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Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth
Incorporating elements of various H. P. Lovecraft tales, especially The Shadow Over Innsmouth and The Shadow Out of Time, this game for Xbox and PC from Headfirst Productions focuses on a town in the thrall of perverse worship to an alien Elder God. While it bears the Call of Cthulhu moniker, the story focuses more on Dagon, the Deep Ones, and the humans who follow them. Numerous other creatures from the Cthulhu mythos also appear.
For those of you unaware, the Cthulhu mythos is a loosely formed mythos surrounding a pantheon of ancient slumbering gods created by author H. P. Lovecraft and linked together and expanded upon by such fans and later writers as August Derleth, Stephen King, and Neal Gaiman. Lovecraft lived and wrote through the 1920s and early 30s publishing short stories and novellas in such magazines as Weird Tales. His stories tended towards archaic language concerning man's place in the universe: the species is unimportant and survives only at the whim of the ancient and slumbering Elder Gods, who would devour the souls of humanity and enslave or unmake the universe if they ever awoke from their slumber. Bizarre and twisted creatures populate his stories, along with colorful descriptions of madness and horror. And Dark Corners of the Earth is no different
[img width=410 height=307]http://www.itreviews.co.uk/graphics/normal/games/g236.jpg[/img]
In DCotE, you play as Jack Walters, a private detective in the 1920s recently released from Arkham Asylum, where he'd been held for a case of amnesia, multiple personality disorder, and schizophrenia after a police raid he was a part of went haywire and he witnessed events and beings that shattered his mind. To top if all off its hinted that Walters is psychic and unknowingly uses that ability to solve cases. He takes a job searching for a missing grocery store clerk named Brian Burnham. Burnham ran the First National grocery store in Innsmouth, and so off Jack goes to find the lad. That's when everything goes out the window. Innsmouth is not a nice place: the locals are hideous and unfriendly, the innkeeper has a preference towards knives, and there's a weird temple in the center of town. It all goes downhill from there.
Soon after, Jack will find himself racing through the Innsmouth streets, battling his way out of dank sewers, sneaking through harrowing temples, and in a variety of other locations. Fans of the Cthulhu mythos will not be disappointed as bloody cult rituals, abberrant beasts, and twisted gods all find their way into the game. There are also numerous memorable scenes that will have horror fans shaking in their chairs, and the sequences where Jack is being chased are adrenaline-fueled and nothing short of exemplary.
[img width=500 height=418]http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_F1bJubBIIwE/S7DQtCjQfnI/AAAAAAAAAPY/GCGVrB2HRL0/s1600/What+%27re+ye+lookin%27+at.jpg[/img]
The game is played in a first person perspective and features some gun combat, but it keeps a heavy focus on puzzles. And when there is something to shoot, the player is usually running the opposite direction anyway or trying to sneak past. Firearms aren't used at all throughout large portions of the game. The game also doesn't feature a HUD, instead relying on visual and auditory cues to tell the player how much damage they've taken. DCotE features a cumbersome health system in which specific items are needed to treat specific types of wounds, and wounds can appear on various parts of the body. Break a leg and you'll have to splint it, or else you'll only be able to walk at a crawl. Lacerations will have to be sutured, poison must be medicated, so on and so forth.
Then factor in a sanity system where Jack's vision blacks out and he begins hearing strange voices and other unusual sounds when he sees something that his mind can't handle, and you've got an interesting experience that can also end up a little frustrating. With madness comes changes in control sensitivity, visual distortions and fading colors. If it proves to be more than Jack can take, he goes mad and kills himself.
[img width=500 height=358]http://www.cheatcc.com/imagespcb/callrev4.jpg[/img]
Gun combat is also more realistic in Dark Corners of the Earth than in most FPS. First, ammunition must be conserved because it's extremely limited as per the norm with survival horror, so even when the player does have a gun, it doesn't mean he can fight. Second, there is no targeting reticle, so players must use the iron sights to see what they're shooting. And no matter what, the gun fires bullets wherever it's pointing. Pull out a gun and fire in the middle of the motion, and the bullet will fly in whichever direction the barrel pointed, even straight up.
While the game was generally favorably received, it is known for being extremely buggy, and some bugs will break the game. My first time playing, I ended up stuck and reverting to a previous save because a switch refused to activate. Other players have reported similar problems at different times, and there are no official patches to fix them. Nor will there ever be an official patch, as Headfirst Productions went defunct less than a year after the title's release. However, unofficial mods have been released for the PC version that help stabilize the game.
[img width=400 height=300]http://xboxmedia.gamespy.com/xbox/image/article/593/593197/call-of-cthulhu-dark-corners-of-the-earth-20050303003401733.jpg[/img]
Two sequels were planned, but both are now Vaporware.
For those of you interested, here's the intro video:
Martian Gothic: Unification
[img width=420 height=420]http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/playstation-games/394-1.jpg[/img]
Originally a PC title, this third person survival horror in the vein of Resident Evil would see a release on the PlayStation nearly a year after the PS2 was available in all markets. Because of this late launch, as well as graphics and a control scheme generally viewed as poor at the time of its release, it's been largely overlooked by the mainstream.
Here's a rough estimation of the plot:
"In Martian Gothic, the player is able to assume the roles of three characters sent from Earth to a Martian base to examine why it has been silent for 10 months, after a base member broadcasts a final message of "Stay alone, stay alive." Upon arrival the player finds that all the residents are apparently dead and that the base hides a horrible secret."
That's right, you play as three different characters with different abilities. While they all control the same and use the same weapons, each has skills required to pass the various puzzles or sections of the game. All three begin the game from different hatches on the base, and are not meant to come into contact with each other. If they do, that nasty unification bit occurs, and the characters are killed instantly. As for why that happens, don't worry, it will be explained in this bizarre Lovecraft-esque science fiction story.
[img width=619 height=448]http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/screenshots/ps/martiangothic/martiangothic_790screen001.jpg[/img]
Since the characters can never enter the same room together, items must be deposited in a series of vacuum tubes spread throughout the facility. Only four items can be put in the vacuum tubes at any time, and players can only hold limited items, so various item storage containers must be used. Unfortunately this means items can get lost and forgotten, though PC terminals will reveal what items are in certain containers around the base if necessary. You can still lose an item by putting it in the wrong location, so think before you stow something.
Maneuvering between these spots might also be difficult for some folks, as Martian Gothic uses the same "tank" control scheme used in the original Resident Evil, lending credence to the claim that this is just another poor RE clone. The game also uses pre-set camera angles, so enemies can sometimes be difficult to see(and it doesn't help that your basic enemy is a zombie). But Martian Gothic also borrows an interesting element from the first Alone in the Dark: you can't kill your enemies. You can put them down for a little while, but they do get back up eventually. This makes avoiding fights absolutely key, which can be extremely difficult in the cramped tunnels of the Mars colony. And even if you could kill some of these things, it's probably better to run from some of the nastier ones anyway.
To progress in the game, you'll have to listen to computer recordings, solve puzzles, and search corpses while making your way through the Mars base and eventually into Olympus Mons and both over and under the Martian surface. It's interesting to note that the game actually started life as a point-and-click adventure title for Windows, but was drastically rewritten and changed when author Stephen Marley(known for his Chia Black Dragon series) joined the cast as a game designer. This means there are lots of puzzles. And they're not easy, either.
The game wasn't exactly well received, getting a Metacritic score of 64. In other words, it's considered average, not spectacular. That said, it also tends to go for dirt cheap. While the Windows version was only released in the United States, the PlayStation version was put out in both the US and Europe.
Here's the intro to the PlayStation version:
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This is Ack's Blog.
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This blog is about horror games. The good ones, the bad ones, and the ugly ones. And the obscure ones. The point of this is to educate, both the reader and the writer. Because I love horror games, and I love learning about them. |
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