Cyanide's Call of Cthulhu - "RPG-Investigation" game based on tabletop ruleset

[cruelio]

The problem with a game about Cthulhu is that the player character is supposed to do something about it. Like the actor says in the trailer, "I must stop it."

But you can't stop Cthulhu. That's the whole point of Cthulhu. You're essentially a gnat as far as any elder trans-dimensional chaos spawn is concerned.

THE MAIN CHARACTER IN THE CALL OF CTHULHU STORY THAT INVENTED CTHULHU STOPPED CTHULHU BY HITTING IT WITH A BOAT

 

[Saduj]

The problem with a game about Cthulhu is that the player character is supposed to do something about it. Like the actor says in the trailer, "I must stop it."

But you can't stop Cthulhu. That's the whole point of Cthulhu. You're essentially a gnat as far as any elder trans-dimensional chaos spawn is concerned.

THE MAIN CHARACTER IN THE CALL OF CTHULHU STORY THAT INVENTED CTHULHU STOPPED CTHULHU BY HITTING IT WITH A BOAT

Not really. He escapes in a boat and runs over Cthulhu with the boat but Cthulhu isn't permanently harmed by the boat.

I would assume that "stopping Cthulhu" means stopping cultists from completing some sort of summoning ritual.

 

[cruelio]

He turns the boat around and plows it into Cthulhu's fucking head (apparently Cthulhu doesn't have the reflexes to dodge A STEAM BOAT THAT HASN'T EVEN GATHERED FULL STEAM THAT HAD TO MAKE A U TURN FIRST). In response the great mighty unstoppable unknowable space god Cthulhu goes "fuck this I'm going home" and lets two survivors live. But OMG so unstoppable and ethereal and mysterious. You would be completely missing the point by making a story in which Cthulhu can be stopped by, for example, mildly inconveniencing him. He's unstoppable.

 

[Darth Roxor]

you'd say 'fuck it' too if someone poked you in the eye with a steamboat

 

[Saduj]

He turns the boat around and plows it into Cthulhu's fucking head (apparently Cthulhu doesn't have the reflexes to dodge A STEAM BOAT THAT HASN'T EVEN GATHERED FULL STEAM THAT HAD TO MAKE A U TURN FIRST). In response the great mighty unstoppable unknowable space god Cthulhu goes "fuck this I'm going home" and lets two survivors live. But OMG so unstoppable and ethereal and mysterious. You would be completely missing the point by making a story in which Cthulhu can be stopped by, for example, mildly inconveniencing him. He's unstoppable.

After reading the ending again I concede that you're right. Not only was he dissuaded by being run over by a steamboat but then he was "trapped".

"His accursed city is sunken once more, for the Vigilant sailed over the spot after the April storm; but his ministers on earth still bellow and prance and slay around idol-capped monoliths in lonely places. He must have been trapped by the sinking whilst within his black abyss, or else the world would by now be screaming with fright and frenzy."

An F-16 would take him out without him ever seeing it.

 

[cruelio]

I was actually thinking and having a laugh about that. He wakes up in modern times like "I hope nobody slams anything into my head again," gets instantly smoked by f-15s, and just leaves the planet forever.

 

[LESS T_T]

Dialogue wheel confirmed: https://twitter.com/CoC_thegame/status/826745544081022976

 

[Zombra]

Dialogue wheel confirmed

Sad, but look at the length of the options. Those look like sentences!!

 

[V_K]

Sad, but look at the length of the options. Those look like sentences!!

Nah, look at the width of NPC's name at the center. It's just giant font readable from the couch.

 

[LESS T_T]

 

[Darth Roxor]

This UI looks very dangerously much like Risen 2 or 3.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Shouldn't be too long till we get fresh previews and perhaps trailers. Tomorrow perhaps, or next week.

 

[V_K]

Wow, 3 skills with up to 5 points each. This is going to be the deepest RPG ever created.

 

[thesheeep]

Wow, 3 skills with up to 5 points each. This is going to be the deepest RPG ever created.

Have you played any Cyanide game before?

I hope for an atmospheric game with minimal RPG in it.
I mean, I'm not hoping for minimal RPG, but that the game will be enjoyable despite that.

 

[ArchAngel]

Wow, 3 skills with up to 5 points each. This is going to be the deepest RPG ever created.

Have you played any Cyanide game before?

I hope for an atmospheric game with minimal RPG in it.
I mean, I'm not hoping for minimal RPG, but that the game will be enjoyable despite that.

I guess we don't play shit games. And after seeing those images, this one will be shit as well.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Release date just got narrowed down to "Q4 2017."

Same with Vampyr. Probably means a delay into 2018 is likely.

 

[LESS T_T]

Preveiws and interviews from Focus Home event:

"Cyanide: Call of Cthulhu Is Essentially an RPG, Will Last 10-15 Hours" http://wccftech.com/cyanide-call-of-cthulhu-interview/
"Call of Cthulhu Preview" http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/2017/02/08/call-of-cthulhu-preview/1
"Call of Cthulhu combines true detective spirit with quintessential Lovecraftian horror" http://www.godisageek.com/2017/02/call-of-cthulhu-preview/

 

[Rahdulan]

Essentially an RPG

Is this the part when we worry?

 

[LESS T_T]

"Call of Cthulhu is all about investigation, madness, and (surprise surprise) dark secrets" http://www.gamesradar.com/call-of-c...n-madness-and-surprise-surprise-dark-secrets/
"Could Cyanide's 'Call of Cthulhu' Finally Capture The Horror of Lovecraft's Books?" http://www.glixel.com/news/could-call-of-cthulhu-capture-the-horror-of-lovecraft-w465739

 

[ArchAngel]

Essentially an RPG

Is this the part when we worry?

I think we went past that phase when that stats screenshot was shown. We are at resignation atm.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Sounds good in concept. I hope they don't botch the implementation.

 

[Zombra]

Curated highlights from LESS T_T's preview links. Stuff Zombra cares about!

Notable note from the bit-tech preview:

The areas of Darkwater you explore are filled with points of interest to observe and clues which hint at crimes and supernatural events that occurred in the area. As you accumulate these pieces of evidence, you combine them to reach a deduction about a case. Cyanide points out it isn’t necessary to reach the correct deduction to finish the game, but making incorrect deductions will affect how the story pans out. 'Basically, if you’re not paying attention, if you’re not reading the documents and get the wrong deduction, you will maybe lose out on the big picture,', [lead narrative designer Maximillian] Lutz explains. 'But if you are paying attention to the clues that are presented to you, maybe you will be able to anticipate that and avoid bad consequences.'

This is very exciting - shades of Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments.

From the glixel preview:

Skills are split across three different categories, as in the pen-and-paper game: Social, which concerns people and their behaviour; Knowledge, which represents understanding of specialised subjects; and Professional, which determines your "detective" skills.

Wow, there isn't even a category for combat skills? That's an encouraging sign, not being ironic.

Investigation gameplay details from the gamesradar preview:

The main part of investigating involves encountering a scene and turning it upside down to find ‘clues’. Entering a charred room in Hawkins manor, I notice a broken lamp, a toy soldier, a stopped clock, and a single shoe, all littered amongst the ashes. Picking them up and using my forensic skill I can spot some interesting details about each clue. The smashed lamp has blood on it - thrown at someone, it looks like. The clock is stopped at 10 o’clock but the report says the fire occurred at 12. Hmm. Weird. The toy soldier shows the young Hawkins boy was in the room, and the shoe must have been left behind in a struggle.

Each detail I spot on a clue is called a ‘lead’. So, at the moment I have four leads: four things which hint at the real story behind the fire. Now it’s time to make a ‘deduction’. My investigation rank is 2 at the moment, so I can pick two of these leads to base my deduction on. If I pick the right ones - the ones which say something important and hint towards the truth - I’ll make a deduction that leads to the next part of the quest. Talk to the right person, investigate another location, that kind of thing. But if I close my eyes and select two at random, I’ll end up on a wild goose chase.

This sounds great.

gamesradar also has more details on the skill list:
Social: Persuasion, Intimidation, Psychology, Small Talk
Knowledge: Occultism, Folklore, ???
Professional: Forensic, Investigation, Spot Hidden

In general, if you read only one of those previews, read the gamesradar one.

 

[Roguey]

Wow, there isn't even a category for combat skills? That's an encouraging sign, not being ironic.

OTOH the anguish from those who lament how all horror games have evolved into run-away-and-hide sims.

 

[Space Insect]

As long as using libraries is an important part of investigating, it is truly a Call of Cthulhu game.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2017/02/09/call-of-cthulhu-game-monster/

Call Of Cthulhu’s horrors might be too familiar
Adam Smith on February 9th, 2017 at 5:00 pm.

Right near the beginning of the Call of Cthulhu [official site] hands-off demo I saw last week, an angry caretaker confronts the player character. Suddenly Lovecraft Country felt a bit Scooby Doo. The game’s central mystery, or at least its initial hook, centres around a family who died when an accidental fire raged through their massive island home. Old man caretaker doesn’t think you should be poking around inside.


Once you do get inside, there are clues to investigate, unnerving paintings to shatter your sanity, and monsters to hide from. It’s the caretaker that sticks with me though, and that gives the clearest impression as to how the whole thing might play out.


I’d expected something similar to the Sherlock Holmes games, which have gone full Lovecraft in the past. Call of Cthulhu looks like it’s taking enough cues from the Chaosium tabletop RPG to have an identity of its own though, mashing up traditional adventure game logic with character sheets and skill checks. With the caretaker, you can choose to deal with his threats – he’s waving an axe in your face – using one of several approaches: persuasion, small talk, intimidation or psychology. Other options unlock if you have found clues elsewhere before engaging in dialogue.

There may be RPG elements but they don’t extend as far as character creation. You’re playing as Edward Pierce, a former soldier turned private investigator, and the case that opens the game brings you to the aptronymic Dark Water Island. It’s actually quite picturesque, as far as these things go, and the game is handsome in its horrors. In the short demonstration, there’s little of the detailed muck and grime that Resi 7 did so well, but it’s all pleasantly moody.

It’s also, in terms of setting and tone, pretty much exactly what I expected. Cyanide are determined to “stay true to the spirit of Lovecraft”, as I was told later, and in this case that truth is in the form of shades of noir, sanity meters, a desolate New England setting, and culty murmurings. It’s so true to a certain idea of what the mythos is all about that I was feeling a heavy sense of deja vu long before the chase sequence that saw Pierce hiding in a closet, where his claustrophobia threatened to…kill him?

There’s quite a bit to unpick in that last sentence. First of all, yes, there are chase sequences. The monster in this one was stalking a gallery packed with the sort of sculptures and paintings that would have had old H P reaching for his thesaurus. It’s cracking stuff, the art. Suitably unsettling without resorting to wings and tentacles – the best of the sculptures are recognisable things rendered slightly wrong. The sort of thing that you need to look at twice to figure out exactly which part is disturbing.

And then a monster appears, pushing its way out of a painting in a way that’s reminiscent of Sadako forcing herself through telly static (or that one bit in Bava’s Demons 2, Italian horror fans). You can’t fight back so you hide, sneaking around the sculptures, which don’t look quite as sinister now there’s an actual monster in the room. I didn’t get a good look at it, partly because the person running the demo was quite good at hiding, but also because looking at it drains sanity so it’s best not to study the thing too closely.

All the sneaking ending with a dash for escape and then poor old Pierce had to cram himself in a wardrobe. That’s when the claustrophobia kicked in.

There will be various phobias accrued through the course of the game and in this case, staying hidden in an enclosed space causes sanity to drop, forcing you to emerge sooner rather than later. The sanity meter might cause hallucinations and the like, but the key to it is that Pierce dies if it hits rock bottom. That might work out well enough, I can’t say for sure until I play the game, but I’m inclined to think that killing the player off is too harsh. Make him burst out of the closet, screaming and drawing attention to himself, but kill him outright? It’s one more fail state on top of the possibility of actually being caught.


And that’s how the demo ended, with Pierce making another dash for the door, being spotted, grabbed and killed. It was an effective sequence, tense and frightening in its way, but the combination of the chase and the claustrophobia seemed a little too scripted. As with the conversation choices, there will be different ways to approach encounters, using occult knowledge, investigative skills and even weaponry (though guns will be ineffective against most creatures and possibly only handy against human cultists).

Going back to the caretaker, the demo saw Pierce arguing his way out of the confrontation. If he’d failed a skill check or attempted a different conversational technique he might have been unable to enter the house immediately, and been forced to break in rather than convincing the caretaker to give him the key. If every possible branch is executed well, Call of Cthulhu might feel like taking part in a roleplaying session, and while the writing and voice acting doesn’t convince me I’ll be in the company of a stellar gamesmaster, I wouldn’t mind a few hours of paranormal investigation.

When Pierce reached the room where the fire had started, he was left to sniff around for clues. That was the most Sherlock-y part of the game, as the player pieces together the evidence to form a conclusion. As in 2014’s Crimes and Punishments, it’s possible to arrive at false conclusions, but these don’t lead to failure immediately. Instead, you’re armed with incorrect information that might bite you in the backside down the line.

Cyanide told me that their game won’t become a shooter, as Dark Corners of the Earth did in some of its later stages, and that investigation and conversation are the keys to progressing the story. The voice acting isn’t final, thankfully, but the actual writing of the dialogue might need some work as well. When the caretaker called Pierce a prick I was less concerned about any possible anachronistic phrasing and more concerned that it came across as a bit more like a row down the city centre on a Saturday night than a sinister encounter on a doom-haunted isle.


There are entire areas of the game I’ve seen nothing of, still, including character recruitment and side stories. While you won’t have a party following you around, you will be able to recruit certain characters if you deal with them properly, and they can be sent to investigate other matters, bringing back information that might save Pierce’s skin later in the game.

That entire side of the game – the actual investigation of a case that threatens to become overwhelming and incomprehensible – has caught my interest. The phobias and sanity clauses, less so. It might all come together but I worry that the phobias will be too scripted, a way to spice up encounters and add a layer of difficulty to certain areas of the game.

With the RPG elements allowing some flexibility of approach, Call of Cthulhu is doing enough to differentiate itself from other investigation-based adventure games. It’s not just Sherlock with monsters and violence – Holmes under the Hammer, say – but what I’ve seen sticks a little too close to common Lovecraftian tropes. “True to Lovecraft” might be Cyanide’s goal but aspects of the mythos have leaked out into pop culture to such an extent that the bumps in the night and lurkers in the dark don’t seem all that fresh. Hopefully what I’ve seen is just the tip of the tentacle and there will be some unknowable terrors along the way because first-person horror that gets this much right on the surface is always welcome on my hard drive.