Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth

Box art:



Screenshots:



Trailers: 1 2

Has anybody played this? I found a torrent of it on isohunt and decided to give it a try. It's currently downloading. If it's really good, I'll purchase it when it's released over here. But I've heard pretty good things about this game. Why this is on a torrent before it's released for PC(to be released on the 27th of March), I don't know.

If the screenshots are any indication of what the game's like, it cannot let me down.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

It's on Xbox too.

It was one of my most anticipated Xbox games THREE YEARS AGO. It took fucking FOR-EVER to come out. I half-expected to see this alongside Duke Nukem Forever.

I hear it's decent, so I'm waiting for a sub-$20 price point before I pick it up. The wait made me loose any anticipation I may have had for it.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Dont wait, i have played all horror games on evry console and this game is simply remarkable in its own way.

A H.P lovecraft work cannot be converted this good by any other(let it be films or games).

This game DID soooo much justice.
One of fav. games.

XBox version had its share of bugs but i thin PC version would be tweaked.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I haven't read the books or seen the films but yeah, it's sounding really promising.

At the moment, it's stuck on 64%. I hope this game isn't going to be heavy on my computer, as my computer's already a year old and I haven't upgraded it in the slightest. Can't seem to find any PC requirements on this game, but I'll check it out regardless. I'm always up for a good horror game.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

I'm looking forward to this one.
It's requirements shouldn't be that high at all (given the project's age and the impression we get from the screenshots) and I heard the experience is pretty immersive due to the hud-less interface and good sound effects. On top of that it's based on Lovecraft's work, what more could a horror fan ask for? (Eternal Darkness rocked. )

I was speaking idiomatically.

This game is actually quite nice. Take Phoenix Wright, Silent Hill, shove it in the 1920's and you have this. I wasn't too impressed when it froze my computer twice, but I'm able to play it on 640x jsut fine. That is, after I turned up the brightness to 10 seeing as how I kept walking into walls.

I'm still in two minds whether or not to bother playing and completing this game, but it definitely is still holding some interest with me.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I played it and beat it on Xbox. The game was pretty fun I enjoyed the story even if I never read HP Lovecraft.

They need more games where you control a detective.

FELIPE NO

Is this another buggy Bethesda release? I'll never buy another game from them again after picking up ES:IV...

Most amazing jew boots

this game has the same name as one of mettalica's songs if not wrong

Jam it back in, in the dark.

The only thing is that the book was around before the song. And while I love both the book and the song, I can't say that I liked this game as much. While the graphics, voice over, and really everything is spot on, the gameplay just isn't all that fun. If you want a game that's hard and extremely linear (death rate is equal to that of a Tom Clancey game), then this one is for you. If you were hoping to live a day in the life of the book, well that won't be happening here.

Don't get me wrong, the game's good, but if it wasn't based on what it is, no one would probably notice it. If you want more details you can find them at GameSpot and other review sites.

(Everything here is based on the X-box version)

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by speculative

Is this another buggy Bethesda release? I'll never buy another game from them again after picking up ES:IV...

I didnt notice any bugs. Atleast on the xbox version.

How ya doing, buddy?

Xbox version was glitch heavy,gamers complianed alot and i also did face two or three.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Sexninja

Xbox version was glitch heavy,gamers complianed alot and i also did face two or three.

Oh ok. If you say it then it must be true.

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by insertnamehere

this game has the same name as one of mettalica's songs if not wrong

Sure, since both are based on Lovecraft's story. "The Thing That Should Not Be" is about Cthulhu as well.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

The PC version performs fine. No glitches at all so far (I'm up the the attack of the fishermen). Great graphics, great sounds, great atmosphere, everything's smooth.

FELIPE NO

My enthusiasm is fading ... the goodamn program crashes when switching tasks - no quick replies on ICQ or anything like that possible - and Slayer X didn't lie about the insane difficulty level. Even as a seasoned game I still have not beaten the very 1st actual action sequence (the hotel escape).

But apart from the task switching issue, it runs very stable.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

I get to play it tommorow over at a friend's place.
Can't wait. I've heard so many good things! >W<

How ya doing, buddy?

It's a pretty good game if you are a Lovecraft fan (I am). There are only 2 things I dislike in it, one is that alt+tab crashes the game, and the other is the sanity control thing. If you take hits or end up in mindblowing situations, you will lose sanity which materializes in a way of screwing with the graphics (blurred and colorless sight, visions), sound and controls. Which is, in theory, very good, but after getting killed or mistiming a jump for the tenth time because of that, it gets annoying.
I haven't noticed too many great bugs, sometimes I get stuck on the side of a narrow platform if I jump on it from a wierd angle and its nigh-impossible to get off - forcing me to load a save. But that usually happens if I try too hard to enter a place I'm not supposed to. So no big deal.

The graphics are good and it runs perfectly smooth with very minor frame loss on crowded parts on my Radeon 9600pro (128mb) and AMD64 3200+ with 1gb ram. The minor frame drop is probably because I tend to run over 40 applications at the same time so no big deal.

You need to play this game in the dark though. Seriously. Not because of darkness settings but because the game does so well at freaking you out.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

If I don't remember well, company made the game and closed. I've read several comments and all them conclude that quality gives much to desire, and story is not well developed. Things like this are the reasons why people don't buy games (starting eDonkey...) :P

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I just started playing through this game the other day. I'm liking the atmosphere and spookiness. However, I am loathing the shooter portions. The AI is terrible and it completely erodes the immersion that they were aiming for.

Still, the Attack of the Fishmen sequence was thrilling. Haven't felt that tense in a game in a long time.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Yes, that part of the game is great; also, visions and terror suffered ( I mean the directX effects :P) by the character are good points in game too

I was speaking idiomatically.

Great at some parts, fails in others due to the extreme linearity. Seriously, I haven't seen such a linear experience in a long, long time. Attack of the fishmen was severly ruined for me by how much you had to stick to the "script".
Plus, games without quicksave = no good.

Still, it IS the best thing Lovecraft out there.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Speaking of linear and annoying, I can't get past the opening sequence of the Marsh Refinery.

J. Edgar Hoover gave me a pistol and I run from agent to agent, making sure to run when the fishman on the machine gun is being distracted. Still, every single time I die at the final agent before I can make it out of the gun's reach. What makes this doubly annoying is that you can't skip the opening cutscene that takes a few minutes to play out. So every attempt wastes time.

If I didn't like the atmosphere of the game, I wouldn't even bother.

Any tips?

FELIPE NO

There's a hole behind one of the agents you have to crawl into and around all the crates, it should be on the left side when approaching the machinegun.

Reviewed this a while ago in my chocojournal, might as well re-post it here:

Quote:

Developed by Bethesda Softworks, CoD: Dark Corners of the Earth for Xbox and the PC is a first person survival horror based on the horror universe of H.P. Lovecraft. In Dark Corners, the player plays Private Investigator Jack Walters, who is called to negotiate with the leader of a bizarre cult located outside of Boston. 6 years later, Jack suffers from amnesia, and the entire six years prior to the current point in time (1922) is unknown to him. Jack is then called to investigate the disappearance of a general store manager in the isolated community of Innsmouth.

What DCotE does right is atmosphere. Tons of it. The streets of Innsmouth are decaying from the centuries of exposure to seawater, and the darkness that permeates throughout its streets creates a fitting setting to complement the hostility of its inhabitants. The visuals center mostly around Innsmouth, and actually become pretty monotonous. It isn't until the phenomenally designed Gold Refinery and underwater city (note to fans: Not R'lyeh) that the art direction and level design truly blast off.

Lovecraft's bestiary is also faithfully recreated. The Shoggoth truly fits the bill as an indescribable horror, and the Deep Ones never fail to intimidate. The game's lineup also features some more heavy hitters that I'd rather not spoil.

The story borrows heavily from famous short stories The Shadow Out of Time and Shadow Over Innsmouth. Situations in the game are also lifted from the Call of Cthulhu board game "Escape From Innsmouth." The end result being a game that feels more like an homage to Lovecraft games than an actual original game based in Lovecraft's works. This narrow focus in regards to the game's storytelling makes it incredibly linear. When things start to go down, the player is confronted with a chase scene lifted almost directly from Shadow Over Innsmouth. However, this scene requires a machine-like motion in which the player must close doors, slide bolts, and move dressers in order to keep Innsmouth's tainted from giving you a gaping new axe hole. The end result is a lot of reloading as the player dies from being unaware of the required process, or executing it imperfectly (the lack of a HUD means that manipulating bolts independently of the doors can sometimes be difficult, particularly for Xbox players). This cycle repeats itself throughout the game, and while no sequence is quite as demanding as the chase through Innsmouth's rooftops, there is always one certain way to do things that involve stealth or combat, and the game is usually balanced towards accomplishing tasks the stealthy way until the late game.

The game's hyped insanity feature aims to please. When confronted with horrifying, or disgusting imagery, Walters begins to suffer from mental afflictions, among which include blurred vision, temporary deafness, and disembodied voices. It's a great way to draw the player into the game, and a massive insanity failure will result in Jack killing himself either with the weapon on hand, or with his bare hands. There are several points, however, during combat where psychological effects act as a detriment to one's ability to fight. Reloading a previous save also seems to cause a finicky response to sanity effects, where they may not activate altogether.

Combat can be exciting at times, but for the most part is underwhelming. Since the player has no HUD, he also has no aiming reticule. Aiming accurately requires shouldering a weapon and aiming down its iron sights. Aiming for too long, however causes Jack's arms to tire and sway, reducing accuracy. The game claims that there's a best weapon for every situation, but to be quite honest, the player needs to be able to get off headshots with the revolver, because otherwise he'll probably be facing the loading screen quite often. Corpses also fade away far too fast for the player to admire the carnage in any appreciable way. The weapons are period-faithful, among which include a Springfield rifle and Tommy Gun. However, the player loses these weapons quite often throughout the game, and having to get them back is annoyingly repetitive.

As mentioned before, there is no HUD. The player gauges how many bullets he has left by the amount of shots he's fired, and health by the damage indicated on the screen. Blood splatters indicate minor damage, while serious blood loss causes time to slow down and the colors to bleed away to black and white. Healing requires application of bandages, splints, and such through the inventory screen, but pressing the H button circumvents that process and applies the necessary medicines to the proper places. However, the player has a limited amount of medical supplies which he must bear in mind, though medkits are abundant throughout the levels.

Is DCotE scary? It certainly has its share of frights, but the tension is more often than not artificially expanded by the annoying save system, which leads to the vast majority of reload-related frustrations. Fans of Lovecraft with some FPS skills will want to pick this up, but if you've never read Lovecraftian works and don't like the idea of being forced to do one certain thing at a time throughout the entire experience, then this isn't a game for you.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?