Call of Cthulhu

About Call of Cthulhu

Call of Cthulhu was developed by Cyanide Studio and published by Focus Entertainment (then Focus Home Interactive). It came out in October 2018 for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, with a Nintendo Switch version in October 2019. It is the official video game of Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu pen-and-paper RPG, set in H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos, and is built on Unreal Engine 4.

You play Edward Pierce, a war veteran turned private investigator in Boston who sleeps badly and leans on pills and alcohol. He is hired to find out how the artist Sarah Hawkins and her family died in a fire on Darkwater, a declining whaling island, and the only clue is one of her strange paintings. You talk to suspicious islanders, search the Hawkins mansion and other places for clues, reconstruct past events from the evidence, and spend points on character skills that open new options, as in the tabletop game.

The horror is slow and creeping. The island hides cults, strange science and something older, and Pierce's mind pays for every truth he uncovers: his sanity drops, his senses distort, and in places you can only hide from what you cannot face. Dialogue, exploration and the events that wear on his sanity lead to one of four endings.

A first play takes about 8 hours, according to HowLongToBeat. It suits players who like detective stories and Lovecraft's slow dread more than action. Critics were mixed (Metacritic 67 on PC, 63 on PS4, 68 on Switch), faulting its poorly explained stealth and combat while praising its atmosphere. Players on Steam rate it Mostly Positive.

How to play Call of Cthulhu

1. Buy it on Steam, GOG, PlayStation, Xbox or the Nintendo eShop; on PlayStation it is also in the PlayStation Plus Extra catalogue.
2. Explore Darkwater as Pierce, talking to the islanders and searching for clues.
3. Use reconstruction scenes to piece together what happened from the evidence you find.
4. Spend character points on skills that open new dialogue and investigation options.
5. Hide when something stalks you, and make the choices that lead to your ending.

Tips

• Read the documents and books you find; they fill in the story and point to new leads.
• Explore each area fully before moving on, the evidence decides what you can say and do.
• In the hiding sections, watch patterns and move between cover rather than rushing.
• Play a second time to see what different skills and choices change.

Questions