Reader Request Game Reviews: "Call of Cthulu: The Wasted Land"

Last week, I put out a call to ask what games you wanted me to review, and you guys delivered with a whole bunch of titles. First up: “Call of Cthulu: The Wasted Land”, requested by Junior Safehouse.

Designed for PC and tablets, this is actually apparently an officially licensed game from the pen-and-paper role-playing series, set during World War I and featuring Lovecraftian beasties.

Oh, and it’s also a real time strategy game.

The key thing about this game is that it’s five bucks, so really, it’s hard to complain about it being, say, for example, pretty short, which it is. But it’s pretty fun, and it’s well-designed, mechanically; experience points come in as a total, but you can sometimes level up a skill by using it.

Before you ask, yep, the Sanity system is here, and it’s as rough on you as it is during a pen-and-paper game.

There are balance problems galore: you’ll never use spells, because spells suck. Overwatch, where if you don’t spend points you can blast at incoming opponents, can be a gamebreaker if the dice roll your way. In keeping with tradition, if you show up with the wrong gear load-out, you’re boned before you even start a mission. And the final mission will basically stuff you into a sack and beat you with a stick.

On the other hand, the game keeps the cash and XP high enough to mostly prevent frustration but low enough to make resource allocation and hard decisions a key part of the game. And the map design is superb, full of clouds of poison gas, trenches, and other obstacles that make getting a mission done a challenge.

Red Wasp, the developers, are fairly new, but this is a good game, and with some more time and polish, they’re poised to put out a classic. As for this…hey, it’s five bucks: I played it on PC, but it’s also available for tablets, so give it a try.

Next: “Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier”.

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