Howard Phillips Lovecraft left behind a heritage in the form of a pantheon of cosmic deities, few people did not hear about this genius of horror, which became Edgar Allan in the 20th century, at least many were probably heard by Kthulhu. Born in Providence, Rhizhits Island, in a prosperous family, Lovecraft did not even think to earn a living with pen and paper, but as they often say in such cases, family circumstances (in our case, unsuccessful business investment) forced to do otherwise.
It seemed bad to earn a living for your favorite business? But Lovecraft considered this not worthy of a real gentleman, but you have to live on something? Unfortunately, without having a business grip, Lovecraft asked for real pennies for his labors and practically lived on the verge of poverty, eating cheap canned goods.
Yes, and disputes about Lovecraft’s writer’s talent still do not subside, but I’m not a writer and not from the worshiping Ktulhu sect (such sects to my surprise, really exist and flourish) and “correctly” read books, so to find a secret cipher in them, but all this does not prevent me from enjoying reading.
But as often happens, only after the death of the writer, his work was appreciated to dignity and to this day in his works are inspired by the most diverse people.
And of course, the game industry could not bypass his person and in 2005 a beautiful "Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth", which I decided to re -check in anticipation "Call of Cthulhu: The Official Video Game", which promises to go out at the end of this calendar year.
As a result, I arranged a month for Lovecraft, starting with the above "Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth", From the now deceased studio "Headfirst Productions". Previously, to successfully play the works of Lovecraft, only the French were succeeded in "Infogrames" With their series "Alone in the Dark" and "Shadow of the Comet".
"Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth" -long -building, announced back in 1999 and has passed a long way to release, replacing one publisher along the path of one, repeatedly transferring the release date and at the same time picking up typical symptoms of this kind of projects.
A little about gameplay
"Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth" -This is Survival Horror, with stealth explosion and adventure elements. With an interesting system of first -aid kits, when, depending on the type of injury you received, you impose a seam, tire, bandages, while everything does not happen at an instant and enemy NPCs will not kindly wait on the sidelines, while you are trying to divert the resulting wound, all this forces you to find a secluded place and only then start a session of traditional medicine.
It is also worth mentioning that, unlike our common acquaintance Daniel, from no less beautiful "Amnesia: The Dark Descent", Detective Jack Walters really will go crazy, and if weapons are also in his hands, he will not forget to put his hands on himself. He is an impressionable person and spent years in the hospital did not pass for him without a trace, and sometimes when you can very tightly treat yourself with opium, exclusively for medical purposes.
All these mental problems are expressed in the game through various graphic and sound effects: the image becomes blurry and sways on the top or forward (and Jack is afraid of heights and it is not important to look at the bottomless abyss or go down the stairs); Jack begins to hear voices, if the whole thing is launched, then he begins a panic and in the end we can be in our native fool.
Meet -Dagon, one of the bosses, aka Mini Ktulhu. Jack is able to stand up for himself, still kill Dagon himself, such Daniel and Blake Langerman did not dream! Ktulhu himself is not in the game, for he is sleeping, and still Wanshot would have been waiting for you at the first meeting
There is no HUD interface https://redkingscasino.co.uk/mobile-app/ in the game, no crossbar of the sight, aiming through the fly and the sight of your Colt and consider how many shots have made, how many cartridges are left in the clip, but reloading the clip you do not lose the remaining cartridges, they remain in place. Regarding the weapon itself, you can say a little this standard set, because this is not the main thing here: a crowbar, a knife, a gun, a revolter, a double -barreled man in the role of a shotgun, a rifle, an automatic machine and weapons of the ancients, the last Gauss gun is essentially the last.
Upon receipt of a wound, you decide when to treat Jack, if you do not treat the wound in time, then the hero may die from bleeding. The hero’s legs break like canes, which will slow down your character and have to apply the tire.
A little about the plot
The game starts with a small spoiler, after which one rainy autumn evening of 1915, the favorite of the local Boston press, Detective Jack Walters received a call to the crime scene, the flair told him that it was not a rally of colleagues who decided to let the star from heaven to earth, unfortunately he did not lead him out, that evening would happen irreparable. On the spot it becomes known that the local sect crossed the permissible line, civilians heard shots and called the cops. On the spot, the officer tells us about Victor, allegedly he is the head of the local sect calling himself “Brotherhood Yit”, he demands a meeting with us, but he will not come out to talk with him … The crazy bullet will do his bad thing. But this is not so important, because what he saw in the basement will break Jack and he will spend the next 6 years in the psychiatric clinic of Arkham.
Welcome to Innsmouth, city resort
After 6 years, the mind will suddenly return to the attic to Jack and then we will learn about our new hobby for everything occult, besides, we have an old kind amnesia and now we have to find out what happened in the past. But among other things, we were fired from the police, now we are earned by a private detective and reluctantly take our first and last business about the missing Brian Berneme, going to look for him in the Innsmouth, a bad port town, with a bad reputation, where history will begin.
The first third of the game, you have no weapon, which is a little strange in truth, given that our main character is a private detective, did he really go to business without his own Kolta? But despite this, the first third of the game is the best when you are alone in the town where everyone is eager to lift you to the gallows, for the glory of Dagon. You have to hide in the shade like Garrett from a series of games "Thief", But artificial intelligence here is stupid, it often turns out to be stupidly running between the backs of enemies, so to the level "Thief" Here is far away. As a shooter, the game is unlikely to surprise anyone, despite realism promised by the developers, which is a little strange given that there is no physics in the game, and considering that a year earlier came out “Doom 3”, “Half-Life 2”, “Far Cry” There is nothing to catch here in this sense. And so it turns out that in our hands we have a stealth explosion with obsolete gameplay and graphics, but the atmosphere … The atmosphere runs the ball here, so few people succeeded in conveying the atmosphere of Lovecraft’s works, thanks to it, you are sorry for all the sins. There is even a moral choice in the game, but I’m exaggerating, but in the underwater city of Y’ha-Nantlei you will definitely meet with one of the victims of the order that the experiments were conducted, after a small dialogue, he will ask you to kill him and decide here, save the poor fellow or stay on the sidelines.
Yes, of course, the game was not without flaws, first of all it is famous for her bugs, even today it flies out with enviable regularity if you only think about turning the window. And the bug with lights at the devil’s reef even became legendary, it was because of him 11 years ago that I threw the game and finished it off only two years later, so he knocked me out (though I often delete the game when she starts to enrage, which I often regret after). Yes, all this can ruin the impression and in the past it was so, but fortunately today all this can be rolled out without any problems, the community has tried.
And so in the end "Headfirst Productions" It turned out the best game on the works of Howard Lovecraft and one of the best Survival horror. Unfortunately, the developers encountered financial difficulties and later announced bankruptcy. And the game could have already two sequels “Call of Cthulhu: Destiny’s End”, “Call of Cthulhu: Tainted Legacy”, The first even has a trailer:
Well, I will continue my month Lovecraft, controversial "Necronomicon: The Dawning of Darkness", "Frictional Games" I’ll leave it for sweets.