Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth

The Basics: 1st person detective/scariness simulator related to the works of H.P. Lovecraft

Previous Time Spent: none

Expectation of learning Curve: low

Why I bought this: Extremely cheap steam sale + decent reviews and Lovecraft focus

First Impressions: This game has ridiculous names for difficulty levels, having to do with detectives, so that's a win. Secondly, in the tradition of spooky older games, it asks you to go through some gamma correction in the beginning of the game to make sure that your screen is sufficiently dark. Between that and the silly detective monologue, I found myself drawn in immediately. Last final impression: this game is a bit too dark, and the lack of a flashlight was more frustrating than frightening. 

My 3 hours: So, as mentioned above, this game begins with the player choosing one of several silly detective themed difficulty settings, and then quickly moving into a prologue. The prologue involves the main character, a corny stock character detective, entering a house full of cultists who are under siege by the police. The cultists are expecting the main character, and the opening introduces the player to the bread and butter of this game, which involves walking around, talking to people, finding clues, and occasionally being subjected to fairly long cut-scenes involving creatures familiar to readers of Lovecraft. The main character talks to himself quite a bit, seemingly to act as a sort of hard boiled detective narrator, describing things that the game's writers decided were of interest, or simply grunting out "Nothing interesting here." 

I honestly love the game for how corny and trope-filled all the detective stuff is, and how much of the game feels like stepping into a familiar Lovecraftian cold bath. There are spooky northeastern houses (with strangely gigantic corridors), and creaky stairs, and an eventual dive into further mysteries. My time in the game propelled me from the prologue into a piece with strong similarities to "The Shadow over Innsmouth," even sharing the same setting from the short story. In the game, most of the challenge came from walking about, finding stuff and following up on clues, and due to a lack of in-game reminders, I often found myself actually writing down notes, etc., and thinking about how nice it is to not be coddled.

I found myself frustrated in certain parts when the game translated from spooky walking/clue grabbing to actual moments of challenge. The controls and systems involved felt fairly clumsy, and the main challenge I ran into, escaping from Innsmouthian murdermen in a hotel room were more challenging than I ever could have expected. The escape from the hotel-roomrequired multiple attempts, each of which taking 15-20 minutes, leading to at least an hour and 15 minutes being spent. What frustrated me about it was that it required the sort of precise control one might expect from a Mega-Man, Castlevania or other old-school pattern learning platformer. There was very much an exact right way to do it, which felt less like a frantic/quick thinking escape, and more like just memorizing exactly what each step would be. 

My Verdict: Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth is a solid attempt at replicating the spookiness of H.P. Lovecraft (without any of exotification or racism that I remember from the actual stories) which is marred by bugs, a frustrating save point system, and extreme jumps in difficulty which are not telegraphed by the narrative. Ultimately, I'd give it a qualified recommendation for a fan of Lovecraft's work who is willing to deal with quite a bit of frustrating gameplay in order to inhabit the world. 

My next post will come in roughly 2 weeks, where I'll be covering Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land

Braid

The Basics: Platformer (and Indie darling with something to say about time/regret/relationships)

Previous Time Spent: 15 minutes

Expectation of learning Curve: low

Why I bought this: Mostly on the strength of positive reviews and other press

First Impressions: Braid is gorgeous, between the hand painted backgrounds and the soothing quasi-classical music, and my first impression gave me a sense of a relaxing, thoughtful experience.

My 3 hours: I began with a relaxing run through a few simple worlds, which overall felt very mario-esque, however. There were puzzle pieces to collect, and this suit-clad man needed to collect them by traveling through rolling hills, jumping on the heads of his foes, and solving jumping puzzles. Then, things got a bit more interesting, as the puzzles escalated in difficulty, and began to rely on the game's primary innovation, the ability to reverse time. It was at this point that I was fairly hooked, and found myself obsessively trying bits over and over and over again (in a very Next or Edge of Tomorrow-ish way) which was a nice contrast from the extremely beautiful and relaxing intro bits.

I explored 6 "worlds," throughout the course of my playthrough, involving a number of puzzles which escalated in difficulty, and were based around interesting exceptions and additions to the fairly simple rules that the game established. Some of these were far more challenging than others, but there was almost always the sense that I could keep moving and try other things, so I never felt terribly bogged down or frustrated. In my last half hour or so of playing, I reached a couple of worlds where the basic rules of play, especially regarding time, shifted greatly, matching the story the game was piecing together about a relationship. (which I'm not going to spoil, nor did I 100% follow). 

My Highlight: For me, the highlight of my playthrough was mastering the first fairly challenging jumping puzzle through crazy repetition. This involved having to time a jump exactly right so that I would land on the top of one of the many hapless hairy guys traveling these picturesque landscapes, and bounce from the top of his head to a nearby ledge, where a puzzle piece awaited me. I had to rewind and redo this bit some 30+ times, probably due to my inexperience with  timing heavy platformers, but reaching that ledge felt incredible.

  

My Verdict: Braid is a thoughtfully put together and intellectually stimulating experience, and the puzzles involved are well worth experiencing. Definitely worth picking up on a steam sale at some point.

My next post will come in roughly 2 weeks, where I'll be covering the presumably scary (and maybe problematic, Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth)