Review for Call of Cthulhu: The Official Video Game. Game for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 30/10/2018
If we were to recommend a book or a story to savor on the occasion of the darkest and scariest time of the year, it would surely be the adventures of the great Cthulhu. As you well know, the myth of Cthulhu and the tales of Lovecraft are now one of the most loved topics in the world, enough to push millions of people to create completely new works: from cinema to TV, from books to video games, this is certainly one of the stories that has been able to conquer a rather important slice of users. One of the titles that we can recommend you to play in this period is absolutely the eponymous Call Of Cthulhu, or the new title by Cyanide: the latter has already been released on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC over the last year always in this wonderful period. After having anxiously awaited The Sinking City on the little one from Nintendo, the software house reserves the same treatment to its Call of Cthulhu, bringing the title to the small screen of Nintendo Switch.
Call of Cthulhu arrives on the Nintendo hybrid in a fairly silent way, passing almost unnoticed we would say, instead, he was able to surprise us thanks to the excellent general quality that this extraordinary story was able to offer us. Will it be able to surprise and accompany us in this bleak time of year? But, above all, will it be able to satisfy us on the small screen of Nintendo Switch? Let's find out together in this new review!
Summary of a Cthulhu:
The story in this title is now well known, therefore we will focus only on a small general review of the game plot. In this multimedia work we will play the role of Edward Pierce, or a private detective who has survived some nightmares caused by the battles of the First World War. Alcohol and general malaise do not help the insomnia of our protagonist who, at times, they will seem more real to us than we thought. At some point in the story, we will meet billionaire Stephen Webster who will tell us about the disappearance of his daughter during a fire, causing the death not only of her husband but also of her young son: the local police will judge the event as a simple "accident", but behind this story there are some rather disturbing events.
Mr. Webster will give Edward Pierce a painting painted by his beloved daughter shortly before he died and, right away, we will notice a thick mysterious veil that hovers around the incident: on the canvas there are dark images, insignificant and at the same time terrifying, depicting anonymous occultists. The plot and the events of Call of Cthulhu will be the driving force of the entire multimedia work, putting us in the shoes of a rather complicated and exceptional investigation.
It will be these events that will bring us to the shores of a dense and foggy island, once renamed for its great ability to hunt whales: Darkwater was at the time a thriving city, full of life and with a fast and prolific work pace. But something went wrong, turning the whole city into a degraded and frightening mass inhabited by people who can barely get by. What prompted the entire population to suffer in these conditions? What led Sarah to paint those occults on that canvas? These will be just some of the many questions you will ask yourself during the initial phase of the game, and it will take from 10/15 hours to complete the main adventure.
To find out more news regarding the game plot, I recommend you to buy Call of Cthulhu for Nintendo Switch or enjoy it on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC if there is no alternative. If you are looking for a plot that will keep you glued to a small screen wherever you are during the Halloween period, we guarantee that Cyanide's work will not disappoint your expectations!
An Unchanged Gameplay:
In Call of Cthulhu the general gameplay is almost unchanged compared to the versions already released and will limit itself to reporting what was seen in previous versions. Exactly as seen in previous versions, in Call of Cthulhu the growth of the character is linked to the distribution of different skill points that we will get as we continue in the game. These are divided into seven categories: Investigation, Scent, Strength, Psychology, Eloquence, Medicine and Occultism.
As the story progresses, it will be possible to activate an extraordinary investigation mode dedicated exclusively to our character, the latter defined as reconstruction: the protagonist will enter a sort of investigative trance that will give us the opportunity to discover the facts that happened at that precise moment, reconstructing the entire story by interacting with the objects present on site and passing skill tests.
Call of Cthulhu will encourage us to spend our time talking to the inhabitants of the area, with the survivors of the place and with all those useful to solve this mysterious and distressing case. In this title it will be essential to check every hole, room, drawer and corner to ensure that the protagonist can collect as much information as possible, useful in the future to unlock new lines of dialogue. The possibility of having four different endings available will lead the player to carefully evaluate their decisions and pay attention to the dialogues with the NPCs present in this multimedia work.
The sanity of our protagonist is fundamental, and it is easily visible within the game menu: unfortunately this will go down every time we have a surreal vision. Although it does not have sensational effects during the course of the game, this will heavily affect the ending, as some choices will be available only if we have an adequate degree of sanity of the character. We will have to somehow take this "bar" into account and try to keep it stable as long as possible.
Despite its almost exclusively narrative nature, towards the end of the game we will notice some stealth sections, in which we will have to move silently to escape the enemies, sometimes human and sometimes monstrous. These sections, although not entirely brilliant, contribute to giving a dynamism to Call of Cthulhu, thus creating a strong feeling of tension, fear and anguish to the player. Unfortunately once it comes to an end we have no further tasks to perform if not the micro secondary missions. The latter, however, do not add who knows what value to the multimedia work and the player will therefore tend to pick up the title again only to find the other three different endings.
Graphics and Sound:
The port of Cyanide is of good quality both in terms of the graphic and sound sector of the title, even if it is not converted in the best way: we will notice some problems already present on other platforms at the time, prompting us to ask ourselves if it would not have been better to take a little more time to present a more refined title. We must admit that other similar works were converted in a shameful way, while the port of Call of Cthulhu is pretty good compared to similar works: it will not be at the levels of Ori or Spyro for example, but we really appreciate the work done by the development team to bring a similar work on Nintendo hardware.
We had the opportunity to try the title both in portable mode and in TV mode, and the atmosphere recreated in this title is perfectly suited to both modes: on the TV the experience remains as interesting as in previous versions, while in portable mode the title is nothing short of perfect: playing Call of Cthulhu wherever we are is a great feeling.
Some textures and polygonal effects were already known for poor visual quality on other platforms and unfortunately we encountered the same problems on the Nintendo Switch version: although the developers have given their all to bring a finished work, we have noticed several details far from it. that "defined". It will be that the Nintendo Switch hardware is not known to have maximum performance, but Call of Cthulhu on Switch is significantly lower than its counterparts already available on the market.
During our adventure, we could notice some rather stormy drops in frame rates, especially during the most demanding game phases: we found strong drops during escapes or in larger areas during exploration, but nothing that could ruin the experience. of game. Unfortunately we must point out that there is no support for the Nintendo Switch features, in fact in this version we will not be able to use neither the touch screen nor the gyroscope of the console: a pity since the hybrid of the Kyoto house allows developers complete freedom during development. It would have been ideal to add some dedicated features to further enrich the in-game experience.
Another point in favor is certainly earned by the audio sector of the title that even on Nintendo Switch gives its best: every music or melody fits perfectly with the game atmospheres, immersing ourselves in a profound way with the missions that will be entrusted to us. At times we will feel that feeling of fear and suspense that will involve us in a manic way, especially if you play it with headphones and a dark room (yes we really did, Ed). We really appreciated this porting very much and we are convinced that other similar works are possible thanks to the freedom with which it is possible to develop on the Nintendo Switch which today is one of the most important consoles within the videogame landscape.
We highly recommend the purchase to those who have no problems glossing over some graphic and technical defects which carries the title: in exchange they will be able to enjoy Call of Cthulhu wherever they want and how they want.
Call of Cthulhu is a detective adventure inspired by the Lovecraft myth and is primarily designed for all lovers of the genre. The purchase is a must for all those who have not been able to play the title on other platforms, the latter will guarantee us some raw, strong and bloody themes. The port on Nintendo Switch is of a fairly good level despite some problems that afflict both the current version and those already available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC. Despite the work done by the development team, this version brings with it small problems derived mainly from the Nintendo hardware, but despite this they do not in any way affect the pleasant gaming experience. Luckily, the story of Call of Cthulhu will be the fulcrum of the entire videogame experience, leading us to discover very disturbing and mysterious events, seasoned with a gameplay that is certainly not excellent but never banal. The title is available in both physical and digital versions on the eShop for the modest sum of € 39,99.
► Call of Cthulhu: The Official Video Game is a Horror-RPG-Survival game developed by Cyanide and published by Focus Home Interactive for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 30/10/2018
