Call of Cthulhu is a downloadable RPG game based on the works of an early 20th-century American writer H.P. Lovecraft. Though under-appreciated during his lifetime, H.P. Lovecraft’s lore continues to inspire countless creatives from literature to digital media the world over. Combining an eerie and foreboding mood with a curiously intellectual and introspective approach to the bizarre and unknown, H.P. Lovecraft’s works force audiences to interrogate the world around them in a new and novel way.
How to Download Call of Cthulhu
Call of Cthulhu can be downloaded from Steam. To start, click on the Download button at the end of the review. If you like Chtulhu Mythos inspired RPG games, one that you should definitely get your hands on is Darkest Dungeon.
The Game Review
This is because they are presented in a style that is both scientific and metaphysical. Lovecraft’s work has the aura of scientific examination and inquiry all while told with a deep undercurrent of superstition, mystery, and some sense of doom.
Naturally this makes for the perfect fodder for video games and Call of Cthulhu, taking its name from one of Lovecraft’s most iconic characters, not only appreciates its provenance but pays homage to its creator in ways that are in keeping with the established mythos as well as introducing its own flair that seems born out of the mind of the creator himself.
Developed by Cyanide and published by Focus Home Interactive, Call of Cthulhu is a role-playing, survival-horror hybrid of a game that borrows heavily from each genre for an experience that is not only unique but masterfully executed.
Often when games of this nature add in other elements like role-playing game mechanics and the like they can tend to fall flat on their face (for the perfect example, see Capcom’s rolling back of the action-movie themes of the Resident Evil series in favor of a return-to-its-roots game in the seventh installment). Call of Cthulhu not only maintains its aura of mystery, suspense, and horror but integrates it into the game in a way that is not heavy-handed.
In terms of plot, Call of Cthulhu, again, borrows some elements from the 1920s and 1930s noir literature and film in the casting of the player as a detective in Boston in 1929.
Languishing without any cases to investigate, Edward Pierce gets drawn into a conspiracy of dark magic and secret ritual when he begins to investigate the mysterious deaths of the Hawkins family.
Prior to being engulfed in flames, the crazed mother of the family left behind a drawing that leads our hero on a quest that revolves around the resurrection of Cthulhu also known as the Great Old One.
As for how this plays out in the game the style the devs chose is not only appropriate but helps that player appreciate the deep narrative on offer here.
Puzzle solving, stealth, and action elements all combine in what could almost be called a throwback to classic Silent Hill or even Resident Evil titles. A lot of the challenge in the game is the result of a combination of these factors but also determined by how the player responds to the game as it develops.
Never one to embrace overt graphic horror, Lovecraftian tales often work on multiple levels to evince different types of reactions depending on what is happening in the plot. Call of Cthulhu is the same in this regard and feels as if it were developed by the famed author himself.
