Lovecraft Zone: Upcoming Lovecraftian Games: Call of Cthulhu

Call of Cthulhu is an RPG-investigation game adapted from Chaosium’s seminal pen and paper roleplaying game. Set within the universe of Lovecraft’s “The Call of Cthulhu” novel, the titular game sets out to deliver a dark and foreboding ambience, filled with puzzles and insanity warping foes. The game is being developed by Cyanide Studios (creators of Styx Shards of Darkness) and published by Focus Home Interactive (publishers of Vampyr).

Set in 1924, on Darkwater Island, off the coast of Boston. Call of Cthulhu promises to fully embrace the Cthulhu Mythos as it was created by Lovecraft. Mysterious religious orders, abhorrent beasts, bizarre scientific experiments and whispers in the dark are all teased at. The game drips atmosphere, Darkwater Island is as bleak and unwelcoming as it is filled with secrets and intrigue. Formerly the site of a whaling industry boom, Darkwater is a decaying shell of its former self. Bilious old sailors and reclusive, yet wealthy and powerful families are all that remain. The island itself is home to rotting and abandoned warehouses left behind by the whalers, illicit speakeasies filled with goggle-eyed natives, unspeakably terrifying asylums, and of course the Hawkins family mansion.

You are Edward Pierce, a veteran of the Great War turned Private Investigator. Hired to investigate a fire that caused the unfortunate demise of artist Sarah Hawkins, you will travel to the Hawkins mansion on Darkwater Island to uncover the truth. The islands' inhabitants are not best pleased by your presence, and local law enforcement is less than helpful. This case goes deeper than you were initially lead to believe. Sinister goings on are afoot on Darkwater.

The game primarily draws influence from “At the Mountains of Madness”, “The Shadow Over Innsmouth”, and of course “The Call of Cthulhu”. Lead level designer Romain Wiart has also cited Amnesia, SOMA, Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth and Alone in the Dark as being of significant inspiration to the game.
Cyanide’s Call of Cthulhu is the official adaptation of the eponymous Chaosium pen and paper roleplaying game, which was designed by Sandy Peterson and originally appeared in 1981, much of the world as described there has bled into their work. Enlisting the writing talents of Mark Morrison, most famous for his work producing scenarios for the aforementioned Chaosium Call of Cthulhu game to write the story for the game only further cements that this really is the Call of Cthulhu game.

Gameplay is investigation and stealth based primarily. Combat is an option, but even though Edward is a veteran he is described as “not being a fighter”, even worse is the possibility to find only a single gun in the entire game, with very limited bullets that are only capable of hurting human foes, meaning you shouldn’t expect to be run and gunning this one.
Sneaking past and hiding from enemies before they can slaughter you, or destroy your fragile human mind is definitely the order of the day. I’m sure the Alien Isolation comparisons will be coming thick and fast.

Despite their inhospitable nature, you’ll be able to build relationships with the residents of the island and use this as leverage to persuade them to part with more information to use in your investigations. Just remember that not every person on an island filled with loathsome horrors is going to be credible and trustworthy enough to believe everything they say.

Cyanide have been working hard to create a real feeling of madness in their sanity system, and let’s face it, that’s what we all want from our Lovecraftian horror. One of their biggest challenges was that they did not want the system to be predictable, and thus allow a player to anticipate and eventually overcome the effects. Instead, they wanted the insanity felt by Edward to feel real, unpredictable and become a real obstacle to the player.
Sanity can be affected by many things, coming across a horrifying foe is an obvious one, but in Call of Cthulhu even finding too many clues and possessing too much knowledge, as a result, can impact your mental state.

There’s also the interesting introduction of a phobia system. If you spend too long exposed to fear in certain situations Edward can and will become phobic. Claustrophobia is the last thing you need to develop while hiding from eldritch nastiness. Phobias can cause you to behave irrationally, such as making noises while hiding and alerting the bad guys to your location.
Your rapidly deteriorating mind is also going to hinder your ability to solve mysteries and investigate. Hallucinations and imagined clues are very real in the realm of the mad. The game won’t tell you when you’re wrong and will happily let you wander down the wrong track simply because you thought you saw something that never even existed.

“The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.”
- H.P. Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu"

Players are encouraged to find their own way through puzzles, and there will be multiple ways to achieve your goals. A townsperson may be persuaded to let you into a restricted area, but you’ll also be free to just steal the key and bypass the unpleasant social interaction. Choices will matter in Call of Cthulhu, and the decisions you make as you work your way through the story will ultimately decide the outcome.

As you get closer to uncovering the truth things are going to get nasty. The further you progress the more abhorrent creatures and happenings will come out of the woodwork and holding on to your precious sanity will become a struggle. Keeping your wits about you is the only way you’ll make it through this one.