Call of Cthulhu

I have to confess, I am a bit of a graphics snob and lately I have been more inclined to buy AAA or high profile games because they tend to mean high production values and nice graphics. I also have to confess that I will sometimes start a game and if it looks bad graphically I will give it less than 5 minutes before I will probably close it and never touch it again.
Right away I noticed the graphics look more like it came out a decade before it actually came out and the first character I met looked very scuffed. His animations were awkward and somewhat odd and like all characters his mouth partially disintegrated in the corners when he talked, something I had to ignore during all dialogue parts as it was very distracting for me.
Yet I kept playing.
Despite the low quality graphics these guys still manage to create a distinctively immersive gloomy ambience and environment you would expect from this genre and that is an important quality for me.
The voice acting is (mostly) great and despite the poor quality graphics and animations the story was immediately engrossing and I found myself wanting to keep playing to find out what was going to happen next. I even exhausted all dialogue options when talking to characters, which is rare for me.
The characters are mostly well done with meaningful dialogue that appears to change how the story will end for you, depending on your choices of course. Though in fairness I can't really say how meaningful each choice is, as I only finished it once and I have no intention of playing it all again for different endings.
Of course this is a slow paced detective meets Lovecraftian horror type story, so don't expect any fast paced combat or takedowns etc. However if you like this genre and can look past the bad graphics and animations I do think this game is mostly an enjoyable experience. There were a couple of annoying little puzzle sections and some deaths that were just time wasting as you really cannot avoid them until you trial and error your escape path or what you need to do next. But I can forgive minor irritations as the majority of the experience is positive.
Overall I am glad I gave this game a try and while not the best game I have ever played, it was a pleasant surprise overall and made me consider that I probably have many gems in my library that I should give another chance.

Call of Cthulhu is definitely not a game for graphics junkies. The graphics are old, the animations and characters are wooden, 4k resolution only works under a certain condition and then I constantly had a bug where mouse clicks no longer worked.
Call of Cthulhu is more of a game for people who value detective work, investigation, puzzles, conversations and decisions, with horror elements. Nevertheless, there are also a few sneaking passages, escapes and a shooting scene, but they are all kept simple and rudimentary. This is probably primarily intended to provide variety. The story is good with a few twists, but starts slowly. The atmosphere and soundtrack are atmospheric. And elements of the Cthulhu Mythos have been well implemented, including the madness and panic. Even if I would have liked a little more presence of Cthulhu and all the creatures of the Mythos.
Call of Cthulhu is a game I would recommend but it has its downsides and it's not for everyone.

Starts well, with a good premise and mood, but from around halfway the story and dialogues start getting weaker and weaker. No real gameplay, as it's just a slighly interactive story. Choices presented during the game aren't real either as they amount to no tangible change. All in all I still recommend it for those that like narrative driven games. It's almost 10 hours of decent entertainment based on Lovecraft's legacy. 6/10

you know the game is good when it constantly crashes, has an alcoholic white guy trying to solve a case and is filled with eldritch horrors

Story: 9/10
Atmosphere: 10/10
Gameplay: 7/10
Lovecraft Authenticity: 9/10
Overall: 9/10
I dont care what anyone says, the game is great and despite some flaws and clunky animations this game stays true to Lovecraft's spirit and cosmic horror
(don't know about bugs/crashing issues, haven't encountered any)

Recommended for: If you're a fan of Lovecraftian stories and first-person horror adventures then Call of Cthulhu might be something to try out. The game doesn't excel at anything but is certainly not bad. The story is decent with some interesting characters and nice voice acting.
Gameplay is somewhat of a mixed bag. The majority involves talking to people and just looking at items. There are only a couple of puzzles in the game and very little brainpower is needed to finish it. There are some action moments mostly requiring stealth which feels a bit half-baked.
There is also an RPG element where you can allocate skill points to certain abilities. Depending on your build you can get a different perspective on the story but the main storyline remains mostly the same. It can influence the game's ending as there are multiple endings depending on your choices.
My experience: As a Lovecraft fan myself, I had an overall nice time with Call of Cthulhu. But I have to admit the game is average on most levels and I think it had much more potential. One problem I had is that the story felt very generic. It's like they processed the Lovecraft books through an AI and just prompted, "Write me a Lovecraft story." You get a story that ticks all the boxes for a Lovecraft story but is missing the essence of what makes those stories so great. For me, it made the story incredibly predictable and I absolutely felt no tension or surprise during my entire playthrough, which is not great for a horror game.
Another thing that highlights the wasted potential is the skill point system. It's certainly an interesting idea but unfortunately it just doesn't offer much variation to your playthrough. For example, if you need to open a door to get into a room, you have several options: using force, lockpicking, or simply persuading someone to open it. But the end result is still the same, you end up in the same room regardless of how you opened the door. I think they could have done more with this.
Technical: I had no major technical issues while playing, except for some problems with the audio levels. Especially in cutscenes the volume is suddenly much higher or lower. (Win10,7800X3D,RX7800XT)
Personal Rating: 3/5

---{ Graphics }---
☐ You forget what reality is
☐ Beautiful
☑ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS
---{ Gameplay }---
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't
---{ Audio }---
☐ Eargasm
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf
---{ Audience }---
☐ Kids
☐ Teens
☑ Adults
☐ Grandma
---{ PC Requirements }---
☑ Check if you can run paint
☐ Potato
☐ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer
---{ Game Size }---
☐ Floppy Disk
☑ Old Fashioned
☐ Workable
☐ Big
☐ Will eat 10% of your 1TB hard drive
☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it
☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data
---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☑ Easy
☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Significant brain usage
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls
---{ Grind }---
☐ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☑ Isn't necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding
---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☐ Average
☑ Good
☐ Lovely
☐ It'll replace your life
---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☑ Average
☐ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond
---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☐ Worth the price
☑ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money
---{ Bugs }---
☑ Never heard of
☐ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs
---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☐ 7
☑ 8
☐ 9
☐ 10