Call of Cthulhu

I haven't played this game for a while now, a couple years at least. So why am I writing a review for it now? Well, thinking back on it, I remember it very fondly. I'm not saying it's a perfect game by any means, but it is one of the few out there to actually get Lovecraft right. This game has stuck with me.
This is actually the kind of game I wish we had a more of in the video game scene: good AA sized games. There used to be a whole lot of these games in the past (PS1/PS2 era), but not so much anymore. We have plenty of AAA games, plenty of indie games, but not enough games in between. That's what this game is, a solid AA game.
So I recommend it not only to all the Lovecraft/Cthulhu fans out there, but to anyone who misses those AA sized games of the past. Yeah, it's a bit janky, but it has a lot of heart and a fantastic story. That's more than enough for me.

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

Christ. I played through this game in one sitting.
It was as if I were possessed.
10/10 My thoughts are incomprehensible to me

If you are a friend of Lovecraftian horror and want to enjoy a decent story in the Chtulhu mythos universe, I recommend this game for you. It is an all in all satisfying game experience that is dragged down a little by some unfortunate design choices which I will break down for you below. My vote is a 7.5/10 (I beat it twice and saw all four endings).
The Good
- well-crafted interactive Call of Cthulhu RPG solo campaign
- plays basically like a virtual tabletop adventure: there is only one savegame, and if you missed something, you missed it and have to start over if you want to get it
- good level design, absolutely linear but fitting for this kind of interactive narration
- interesting characters, decent setting, dense atmosphere
- great if you want some Lovecraft to enjoy
Neutral
- stealth mechanics are clunky as usual for games like this, it gets the job done, but it is not really fun
- two short sections with gunplay - just shoot everything in sight, you've got 12 bullets which is enough
- curious learning curve: the first three chapters (of 14) are a walking simulator with some mini-games, then RPG mechanics kick in and there are constant skill checks, then some action sequences are tacked on which are not good, but not really bad either
- very old-school design and technology, the game was published in 2018, but it looks and feels like 2012 at best - but this does not distract from story and atmosphere, so it's ok
The Bad
- in some rare cases, objectives are unclear: in an attempt at a boss fight you are given a weapon, but you are not supposed to attack your enemy, but slice something else up with it
- constant talk about "fate" and "destiny" which is out of place in a Lovecraftian tale (you can justify this storywise, but it gets more and more annoying the more you hear it)
- how to obtain endings is totally obscure, and all available online guides are wrong in what they ask you to do, unlocking endings depends on a small set of choices, especially saving and sparing NPCs, telling the truth and occultism mastery, there is a Steam-page with a guide how to obtain all endings in one single play-through, and it works
- make a hard save in chapter 13 (tab out of the game and backup your files), because from the midst of this chapter and for the rest of the game your journal with all collectibles and clue items will be inaccessible - I mean, wtf...?, you are supposed to make a big choice at the end, and you cannot access your case files anymore? who has come up with this?
- four underwhelming endings, two of them so unsatisfactory that it becomes clear that most of the work has gone into the beginning and middle sections, at the end the game is running out of gas a little
This should give you a good impression of what to expect. If you are deep into open-world RPGs, this is the exact opposite. It is a tightly-packed campaign that expects you to heed every tiny detail and turn every stone twice. Enjoy, this kind of game is hardly done anymore ('Jedi Fallen Order' is just an exception to the rule).

Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn

Well crafted narrative and atmosphere doing a great use of the Cthulhu mythos but unfortunately massively underserved by a half-baked, un-interactive gameplay that's mostly sluggishly walking around and a distinctive lack of overall polish.
The game is a hodgepodge of mediocre gameplay, almost as if the developer didn't believe in the strength of the core investigation / conversation loop of their game and felt the need to force some more "action" through stealth sequences and a laughably bad shooting chapter.
And yet, the Cthulhu lore infused all around the island and the mystery unravelling throughout the chapters are too alluring to quit playing before the end.

I played Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth back in 2008-2009. It was creepy as h*ll and I loved it. When this game was announced i got really excited. When i saw all the negative stuff that the people threw at the game i started to wonder if it was worth to play it. One day, a Steam friend (thank you Ramo) gifted me the game, tried it out but still did not convinced me. In 2023 i gave it another chance and oh my god. Apparently is a good game. The atmosphere is creepy and it makes you stay on guard all the time (the mansion location as example). Cyanide and Focus are not a well known companies and with a "bad" reputation but i think here they did a great job (not amazing, but good enough). The unique thing that this game offers is how you want to play: Use your strength for solve the problems quickly, dialogue skills, lockpicking, etc. The only downside is the engine they used. Yeah, Unreal Engine 4. For me, the worst engine out there, with a lot of texture problems and other things. I had to lower down one setting from EPIC to HIGH and this was the draw distance. It gave me a 20 fps boost. The funny thing is that there is no difference. The rest on MAX. The FOV have also issues. Lowering it gave me extra frames, like what the f*uck. Not a well optimized game but playable tweaking one or two settings (the ones i said). Recommended for survival horror and lovecraft fans!
7/10