Horror Game Classics – Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth

I think this game has some of the most memorable moments in horror gaming history. The whole navy ship level is so frantic and intense, and filled with a sense of dread that climaxes perfectly with the awakening of Dagon.

Sure the game has some flaws, but the pros of experiencing a great Lovecraft journey into madness out weigh the cons of a few game play issues. My only complaint with game play was with how god-awful slow you moved in stealth mode. Although it did add to the tension as I would try to sneak past guards, because I’d find myself saying, “C’mon move faster you son-of-a-bitch, before that guard comes back!”

But most certainly my favorite part of the entire game was the lynch mob chase. This whole level was definitely inspired by the movie “Dagon”, and the game does an amazing job of recreating the fear and tension of trying to escape from a mob of crazy townsfolk.

Great pick Spoony.

Nice one, Spoony. I enjoyed this game a lot for all it’s flaws – the Lynch Mob scene you mentioned pretty much sold me on it. Nothing quite like fighting for your life as a completely helpless mortal to get the blood going. Been wanting to pick it up on Steam for Halloween… Maybe you just pushed me over the edge :)

Cheers!

- Toko

I’ll be dissapointed if Eternal Darkness doesn’t make it to the list. I’ve played all of the games you’ve mentioned so far, but Eternal Darkness is probably my favourite. Very clever and awesome game. A hidden and underated gem.

Everyone knows about Eternal Darkness LOL…stop acting like it’s the lost arc of games.

There exists a PC version of this, and in a few ways it’s far better than the Xbox cut.

Regardless, it’s a doozy of a title. Quite skilled at climbing into your brain and rooting about in there, really. And yes, I somehow figured it’d be the run from the townspeople that would be your choice–it’s complex, but it’s epic.

I’ve made it as far as the mines, which is the point when you finally get armed a little bit better. I’m told your weaponry is largely useless, though, just a bit of metal to prop up your failing confidence and push you forward.

Damn shame that the developers went bankrupt not long after this released, and a sequel is not likely.

Yeah, this game is awesome, but it was so bugged that i couldn’t get past the first or second mission.

i remember playing this game and loving it, but my hard drive crashed while i was in the factory, so i dont know if i’ll ever play it again. ):

i rented this game once and really liked it cause it was the first horror game i played that was actually scary. it was also very visually wrong like the part where you go behind the desk in the hotel and find the body parts hanging out of drawers and shoved in jars. to see gore used in an a effective way to actually scare some one was a nive change of pace than where other games its like “dude i just blew his head off thats fucking awsome”. for me the most memorable scen i got to was when they threw the guy into the meat grinder it was great.

Speaking of sanitariums, you should check an old game going with that name “Sanitarium” it has a great dark and gritty history.

Awesome game, a shame the studio went out of business.

You know, at a film festival I was recently at, I saw what was supposed to be an adaptation of one of Lovecraft’s stories, “The Colour of Outer Space”. Without wanting to go too much into it, the film just reminded me why, to my knowledge, we have never seen a truly decent Lovecraft adaptation.

If I can find this game anywhere, I might check it out; the videos I’ve seen looked promising.

You really need to do a lets play on Call of Cthulhu…that would be awesome…

Wow…..did that remind anyone else of “WARRIOR” #1?

“…a real fear…a fear of myself, of what I am….and of what I have always been.”

why did they never put Cthulhu in the game not saying its bad that they didn’t but kinda seems wired to me

Hey spoony if you want to find that moment of being chased search up these guys called 4 player podcast
they are on Jtv which has the archive of Call of cthulu in the beginning the “break the door down you dam fool” sequence all the way to the end

My most favorite moment of being freaked out were those “things” in the cave on last level. Passing through a natural stone-bridge, when suddenly wind inside the colossal cave picks up, and I check behind me….

HOLY MOTHER OF GOD, WHAT THE FUCK ARE THOSE?!

Too bad this game is somewhat glitchy and buggy. But its great game overall.

Oh snap, if you know about this game, have you played Penumbra? :D
I mean, c’mon, who doesn’t like running from naked zombies in an abandoned, frozen base?
(It’s what The Thing game should have been done like!)

& Apathetic One:
I completely love you for saying that. Just sayin’.

Either way, I totally agree that you should do a Let’s Play of this, Spoony!

Okay, while I will give you that the first part of the game was pretty awesome what with you hiding from the Tainted and rest of the town, once you got a gun the atmosphere kind’a gave out. Now I’ve Let’s Played the PC version of the game, and I have to say Spoony you forgot to mention one Very important and irritating aspect of the game. THE F***ING SANITY SYSTEM!!! You can’t even look at what your supposed to shoot with out your vision blurring up, and several times during the Dagon fight (which for me lasted over a total of 40 minutes) I committed Suicide! I will say though that in it’s deffence the story line and characters are Amazingly well done and very true to Lovecraft. Jack Walters is Still one of my Favorite Protagonists of any game, though I found that his “Hard boiled Dick” sort of awkwardly clashed with the insanity, I mean one moment he’s swapping Quips with a Naval Lieutenant, and the next he’s tripping balls at the sight of a deep one, even though he’s already been fighting them for a day or two of game time.

Here’s a little tribute to the game if you want to see it, it mostly involves the battle with Dagon but it’s not bad. There’s about a minute or two of my Crappy LPing before had though. 8P You are Warned.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oVa7EuGRB0

One of the best horror games i’ve ever played truly a gem of atmosphere and trying to save your own life.

You should’ve also mentioned the fact that if you look at bodies for too long or seeing something out of the norm that it stresses out the character and makes the vision blurry, him talking to himself etc.

Just because of that i love this game it really feels like you’re him.

It’s kind of disheartening (though not unexpected) to see all the Batman references. I really wish Headfirst just went with “Arkham Sanitarium” just to avoid the Arkham Asylum connotations.

“Also I pronounce Cthulhu as “Kuh-thull-hoo”, I wonder if anyone else says it that way.”

Lovecraft pronounced it a number of different ways, but he transcribed it as “Khlûl’-hloo” in a letter:

“the first syllable [of Khlûl'-hloo is] pronounced gutturally and very thickly. The u is about like that in full; and the first syllable is not unlike klul in sound, hence the h represents the guttural thickness.”

I quite enjoyed “Dark Corners”, especially the secret final level you get with all Mythos points (won’t spoil it for anyone, but it’s awesome). I’m generally forgiving of bugs and gameplay if the story’s good enough, and I played it on PC, where it was a lot easier to navigate (IMO), and a lot of mods address the real gamebreakers.

If DC was more successful, and if Headfirst wasn’t liquidated, maybe we would’ve gotten more Lovecraft-based games like it, not necessarily by those developers. I can imagine “The Shadow Out of Time” being a really cool Myst-style puzzler, “At The Mountains of Madness” would be like “The Thing” (well, except it doesn’t suck, and has a vast undiscovered city, and Shoggoths, Flying Polyps and Giant Penguins to contend with). Heck, one could make a whole game based around Arkham, with “The Thing On The Doorstep”, “The Dunwich Horror”, “The Colour Out Of Space”, “Dreams in the Witch-House” and others forming chapters of the story.

Most of all, though, I really, REALLY want a Dreamlands game. An RPG, perhaps, or a point-and-click adventure like The Longest Journey. Imagine descending the Seventy Steps of Light Slumber, where you must prove yourself worthy to survive the Dreamlands to the Judges: via puzzles, combat, platforming and the like. Then you enter the Dreamlands, visit the port of Dylath-Leen, cat-ruled Ulthar, glorious Celephais, and mysterious Sarnath. Explore the dark, dangerous realms of the Underworld, the Moon, the Forbidden Lands and the Plateau of Leng. Battle Ooth-Nargai, Gugs, Moon-Beasts, Zoogs and Bholes. Eventually you can become a Dreamer so powerful you can create entire cities and populations, and finally visit Unknown Kadath to meet the gods themselves.

Yeah, that’d be epic.

That’s a brilliant little sequence.

On a side note, these sections are getting a little old – you don’t riff on them, you’re not playing them and you’re not exploring them in any great detail.

It’d be nice to see you do a lengthy “interactive” piece (like SWAT 4 or like the Vlog’s) on a game you really enjoy. I’d like to see how you handle it on camera instead of just tearing crap material to shreds.

There is a really great subtle horror adventure game out there called “The Dark Eye”. It’s essentially a compilation of a few stories by Poe held together by a greater storyline. The visuals are very unusual, caus it’s all claymotion. It’s quite “artsy” and buggy as hell but the atmosphere is simply astonishing.

that dagon guy looks like the kraken from clash of the titans great review

“I shiver run down my spine just by reading this. Damn, smoe indie developer could become a sensation overnight if they made such a thing. Kadath awaits!”

That’d be freaking awesome. There are a lot of talented indy developers who’ve made pretty damn good point-and-clicks: I’m sure someone could do a Lovecraft one. Actually, something like Psychonauts would work great too. You could even employ the “leap into someone’s brain” mechanic to explore someone else’s dreamworld for a level: Pickman’s brain as a nightmarish landscape of running paint and labyrinthine graveyards, Kuranes’ an empire of hobos, Herbert West’s a weird mix of Trauma Center and Pikmin with zombies instead of carrots.

Really, this stuff writes itself. Though nobody steal my “Weird Tales Investigations” thing, that’s mine!

“And what was up with Ramona? She acted and sounded like a 5 year old girl but looked like she was 12.”

Or, like a case of arrested development brought on by having a really monstrous mother (so to speak). :P

So I guess the Pumpkinhead video isn’t going to happen?