks to the atmosphere: oppressive, frightening, drenched in horror. Such masterpieces are remembered for a long time by the reader, the player and the viewer. But one author reigns over all of them, whose works do not just inspire fear: they create in the imagination pictures of an all-encompassing hopelessness, describe ancient gods, ruthless and inexorable. And the only way out in them is madness, and salvation is death. Of course, we are talking about Howard Lovecraft. The new one is another attempt to recreate such an attractive and terrifying atmosphere of his works in the form of a game.

The most significant video game based on the works of Lovecraft was released already in 2005. Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth was based on the events of the story "Shadow over Innsmouth" and offered to go on a crazy adventure in a possessed town where cults and mysticism rule, not common sense. The game successfully combined shooter and stealth, methodically pressed the atmosphere, demanded to constantly fight for your life, severely punishing for miscalculations, and of all the rewards it offered only bits of information and the opportunity to survive. After passing it, you rethink your attitude to the genre and understand what inspired the developers of many subsequent projects in a similar style - the same Penumbra, which stirred up horror fans a couple of years later.

Cyanide Studio, the authors of Of Orcs and Men, Styx and Pro Cycling Manager, have taken a slightly different path. AT new game in Lovecraft's work, the emphasis is on research and investigation. Call of Cthulhu is practically an adventure game. 90% of the game consists of searching for clues, solving simple puzzles and talking. One not very beautiful day, the father of Sarah Hawkins, who mysteriously died along with the whole family in a fire, comes to the detective Edward Pierce. Sarah had a talent for painting, but her work was dark and frightening. And her death does not let go of her father: the circumstances look too strange. Pierce travels to Darkwater Island, where the family lived, to investigate.

Despite its exploratory nature, Call of Cthulhu is mostly linear. Chapters follow one another, and most of the locations very consistently guide the player where they need to be. There are individual levels that allow you to move around the environment more freely, but in general, both progress and the story itself follow a given path. Even the evidence is usually laid out along the main path. In rare cases, examining each stone brings a positive result, let alone getting an extra optional mission and there is no need to speak. Only once in the hospital, in my role as a young and compassionate female doctor, did I manage to try to do at least something that did not belong to Pierce's main investigation.

Edward is consistent and methodical in his work. Behind every plot twist a new clue is hidden, and only old notes and various finds allow us to understand what is happening more deeply. The detective is allowed to improve his skills. Medicine and occult knowledge are pumped over by reading books and finding objects, and other abilities, such as persuading, searching for hidden or strength, are developed through special points that are issued for reaching story marks. Skills make it easier to find objects or determine the composition of medical substances, and in some situations they add special phrases to dialogues: for example, apply knowledge in psychology or intimidate an interlocutor.

Almost half of the game is based on conversations. You can chat here to everyone you meet, up to the watchman with an ax, who is ready to hack the detective on the spot. And in most cases it seems that different variants in the dialogues do not affect the development of events in any way, although the caring inscription in the corner of the screen helpfully reminds of the opposite. That's just the feeling that history changes depending on some decisions, there is simply no. Even though the game has multiple endings, most of them are unlocked after the final decision is made (hello Mass Effect 3). Some side effects are sent to the same heap. For example, Pierce can drink. Or maybe not drink. And the influence of the fact of alcohol consumption on the development of the plot or the psyche of the hero is not obvious.

The psychological component of the game, on which the authors are trying to bet, is generally revealed in different ways. The plot itself looks nice and intriguing. The perception of events changes as the investigation progresses. And only towards the end the whole picture is formed more or less together. But the development of the plot sometimes turns out to be uneven: some colorful characters appear a couple of times, disappearing from view for a long time, and suddenly emerge only towards the end.

CoC also suffers from other problems: from the necessary but absurd shootouts for the plot, a couple of moments with monsters jumping out of the dark (which is not at all expected from a game with such a serious face) and ending with the visual component. Call of Cthulhu looks solid enough, but the quality of the study still varies. Somewhere detailing is clearly not enough, and some places are drawn with enviable awe. And in general, there are questions to the engine: body parts fall through clothes, and sometimes its animations get up to who knows what. But that's not the point of a psychological thriller, is it?

Call of Cthulhu tries to create the right atmosphere and mood as best he can. And up a certain moment everything is working in the right direction. But then it turns out that history is changing, and with it the psyche of Edward Pierce. And here the depth and second wind of the story is no longer enough. And minor flaws and a lack of understanding of how the choice of phrases and actions affect the development of history only exacerbate the effect. The game definitely deserves attention, in large part because adaptations of Lovecraft's works do not appear so often, but the initial bar is so high that reaching it turns out to be almost an impossible task.

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The game definitely deserves attention, in large part because adaptations of Lovecraft's works do not appear so often, but the initial bar is so high that reaching it turns out to be almost an impossible task.