frankthedm
First Post
http://pc.ign.com/articles/505/505274p1.html?fromint=1
April 08, 2004 - I'm grateful for a peculiar upbringing. While many fathers shared their wisdom of car repair and the infield fly rule, my own was more comfortable discussing Tex Avery cartoons, Kennedy assassination conspiracies and the works of H.P. Lovecraft. And while I'm grateful for this obscure bit of cultural literacy, knowing my Nyarlathoteps from my Yog-Sothoths hasn't really paid off in any "practical" way. Thankfully, Headfirst's upcoming Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth game affords me a perfect opportunity to lord this familiarity with nameless horrors over the other editors here. The gang from Bethesda graciously allowed us to get a look at the game recently.
Though considered cult reading, the Lovecraft influence appears all over the place -- Black Sabbath's first album, the Babylon 5 TV series, and Evil Dead are just a few of the places Lovecraft's mythology is referenced. We've even seen roleplaying and computer games based on the franchise. In some cases, like Alone in the Dark and X-COM: Terror from the Deep, the influence was pretty obvious. Other games, like Quest for Glory IV or Quake, required you to search a little closer to find the influences but they were there.
Headfirst's game jumps, well, headfirst into the franchise and embraces the spirit of the original short stories, borrowing bits of plot and adhering quite closely to the overall style. To begin with, the game begins at the end, letting you see just what happens to the main character. The character you play, Jack Walters, is currently committed to an insane asylum. And this isn't the sterile rehab center where your high school buddies went to detox; no, sir, this is the 1920s electro-shock, leather strap kind of asylum.
The camera cuts back and forth between a white-coated doctor walking down a hallway and Jack sitting in his room. The doctor passes by a number of unsettled (and unsettling) lunatics as he makes his way to Jack's room. Inside Jack's room we see strange glyphs drawn in blood on the floor. We'll spare you the final twist of the opening cutscene but, if you've read any of the stories, you're probably sure how this ends up. In any case, this "let me tell you the story of my encounter with the nameless horror..." opening is a stock feature of the Lovecraft stories so it's good to see it reproduced here.
The game starts six years earlier as then Detective Jack Walters responds to a call at a large, rickety mansion that simultaneous mixes the grandeur of its former glory with its current decrepitude. A group of cultists have holed up in the place and, strangely, are asking to speak with you by name. After entering, you'll find that the cultists have some bizarre fascination with you and speak of you as if you're some sort of Chosen One.
While exploring the house you'll notice that the game doesn't have an interface. Rather than relying on the arbitrary (but largely accepted) notions of health bars, aiming reticles and mini-maps, Call of Cthulhu simply presents your character's view and relies on interesting visual and audio cues to present information. Blood spatters on the screen will indicate your character is taking damage, for instance, and the filled chambers on your revolver will tell you how many shots you have left.
As Jack walks up to the house, we notice that the raindrops also hit the screen, forming small drops that run down over your vision. It's a great touch that really adds to the immersion. Even things like directions and objectives are all presented in a way that maintains the believability of the game world. If you start to head down the wrong alley, you'll hear one of the cops tell you to go to "the other alley." If you approach a door that you can't open, your own character will think aloud, "The handle's been shot off." Keeping these messages all within the context of the game is a real challenge but one that seems to be paying off without lessening the types or amount of information that can be presented.
Some of the other arbitrary conventions of other games are dodged here. Jack's journey through the house culminates in a confrontation down in the cellar. But rather than just locking the player into a new environment, the game has the cellar stairs collapse behind the player. This has the effect of locking the player in the new environment but there's a plausible, in-game explanation for why that's the case. I'll spare you the specifics of the confrontation (because it's much scarier when you don't know what's coming) but you do find evidence of some hellish experiments down there.
Your character's mental degradation is a key part of the experience and, like the more traditional game elements, is communicated to the player through sound and video cues. As the player enters scary areas or confronts certain enemies, you'll hear your heartbeat increase. If things get particularly frightening, your vision will blur (kind of like the tear gas effect in Rainbow Six). You'll even see this blur effect to simulate vertigo when your character looks down from a great height.
The cops eventually find you in an amnesiac, schizophrenic state and rescue you from the cellar. At this point, you're pretty much no good to the police force and, what with Boston's lax private detective registration processes, you eventually turn to a career as a private eye. The game picks up as Jack takes a new case. A man named Arthur Anderson wants you to investigate a missing person case in the fishing town of Innsmouth. Fans of the stories already know where this is heading but I won't spoil it for the rest of you. I'll just say that the Lovecraft fans should be happy with the way things are presented here.
After escaping from the town, you find yourself on the deck of a ship escorting a...hmm, well, I don't want to ruin the story here...let's just say you're escorting a [blank] to [blank] a mysterious [blank] [blank]. (It's tough to offer any summary of the plot that doesn't ruin at least one cool surprise.) Anyway, the sailors on board the ship wind up in a firefight with some [blank]. After shooting it out with them, the sailors send you to find more ammo. When you return, you get to shoot it out with a few of the [blank] before being sent to the infirmary. When you enter, you're horrified to find a [blank] sitting on top of a sailor, ripping out his [blank].
On the subject of wounds, the team is following the same philosophy that directs their HUD design. Your character won't be able to run over health paks to regain life. Instead, you'll have to find real first aid kits items in the field and apply them according to context. Switching to a paper doll screen, you'll see which parts of your body are hurt. How they're hurt is just as important. A character who has a broken arm, for instance, can't do anything with stitches and antidotes. He'll have to find both a splint and some bandages before he can set the arm and halt his health loss. The concept of "getting better" seems kind of alien to this game; the best you can hope for is to stop your bleeding and make it through to the end of the level.
Though the game is being developed simultaneously for the PC and Xbox, we were only able to get a look at the Xbox version. The game follows the standard shooter model in terms of control. X pulls out your weapon and allows you to pull off hipshots. These allow you to fire and move more quickly but lessen your accuracy. If you hit the X button again, your character enters aimed mode. He you fire more slowly but are more likely to hit your target. You can freely switch from among your weapons using left and right on the D-pad.
But though you'll have a few weapons, they're not the focus of the gameplay. Indeed, the developers decided to make ammunition scarce in order to heighten the sense desperation. Thankfully, there are plenty of opportunities to sneak around and accomplish your objectives through subterfuge. Those who are wary of confronting the patrolling enemies of Innsmouth directly might make note of their compulsive hand-washing. If you can find a way to shut off the water, certain enemies may take a break from their watch to go check on the pipes.
There are other clues to be found. Scratch marks on the floor may indicate that you can push a particular piece of furniture out of the way. Other traps or puzzles will simply require trial and error solutions. I won't spoil it, but there's a trap that's set off when your character moves too quickly through an area. The only way to avoid it is to make your way a little more slowly.
In addition to the sneaking action, there are other moments that break the game up. One sequence plays out like a rail shooter with your character sitting in the back of the truck shooting at your pursuers.
Right now the game is scheduled to be out in the latter half of September. Interestingly, the team hopes to have the game finished by the time E3 rolls around about a month from now. The intervening four months will be spent polishing and balancing the game to ensure it's as solid and refined as it can possibly be.
This one is going to be a real [shotgun] blast of a game. and i might just get an xbox rather than upgrade my PC. [it would be cheaper]
April 08, 2004 - I'm grateful for a peculiar upbringing. While many fathers shared their wisdom of car repair and the infield fly rule, my own was more comfortable discussing Tex Avery cartoons, Kennedy assassination conspiracies and the works of H.P. Lovecraft. And while I'm grateful for this obscure bit of cultural literacy, knowing my Nyarlathoteps from my Yog-Sothoths hasn't really paid off in any "practical" way. Thankfully, Headfirst's upcoming Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth game affords me a perfect opportunity to lord this familiarity with nameless horrors over the other editors here. The gang from Bethesda graciously allowed us to get a look at the game recently.
Though considered cult reading, the Lovecraft influence appears all over the place -- Black Sabbath's first album, the Babylon 5 TV series, and Evil Dead are just a few of the places Lovecraft's mythology is referenced. We've even seen roleplaying and computer games based on the franchise. In some cases, like Alone in the Dark and X-COM: Terror from the Deep, the influence was pretty obvious. Other games, like Quest for Glory IV or Quake, required you to search a little closer to find the influences but they were there.
Headfirst's game jumps, well, headfirst into the franchise and embraces the spirit of the original short stories, borrowing bits of plot and adhering quite closely to the overall style. To begin with, the game begins at the end, letting you see just what happens to the main character. The character you play, Jack Walters, is currently committed to an insane asylum. And this isn't the sterile rehab center where your high school buddies went to detox; no, sir, this is the 1920s electro-shock, leather strap kind of asylum.
The camera cuts back and forth between a white-coated doctor walking down a hallway and Jack sitting in his room. The doctor passes by a number of unsettled (and unsettling) lunatics as he makes his way to Jack's room. Inside Jack's room we see strange glyphs drawn in blood on the floor. We'll spare you the final twist of the opening cutscene but, if you've read any of the stories, you're probably sure how this ends up. In any case, this "let me tell you the story of my encounter with the nameless horror..." opening is a stock feature of the Lovecraft stories so it's good to see it reproduced here.
The game starts six years earlier as then Detective Jack Walters responds to a call at a large, rickety mansion that simultaneous mixes the grandeur of its former glory with its current decrepitude. A group of cultists have holed up in the place and, strangely, are asking to speak with you by name. After entering, you'll find that the cultists have some bizarre fascination with you and speak of you as if you're some sort of Chosen One.
While exploring the house you'll notice that the game doesn't have an interface. Rather than relying on the arbitrary (but largely accepted) notions of health bars, aiming reticles and mini-maps, Call of Cthulhu simply presents your character's view and relies on interesting visual and audio cues to present information. Blood spatters on the screen will indicate your character is taking damage, for instance, and the filled chambers on your revolver will tell you how many shots you have left.
As Jack walks up to the house, we notice that the raindrops also hit the screen, forming small drops that run down over your vision. It's a great touch that really adds to the immersion. Even things like directions and objectives are all presented in a way that maintains the believability of the game world. If you start to head down the wrong alley, you'll hear one of the cops tell you to go to "the other alley." If you approach a door that you can't open, your own character will think aloud, "The handle's been shot off." Keeping these messages all within the context of the game is a real challenge but one that seems to be paying off without lessening the types or amount of information that can be presented.
Some of the other arbitrary conventions of other games are dodged here. Jack's journey through the house culminates in a confrontation down in the cellar. But rather than just locking the player into a new environment, the game has the cellar stairs collapse behind the player. This has the effect of locking the player in the new environment but there's a plausible, in-game explanation for why that's the case. I'll spare you the specifics of the confrontation (because it's much scarier when you don't know what's coming) but you do find evidence of some hellish experiments down there.
Your character's mental degradation is a key part of the experience and, like the more traditional game elements, is communicated to the player through sound and video cues. As the player enters scary areas or confronts certain enemies, you'll hear your heartbeat increase. If things get particularly frightening, your vision will blur (kind of like the tear gas effect in Rainbow Six). You'll even see this blur effect to simulate vertigo when your character looks down from a great height.
The cops eventually find you in an amnesiac, schizophrenic state and rescue you from the cellar. At this point, you're pretty much no good to the police force and, what with Boston's lax private detective registration processes, you eventually turn to a career as a private eye. The game picks up as Jack takes a new case. A man named Arthur Anderson wants you to investigate a missing person case in the fishing town of Innsmouth. Fans of the stories already know where this is heading but I won't spoil it for the rest of you. I'll just say that the Lovecraft fans should be happy with the way things are presented here.
After escaping from the town, you find yourself on the deck of a ship escorting a...hmm, well, I don't want to ruin the story here...let's just say you're escorting a [blank] to [blank] a mysterious [blank] [blank]. (It's tough to offer any summary of the plot that doesn't ruin at least one cool surprise.) Anyway, the sailors on board the ship wind up in a firefight with some [blank]. After shooting it out with them, the sailors send you to find more ammo. When you return, you get to shoot it out with a few of the [blank] before being sent to the infirmary. When you enter, you're horrified to find a [blank] sitting on top of a sailor, ripping out his [blank].
On the subject of wounds, the team is following the same philosophy that directs their HUD design. Your character won't be able to run over health paks to regain life. Instead, you'll have to find real first aid kits items in the field and apply them according to context. Switching to a paper doll screen, you'll see which parts of your body are hurt. How they're hurt is just as important. A character who has a broken arm, for instance, can't do anything with stitches and antidotes. He'll have to find both a splint and some bandages before he can set the arm and halt his health loss. The concept of "getting better" seems kind of alien to this game; the best you can hope for is to stop your bleeding and make it through to the end of the level.
Though the game is being developed simultaneously for the PC and Xbox, we were only able to get a look at the Xbox version. The game follows the standard shooter model in terms of control. X pulls out your weapon and allows you to pull off hipshots. These allow you to fire and move more quickly but lessen your accuracy. If you hit the X button again, your character enters aimed mode. He you fire more slowly but are more likely to hit your target. You can freely switch from among your weapons using left and right on the D-pad.
But though you'll have a few weapons, they're not the focus of the gameplay. Indeed, the developers decided to make ammunition scarce in order to heighten the sense desperation. Thankfully, there are plenty of opportunities to sneak around and accomplish your objectives through subterfuge. Those who are wary of confronting the patrolling enemies of Innsmouth directly might make note of their compulsive hand-washing. If you can find a way to shut off the water, certain enemies may take a break from their watch to go check on the pipes.
There are other clues to be found. Scratch marks on the floor may indicate that you can push a particular piece of furniture out of the way. Other traps or puzzles will simply require trial and error solutions. I won't spoil it, but there's a trap that's set off when your character moves too quickly through an area. The only way to avoid it is to make your way a little more slowly.
In addition to the sneaking action, there are other moments that break the game up. One sequence plays out like a rail shooter with your character sitting in the back of the truck shooting at your pursuers.
Right now the game is scheduled to be out in the latter half of September. Interestingly, the team hopes to have the game finished by the time E3 rolls around about a month from now. The intervening four months will be spent polishing and balancing the game to ensure it's as solid and refined as it can possibly be.
This one is going to be a real [shotgun] blast of a game. and i might just get an xbox rather than upgrade my PC. [it would be cheaper]
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