Cthulhu Lurks In Dark Gaming Corners, Heeds Call

Thanks to C+VG for its interview with Chris Gray of Headfirst Productions regarding PC/Xbox first-person action title Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth, as "based on the Call of Cthulhu tabletop RPG and works of author H.P Lovecraft." Gray notes of the long-in-development title: "we've got a completely new engine... [featuring] vertex and pixel shaders", and elaborates: "It wouldn't be a Lovecraft game without some big monsters; these include a Shoggoth, Father Dagon, Mother Hydra, Flying Polyps and a few other surprises." Elsewhere, Yog-Sothoth points out the new publishing of the 6th Edition of Chaosium's Call Of Cthulhu tabletop RPG rules, as originally penned by Quake level designer Sandy Petersen.

Comments

Random Thoughts

[vjmurphy]

The video game is taking too long, and seems to promise more than it can deliver (I'm betting). I enjoyed some of the old licensed Call of Cthulhu adventures from years ago, though: Prisoner of Ice, I think, and Shadow of the Comet?

For those looking for Cthulhu-like games now, I'd suggest Undying, an older FPS with a lot of great atmosphere.

The RPG has always been a favorite of mine, though I haven't played it in forever. The character creation and mechanics are superior to the D20 system, I think. Plus, if you have a copy of Superworld (uses a similar system) you can try pitting superheroes against the eldritch horrors of the Great Old Ones. Nothing beats pitting Robin, the Boy Wonder against a shoggoth.

I also liked the Delta Green expansion for Call of Cthulhu: a very nice modern setting that let's you more logically get disparate characters together for an adventure.

Re:Random Thoughts

[mwheeler01]

Also for those with a gamecube I'd highly recomend Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem which is clearly heavily influenced by Lovecraftian fiction. The more the characters are exposed to the supernatural in game the more the game messes with the character and the player. Blood would run down the walls, screams would be heard in the night and limbs would fall off only to reappear. Also the game might pretend to turn down the volume on the TV among other things. Play it with Dolby surround sound in a dark room and you'll find yourself freaking out.

Popularity of this Game?

[routerwhore]

I remember reading the Lovecraft stories as a youngster and even procurring the Necronomicon itself (you had to be 18 to buy it) and the mystery and fantasy that it provided for me. I was one of just a handful of kids that knew anything about the obscure writings at the time (and we were all rejects). Not that I'm exactly on the cutting edge of the next generation, but I wonder how many have heard of or read Lovecraft. It isn't like a major movie has been made recently to clue them all in. Should be interesting...

Come again?

[ex_ottoyuhr]

"[The game's features include a d]iverse array of levels from quaint towns to alien locations, including Deep One City". I _hope_ they mean R'leyh and just got the name horribly wrong, or else that they mean that city that the German submarine stumbled across... (Never mind how one is supposed to be doing much of anything on the bottom of the Atlantic with 1920s technology.)

If the fish-things are supposed to be Deep Ones, they have the skin coloration all wrong -- "their predominant colour was a greyish-green, though they had white bellies," to quote the Lovecraft Online Archive linked to via their website. Not diarrhea-brown. Besides, they're only Deep Ones. Mi-go or Elder Things or Nightgaunts are _infinetely_ more interesting...

Why do I get the impression that the designers just wanted an excuse to clone _Resident Evil_, only snobbishly? It's not a very impressive-looking game, if one can judge from its promotional materials...