Call of Cthulhu in the test

Lately, a theme in video games has been particularly popular: The fear of uncertainty or to say it a little more clearly: The unique horror of H.P. Lovecraft. In addition, Cthulhu's new appeal has not only used the name of world-renowned history, but is also showing a wealth of expertise in the Lovecraft legend. How much horror is waiting for you in this game for the PS4 you will see in our review.

Join Edward Pierce via Call of Cthulhu

Boston 1924. War veteran Edward Pierce runs a small detective office. Although his business does not particularly annoy him, Edward does not really find peace. Nightmares haunt him and, with the help of alcohol and sleeping pills, he manages to remain silent. One day he gets an interesting case: he should go to the bottom of the death of the artist Sarah Hawkins. More famous for its grotesque images, it's a small island on the Mbadachusetts coast called Darkwater. A fire would have killed the entire Hawkins family. And so begins the story of Call of Cthulhu between the steep cliffs and the dense fog of Darkwater Iceland.

The island is inhabited to a large extent by fishermen. Whaling was the main activity of its inhabitants about 80 years ago, but at present, most people live in poverty. The ban on alcohol is ignored on Darkwater. High unemployment and alcoholism are commonplace. It is all the more surprising that Villa Hawkins and the Riverside Institute, a large hospital, seem very rich. In addition to fishermen and the local police, Edward must also attend a group of alcohol smugglers, hospital staff and a strange cult. In any case, Darkwater is not right.

Lovecraft sends his greetings!

We will not reveal more about the story for the moment. The adventure of ten hours is exactly what it is. If you want to know what's going on, look at yourself. The story is well staged and oscillates between thriller and the well-known horror of Lovecraft. The latter is actually given to most of the story. The horror of Lovecraft is slowly building. Jumping frights and action packed battles have not lost anything here and are rarely seen in Call of Cthulhu. Instead, it is set on a slow buildup of tension and a threatening subliminal atmosphere. What is the reality and what is the illusion is often unclear. Not for the player, nor for the main actor Edward Pierce.

Unfortunately, everything is a little exaggerated towards the end, so that although more tension, action and confusion appear, but the Lovecraft effect decreases significantly. Instead of being an observer and a little cog, Edward is too much at the forefront to talk about the real horror of Lovecraft. The game is therefore organized satisfactorily for both the normal adventure friend and for the Lovecraft fan, but will never completely enjoy one or the other. Of course, there are many references to the myth of Cthulhu and many trophies bear the names of Lovecraft's stories or characters.

The path is the goal

Of course, Call of Cthulhu is not a simple walk simulator. You have some freedom of choice in the story. You do not need to be afraid of missing something big because the decisions are mainly based on how you are going to get there, not on the fact that you are actually getting there. Above all, the skills you can improve during the game are crucial. These are: eloquence, psychology, investigation, strength, discovery, medical science and occultism. If you want to know more about skills, check out our guide. Depending on the skills in which you are good, you can choose a different path.

For example, you can enter a warehouse in different ways. If you speak, you can convince the porter to leave you on the ground. Are you good at investigating, then it is possible for you to crack the door lock. Fortunately, there is always a way forward without being particularly good at one skill. Even in conversations, some answer options are unlocked if you have pbaded exams in advance and discovered something through your skills. This can sometimes be very useful. In the end, it does not make much difference if you take it one way or the other. Sometimes you make the decision to make your way to a particular trophy, but you end the game one way or the other.

Much to discover

You accompany Edward through several chapters in which you can usually look around freely. The chapters all have a good length and length, so it is interesting to explore them and there is much to discover. So, you will always find books or artifacts and also one or the other puzzles, stealth pbadages and battles await you. In addition, past scenes can be reconstructed to find out what happened. It never really gets boring. The chapters are self-contained, so you can not do a discovery tour in hindsight.

Unfortunately, there is no New Game Plus, where you keep your skill points and collected items, or a chapter selection. The game is played with 10 hours relatively quickly and the knowledge of the first game runs even faster, but the motivation remains quite low, if you really want to look again in one chapter or another to get another trophy or a look. what could it look like another way. This leaves a very bland aftertaste and hope that it will be followed by an update.

horror of technology

In a good adventure, technology and graphics do not have to be perfect. A little something you can expect but already. Unfortunately, Call of Cthulhu can not offer much here. Let's start with the characters, which have an unintentionally funny and terrifying appearance due to their weird movement pattern, via the input shift in the menu, to slightly flicker the edges. The loading times of the chapters are so long that you can prepare a cup of coffee and stroll through the quiet village. But then, during the chapter, everything happens without loading time, which is very pleasant. Control is usually quite fluid and can not be faulted. However, the design of the landscape and surroundings is a great compliment. Here has been invested correctly and you can see it too. The environment is a feast for the eyes and contributes a lot to the good atmosphere.