The first month of 2020 is already almost over. It’s hard to fathom how quickly time can slip by, isn’t it? One more month down does at least mean that multiple different games are going up on the zillion or so subscription services we now all have to chose from. Xbox Live Gold is a sort of original in that field, and today we got a look at the games we can download free of charge next month thanks to that subscription.

On the Xbox One side of things, we get the detective RPG based on the cosmic horrors of H.P. Lovecraft with Call of Cthulhu. It will be available February 15th-March 15th. TT Isle of Man will race beside it throughout the entire month. The other games will be Fable Heroes on the Xbox 360, and we’re going way old school with the original Star Wars Battlefront on Xbox on February 16th-29th. Talk about a blast from the past.

The February Games with Gold will begin being available at the beginning of the month. All games will be playable on the Xbox One.

Amidst the news that Vampyr and Call of Cthulhu would be coming to the Nintendo Switch, publisher Focus Home Interactive has quite a lot of other suff in the pipeline as well. We already know about its partnership with Dontnod Entertainment of Life is Strange fame for an ambitious new project. But the publisher will also be working with Sumo Newcastle (known for EVE: Valkyrie) on a new “uncompromising multiplayer experience.”

Other interesting points in the company’s plan for 2019 include Deck13’s The Surge 2 launching in “a few months”, though a more concrete release date wasn’t provided. Focus Home Interactive did confirm that it would be working with the studio on a new IP after that. It will also be working with World War Z developer Saber Interactive on two more games. One is confirmed to be based on Warhammer.

Asobo Studio, which has A Plague Tale: Innocence coming up next month, will also continue its partnership with Focus as well. In what capacity the two will collaborate is unclear. But on another note, the publisher owns the rights to Call of Cthulhu for the next ten years. Whether that’s a good thing following its most recent title is a different matter.

Focus Home Interactive announced today that Call of Cthulhu, the cyanide developed RPG investigation title that launched last year for the PS4, Xbox One, and PC, will be coming over to the Nintendo Switch as well. It will be out in 2019 itself, though a more specific release date for the port was not provided.

Call of Cthulhu isn’t the only Focus Home Interactive game coming to the Switch, of course. Last year, they announced that Dontnod Entertainment’s Vampyr would be releasing on the Switch as well, which they have confirmed will also be coming this year. Both ports are being handled by Saber Interactive (developers of the upcoming World War Z), Focus Home confirmed.

Call of Cthulhu released last year to mixed reception- though strengthened by an interesting aesthetic and choice-based gameplay, the game had issues of its own, such as bland investigations, and shoddy pacing. In our review, we awarded the game a 6/10- read the full review through here.

The original “The Call of Cthulhu” short story is interesting because of how it plays out. Lovecraft’s brand of horror wasn’t about cheap thrills or jump scares. It was about the horrifying unknown; humans dealing with things they can’t possibly understand and their ultimate irrelevance in the grand scheme of things. More than anything else, it laid the groundwork for the Cthulhu Mythos, expanding upon these horrifying entities and the consequences of their actions.

"Whether you’re going into this expecting a suspenseful horror title or a complex detective story, Call of Cthulhu does the bare minimum to captivate your interest and not much more."

In some ways, Cyanide Studio’s Call of Cthulhu seems like its trying to lay the groundwork for its interpretation of Cthulhu’s awakening (while also adapting the 1981 RPG by Chaosium). In other ways, it’s a story with choices that prioritize mystery and “investigating” matters. Oh, and sometimes there are stealth segments, feeling arbitrary at first but slotting decently when the situation calls for it. It’s a mix of numerous elements that don’t seemingly clash together but struggle to muster much interest as a whole. Whether you’re going into this expecting a suspenseful horror title or a complex detective story, Call of Cthulhu does the bare minimum to captivate your interest and not much more.

As Edward Pierce, a surviving World War 1 soldier turned alcoholic private investigator, your job is to investigate the death of Sarah Hawkins. Though her family seemingly died in a house fire on Darkwater Island, just off the coast of Boston (somewhere between Point Lookout and Far Harbor), rumours abound of her being the cause of their death. The only real leads are a few notes and a twisted painting sent from the mysterious Warehouse 36 on Darkwater. Thus does Pierce set out to solve this mystery and maybe wonder why these weird cultists and booming voices trouble him in his nightmares.

Surely it’s nothing serious.

The opening sequence – wherein players become acquainted with Pierce, allotting different skill points to categories like Occultist, Medicine, Strength, Investigation, Psychology, Eloquence and so on – showcases the overall odd writing of the game. The pivotal conversation where Pierce accepts the case plays out much like a typical video game conversation wherein Sarah Hawkins is mentioned several times as is the mission to investigate her death.

"Some discussions provide different choices based on your stats but you’re not going to have the entire town suddenly turning hostile if you say something stupid."

As time goes on, you’ll discover other odd bits like dealing with the threatening Silas while Officer Bradley waits off to the side, waiting for your prompt. Yes, this is all probably nitpicking but it was weird. These instances manifest ever so occasionally and while they aren’t outright bad, they can come across as unnatural. It thankfully doesn’t weigh on the game as a whole.

The voice-acting is good for the most part even if it’s nothing spectacular. Each character, from the hard-boiled Pierce to the enigmatic Cat, makes an impression. Will you necessarily remember them once the experience is done? Probably not but whether it’s Bradley’s innocuous bumbling, Cat’s “sometimes kind, sometimes not” behaviour or even Pierce’s charisma, the writing and voice acting can be fairly on point during conversations. Some discussions provide different choices based on your stats but you’re not going to have the entire town suddenly turning hostile if you say something stupid. Specific choices will “affect your destiny” but they didn’t seem to make a huge difference on the minute-to-minute gameplay.

Where the minute-to-minute differences can be seen are in the semi-free-form sections. Call of Cthulhu divides its time between sections, where you’re free to discover numerous different ways to complete an objective, and investigations, where you piece together clues from a crime scene to gather insight. Want to get into Warehouse 36? Investigate a nearby sewer entry, pilfer some parts together and make sure the Strength stat favours you when lifting the sewer grate. Or you could get tossed out by Cat and attempt to smooth-talk her thugs later based on clues gathered. Or you could just walk right up to Cat and ask to be let in but only if you agree to “owe” her.

"Pacing-wise, it feels like Call of Cthulhu is shuffling from one chapter to the next. If you’re expecting a scare per minute, like Outlast, then this might not be the experience for you."

Similarly, an escape mission later on tasks you with creating a distraction while offering numerous different ways to do so. Gather pills for an inmate so he’ll make a ruckus, overload one of the key machines, whatever it takes. These segments can be pretty good since they challenge you to make the best use of stat allotments, whether it’s garnering information through eloquent speech or forcing things to work through sheer strength and/or lock picking skill. They’re not overtly difficult or mind-bending, much less equivalent to what immersive sims can offer, but serve their purpose well enough.

The investigations and “reconstructions” leave a bit to be desired though. Often intertwining, you’ll enter a crime scene and attempt to piece things together via pseudo-flashbacks. Think along the lines of Batman: Arkham Knight’s crime scene investigations. In Call of Cthulhu though, it’s pretty much just walking around, clicking on certain things and then exiting the reconstruction. I can’t even credit them for having much narrative weight since they can be mostly static. Seeing Thomas Hawkins lashing out at dinner or engaging in a secret meeting would have felt more impactful if they were more dynamic. Perhaps these interactions would have also been weightier rather than simple story bits that exist to plug holes in the mystery.

On some occasions, I encountered issues with these reconstructions. Exiting the very first one caused the game to bug out, preventing the selection of dialogue choices when talking to Bradley. Exiting the reconstruction of the aforementioned secret meeting was also impossible the first time but reloading it and choosing a different sequence of things to click on made it play normally. Being unable to re-enter a reconstruction after exiting it is also kind of weird.

Pacing-wise, it feels like Call of Cthulhu is shuffling from one chapter to the next. If you’re expecting a scare per minute, like Outlast, then this might not be the experience for you. If a mounting atmospheric horror akin to Amnesia or even Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth is what you’re after, then you might also struggle to sustain interest here.

"Though certain aspects can be enjoyable in their own right, I often found myself waiting for something interesting to happen."

The mystery itself is the key appeal, as you learn more about the Hawkins family and immerse yourself in the dingy caves and shady asylums of the island. There’s some kind of noir appeal to it all, as the trench-coat wearing Pierce investigates matters, trusty lighter barely illuminating the environment. Elements of horror can definitely be found but for all intents and purposes, you’ll be doing a lot of investigating and conversing with different NPCs. Mind you, the revelations aren’t exactly crazy and the overall story-telling isn’t helped by the non-in-game cut-scenes, which seem to be of lower quality than the actual gameplay graphics.

Also, while the aesthetics for Call of Cthulhu can be pretty cool, some graphical aspects stick out like so many sore thumbs. Some facial textures feel bland at times. Animations can be stilted and somewhat awkward for NPCs. I didn’t come across any glitches or performance issues, especially when running on Epic settings, so that’s a positive. Call of Cthulhu is just such an odd game. The overall package aren’t offensively bad nor is it overwhelmingly amazing (or even really good). The game just doesn’t seem to really run with the massive potential of its premise and mythos. Instead, it’s a steady jog, one that’s serviceable and workman-like all the way to the finish line but imminently forgettable when the next big video game marathon rolls around.

Though certain aspects can be enjoyable in their own right, I often found myself waiting for something interesting to happen. Your mileage may differ though and I can appreciate developer Cyanide for trying to create a compelling mystery with Lovecraft’s short story as the base. However, in terms of horror, investigating, puzzle solving, decision-making and immersive sim mechanics, Call of Cthulhu is far from the most fitting tribute to The Great Old One.

This game was reviewed on PC.

THE SETUP

Call of Cthulhu takes place in the year 1924, as a private investigator travels to the isolated location of Darkwater Island, a few miles off the coast of Boston. The purpose of his trip is to investigate the murder of the Hawkins family, who used to reside in a large, imposing mansion that was burned down in a mysterious fire. The island is a hostile, dark place, and as the game progresses, the player becomes embroiled in a horrifying plot to for the revival of the Great Old One Cthulhu.

THE PROTAGONIST

You play as Edward Pierce, who, as we’ve discussed, is a private investigator though. Other than, however, he’s also a veteran of World War I, dealing with post-war issues, which he copes with through an addiction to alcohol. Pierce’s PTSD and his struggles with alcoholism are going to be quite important to the game’s story (and even its mechanics) for several reasons, the chief among which is…

SANITY

Call of Cthulhu will also feature sanity (or insanity) as a mechanic within the game, featuring a sanity meter that determines how much of a grip Pierce has on reality. He’s unhealthy as it is, as we’ve already mentioned, and the events of the game push him closer and closer toward insanity. The more details Pierce learns about not just the Hawkins family’s murder mystery, but also wit the larger mysteries of the island, and the closer he gets to finding out the hidden truth, the more he slowly loses his grasp on sanity.

MULTIPLE ENDINGS

Sanity will tie in with the game’s conclusion as well. Depending on how much Pierce knows by the time the ending rolls around, his level of sanity will vary quite a bit, and both these elements will also determine which ending players get, of which there will be more than just one. It should be interesting to see how much these endings vary, and how much the players’ actions affect the outcome of the larger story.

PHOBIAS

Sanity isn’t the only psychological thing that’s going to be instrumental to Call of Cthulhu and how it plays, with phobias also being one of the game’s mechanics. At several points in the game, depending on different situations and and what area you find yourself in, certain phobias will be triggered in Pierce. These phobias will apparently have varying impacts on gameplay- how much phobias will be tied with sanity mechanics, however, isn’t something developers Cyanide have spoken much about.

COMBAT

Combat won’t be a focus in the game, with Cyanide stating that even though Pierce is a World War I veteran, he won’t last in combat during gameplay very long. The developers describe it as more about surviving, escaping, or repelling combat. As such, players are encouraged to discover paths for progress themselves, which means that they are also presented with plenty of choice in gameplay, with stealth being one of the most effective paths.

INVESTIGATIONS

The fact that Edward Pierce is a private investigator investigating the mysterious deaths of a family should have clued you into the fact that investigations are going to be a pretty important aspect of the game as well. These involve talking to NPCs, and learning new details, or gaining the trust of a local. Alternatively, players can also pick locks, steal keys, and sneak around to break into homes and buildings and learn information in other ways. What’s interesting, though, is that the more you learn, the more sanity you lose, as we’ve discussed, so it should be interesting to see how that balance is achieved.

RECONSTRUCTING INCIDENTS

During certain instances, players will also be able to reconstruct particular scenes to determine incidents that took place there to piece together background information and learn more details. Players find clues during these reconstruction scenes to rebuild a picture of what took place and how the incident in question happened- kind of similar to the reconstruction of crime scenes in Batman: Arkham Origins, one would assume… but, well, not exactly, since you’re not Batman.

RECRUITING INVESTIGATORS

Investigations won’t just be limited to immediate activities that you directly participate in either. Throughout the game, players will also be able to gather and recruit a team of investigators through their choices and conversations, that they can then send to different locations on the island to solve side cases. That said, what benefits this might lead to isn’t something the developers have gone a great deal into so far.

LEVEL DESIGN

Call of Cthulhu will also feature a few levels that will be semi-open world in nature. While Cyanide have categorically stated that this is not an open world game and that it progresses in a linear fashion from one level to the next, they have confirmed that a few of these levels will have relatively more open areas. These will present branching paths, which players will have to choose between on the basis of their skills and desires, in order to make progress.

LENGTH

How much time of gameplay you can get out of a game has always been a very important factor when deciding whether or not to spend your money on it, but in today’s day and age of 100 hour long RPGs and games-as-a-service elements, it’s become even more pertinent. As for Call of Cthulhu, Cyanide have confirmed that the game will take roughly between twelve to fifteen hours to finish.

SIDE OBJECTIVES

That 12-15 hour figure, though – at least going by the what the developers have said – only applies to the game’s critical path, which means there’s other content in there for you to sink your teeth into. Call of Cthulhu will also present players with side objectives and activities, which should kick up that number by a few more hours. One aspect of this is surely going to be sending out the other investigators you’ve recruited, which we’ve already spoken of, but it should be interesting to see what other kinds of side missions and objectives the game will feature.

RPG MECHANICS

Even though Call of Cthulhu is first and foremost an atmospheric survival/psychological horror title (which makes sense, considering its source material), the game’s also going to have plenty of RPG elements (which also makes sense, for the same reason). From dialogue choices to decision making elements to levelling up and unlocking new skills, there’s going to be a decent amount of role playing mechanics in there. Oh, and speaking of skills…

SKILLS

A large section of the game will depend on the skills you’ve unlocked. It will determine, of course, things like how successful you are at stealth or combat, but other things will also be affected. For instance, how much players are able to learn from their surroundings, such as by reading a book or looking at a painting or other instances in the environment, will depend on their skills and how much they’ve progressed in particular areas.

NPC INTERACTIONS

It seems like you can’t be an RPG these days until and unless you have dialogue choices, and of course, as you would expect, Call of Cthulhu does indeed have those. The upcoming game will have a dialogue wheel during interactions with NPCs. Encounters and conversations with characters can have different outcomes based on what choices players make, which can involve subterfuge, intimidation, trying to talk your way out, or a direct, violent approach.

HP Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos makes for some excellent cosmic horror, but it hasn’t translated too well into games (aside from Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth). Cyanide Studio’s Call of Cthulhu holds immense promise though, offering a world of macabre and cultists with the Great Ones threatening to overtake our hero’s sanity. Check out its latest trailer below.

Thanks to the trailer, we’ve learned a bit about the protagonist, investigator Edward Pierce’s skills. Spot Hidden and Investigation skills let players discover more clues and offer better conclusions, leading to more dialogue topics. Eloquence and Psychology are good for getting suspects to trust Pierce. The Strength skill can either be used for fighting or intimidating people, while Medicine and Occultism will provide more insight from books and artefacts.

One interesting twist is that as Pierce is exposed to horrific circumstances, his grip on reality will start to falter, hindering his investigative ability in the process. Call of Cthulhu looks to be nailing the aesthetic of Lovecraft’s work, but can its gameplay succeed as well? We’ll find out when it releases on October 30th for Xbox One, PS4, and PC.

At Gamescom a couple of weeks ago, Focus Home Interactive and Cyanide Studio had showcased a gameplay trailer  of their upcoming game, Call of Cthulhu. If that video wasn’t enough for you and you’ve been waiting to see more, then you’ll be happy  to know that a new hour long video has been released which showcases the opening section of the game.

The developers also provide  commentary to the gameplay which begins with the  detective Edward Pierce waking up in a dark and mouldy cave as he tries to find his way around. The developers also discuss how combat isn’t an integral part of the game, and the protagonist will often have to rely on hiding from enemies or risk losing his sanity. We also get to see some of the different creepy characters interacting with each other, and the atmosphere is often terrifying, so we can’t wait to see more.

You can check out the new gameplay video. Call of Cthulhu is set to release for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One on October 30.

It combines elements of psychological horror, stealth, and role playing, and is an adaptation of the 1981 pen and paper RPG of the same name, which in turn was based on The Call of Cthulhu, a short story written by H.P. Lovecraft.

Development

When Call of Cthulhu was first announced by publishers Focus Home Interactive back in January of 2014, they confirmed that the game would be developed by Frogwares, who had till then been known for making adventure games based on their Sherlock Holmes license in their Adventures of Sherlock Holmes series. Even back then, they confirmed that the game would be based in a horror setting, but would employ investigation mechanics similar to the ones seen in their Sherlock Holmes titles.

However, the following two words there were no updates on the game, and after speculation started to mount that it might have been cancelled, Focus Home Interactive re-announced Call of Cthulhu. They announced that development of the game had been handed off to a different studio, Cyanide, and that it would be expanding upon the original vision of Frogwares. Focus Home also announced that rather than being based on the H.P. Lovecraft short story, it would now be more of an adaptation of the tabletop RPG of the same name. It was announced for a 2017 release, but was later delayed to 2018.

The developers have stated that other than H.P. Lovecraft’s short story and the tabletop RPG, they took inspiration from games such as Alone in the Dark and Metro: Last Light. It is built on Unreal Engine 4.

Story

Call of Cthulhu takes place in the year 1924, and follows the story of Edward Pierce, who is a veteran of the First World War and a struggling alcoholic, and now works as a private investigator. Pierce is hired to investigate the death of a family – the Hawkins family – who used to reside in a large, imposing mansion that was burned down in a mysterious fire. To investigate their deaths, Pierce travels to the location of their burned down mansion, Darkwater Island, which is an isolated island situated a few miles off the coast of Boston. The island itself is a hostile setting, housing cultists, unfriendly locals, and uncooperative police officials. As Pierce investigates the death of the family, he becomes embroiled in conspiracies, faced with unimaginable horrors that force him to face his own growing insanity, and discover a plot for the revival of the Great Old One Cthulhu.

Gameplay

Call of Cthulhu is a game that will blend both the RPG and horror genres. The game will be played from a first person perspective, and will take 12 to 15 hours to complete, as per the developers. Combat won’t be a focus in the game, with Cyanide stating that even though Pierce is a World War I veteran, he won’t last in combat during gameplay very long. The developers describe it as more about surviving, escaping, or repelling combat. As such, players are encouraged to discover paths for progress themselves, which means that they are also presented with plenty of choice in gameplay. Stealth and investigations are also viable options for progress.

Investigations involve talking to NPCs and learning new details or gaining the trust of a local, but alternatively, players can also pick locks, steal keys, and sneak around to break into homes and buildings and learn information in other ways. Call of Cthulhu also has a dialogue wheel during interactions with NPCs. Encounters and conversations with characters can have different outcomes based on what choices players make, which can involve subterfuge, intimidation, trying to talk your way out, or a direct, violent approach. Players will also be able to gather and recruits a team of investigators through their choices and conversations that they can then send to different locations on the island to solve side cases.

The developers have also stated that incident details and information players gather from their environment and surroundings will determine how much they are able to unveil about the mysteries surrounding the death of the Hawkins family, and the larger mysteries of the island itself. In turn, how much players are able to learn from their surroundings, such as by reading a book or looking at a painting or other instances in the environment, will depend on their skills and how much they’ve progressed in particular areas.

During certain instances, players will also be able to reconstruct particular scenes to determine incidents that took place there to piece together background information and learn more details. Players find clues during these reconstruction scenes to rebuild a picture of what took place and how the incident in question happened. Finding more clues leads to more information and knowledge, which players can then apply in future conversations and other situations. The game will also have several endings.

Call of Cthulhu will also feature a few levels that will be semi-open world in nature. While Cyanide have categorically stated that this is not an open world game and that it progresses in a linear fashion from one level to the next, they have confirmed that a few of these levels will have relatively more open areas. These will present branching paths, which players will have to choose between on the basis of their skills and desires, in order to make progress. There will also be some side objectives in the game for players to tackle.

Call of Cthulhu will also feature insanity mechanics. The protagonist, dealing with post traumatic stress disorder from his days in the First World War, as well as his alcoholism, is unhealthy as it is, and the events of the game push him closer and closer toward insanity. The more players learn and the more details they are able to gather from various methods, the closer they get to finding out the real truths, which leads to Pierce slowly losing his grasp on sanity. The game will have an insanity meter.

The developers have claimed that Pierce’s sanity will go down no matter what, but players will have control over how much of his sanity he is able to retain by the time the game comes to an end. The level of players’ sanity will also have an impact on what ending players get- the lower the sanity they have, the fewer endings they will have available to them. The developers have explained that as Pierce continues to grow more insane, he becomes less capable of making rational choices, thus giving players fewer choices to make as well. Additionally, the game will also feature phobias as a mechanic, with different areas and situations in the game triggering different kinds of phobias, which will have varying effects.

Note: This wiki will be updated once we have more information about the game.

Bit by bit, Focus Home Interactive and Cyanide Studio have pulled back the curtain on their upcoming Lovecraftian horror RPG Call of Cthulhu, and it’s certainly caught our attention. From its branching levels to its brand of psychological horror, it’s looked interesting, to say the least. We’ve now got another four minute-long gameplay trailer of the game, shown off at Gamescom 2018, and it gives us a nice and long look at what we can expect from the game.

The trailer, which is accompanied by developer commentary, gives us a nice look at several mechanics, mostly focusing on things such as player choice and dialogue options, while also going into quite a bit of detail about how players’ progress will depend on the details they accrue from their surroundings during investigations. It certainly looks atmospheric, even if the visuals themselves do look a little rough around the edges.

You can take a look at the video below. Recently, it was confirmed that Call of Cthulhu would be launching on October 30 for the Xbox One, PS4, and PC. The game will run at 4K resolutions on the Xbox One X, but wont feature support for a higher 60 FPS frame rate. Read more on that here.

Dead Cells

Motion Twin’s rogue-like, semi-procedurally generated Metroidvania title has a lot of buzz going for it. Throw in dodge rolls and punishing yet satisfying combat with a gorgeous pixel art style and you have something truly extraordinary. In early access since 2017, Dead Cells has already garnered acclaim for its level design, pacing and enemies, not to mention the sheer selection of weapons and combat possibilities. Each run is tempered by an intriguing build and with the full release on August 7^th, we finally get to see the entire story come together. Dead Cells will be available for Xbox One, PS4, PC and Nintendo Switch.