I went into Call of Cthulhu blind, not knowing anything except that it's somehow connected to the Cthulhu mythos. Not only was it another period piece supernatural detective story like yesterday's game, Kona, but it also stars a private investigator who was a former veteran. This time, though, it takes place in 1924 and our protagonist is a veteran of the first World War. You play Edward Pierce, a down-on-his-luck P.I. who is struggling with insomnia, alcoholism and PTSD from his service in the war.
The game opens with Pierce lying in an underground cavern, panicking as he realizes he's soaked in the blood and guts of mutilated marine animals. He escapes, only to witness faceless cult members attacking a faceless intruder on their ceremony. Then they come for him...
He awakens on the couch of his office. Just a nightmare. A client comes to his door, the father of a famous painter, Sarah Hawkins. He wants Pierce to investigate the mysterious death of his daughter and her husband and son. Supposedly, they all burned to death in a house fire, but the police blamed it on Sarah. They said she went mad and killed them all. Her father doesn't believe it and asks Pierce to uncover the truth.
Pierce travels to Sarah's former home, an island off the coast of Boston called Darkwater, which has been mostly forgotten by the mainland. It's home to a small town of fishermen, as well as the wealthy Sarah Hawkins and her family. While trying to investigate Sarah's old warehouse, Pierce runs into the local muscle, a woman named Cat. She doesn't take kindly to him snooping on her territory.
Did I mention this game has dialogue choices? Depending on how you handle situations (and in what direction you level your character's stats), you can change the course of action in the game.
In this instance, I got my ass kicked by Cat. But, as you may remember from my former posts, I like to play the altruist in my games. I got the option to sneak into the warehouse again, but I was also given a chance to talk with Cat directly instead, and I was polite and honest enough with her that she decided to help me out instead of kicking my ass again. She actually escorted me to the warehouse this time!
In the warehouse, you switch into detective mode, which allows you to scan for clues and piece together the crime scene. Kind of like the visions in Kona, except instead of glowing, moving silhouettes in a dark space, they're transparent, unmoving silhouettes in a frosty space.
The local police burst in and kick Pierce out, but through dialogue choices, I got them to not only give me more valuable information, but also give me a lift to the decrepit Hawkins mansion on the island. Which did NOT burn down. Hmm...
Exploring the mansion, Pierce eventually finds an underground passage and ends up falling into a cavern full of mutilated marine animals... the same one from the nightmare at the beginning of the game! Panicking, Pierce attempts to escape, only to experience the same cult scenario play out similar to his nightmare earlier. While running for his life, he's knocked unconscious by falling debris.
From this point, the line between fantasy and reality starts blending. Pierce wakes in an insane asylum, breaks out, and then has to confront the indescribable horrors that he's witnessed. Finding allies to his experiences is difficult though, as most end up insane or dead. Or some people he witnessed being murdered will instead show up healthy with no memory of being harmed. Edward Pierce finds his grip on reality slipping and he needs to solve the case quick, before he falls into complete madness...
There's a lot of lore throughout the story, and despite my lengthy explanation of the plot, there are tons of details that were omitted, to avoid spoilers. Plus, your choices can lead to slightly different outcomes. There are actually four different endings to this game, depending on interactions and how intact Pierce's sanity is by the end.
Like a lot of horror games right now, Call of Cthulhu is currently 80% off on Steam, so take advantage of the seasonal deals if you like this kind of thing. Apparently, this game is the latest original story in a (non-related) series of "Call of Cthulhu" video games, which are independently licensed works based on an old tabletop RPG of the same name, which itself is loosely based on the H.P. Lovecraft short, "The Call of Cthulhu." So my initial impression, that it's "somehow connected to the Cthulhu mythos," is a pretty good summary of this game.
