Cthulhu is experiencing something of a resurgence these days. From adorable plushies and animated cartoons to a series of family-friendly board games, the Elder God is everywhere. His uprising all hail the Dark Lord continues apace at E3 with Focus Home Interactive releasing the first trailer for their upcoming game Call of Cthulhu. The trailer is for the PS4 version, but the game will also be available on Xbox One and PC.
A Lovecraftian psychological horror game (because what else would it be?), CoC puts you in the shoes of war veteran and private investigator Edward Pierce. Set in Boston in the 1920s, players will head to Dark Water Island to solve the mysterious demise of one Sarah Hawkins, mother, wife, and artist. The trailer above leans in on the ‘insanity’ portion of close proximity to Cthulhu or other eldritch gods. Some of the visuals will feel familiar to anyone who played the 2002 GameCube game Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem. Like that cult classic, CoC appears to play with the player’s mind: what is real and what is not? The game will even come with a “sanity” mechanics, which one can assume will show how close Edward Pierce is to truly losing his mind as the player delves deeper into the madness surrounding the island.
A full list of game features, from Focus’ website, shows an ambitious project:
– Investigative RPG set in the Lovecraft Universe, developed with Unreal Engine 4.
– Play as Edward Pierce and shed light on Sarah Hawkins murder, while facing the horrors of a grim island filled with monstrosities lurking in the dark.
– Doubt your own senses and experience true madness, thanks to the game’s unique sanity and psychosis crisis mechanics. Enhance your character’s abilities and use new skills to discover the truth.
– Recruit and lead a small team of investigators, sending them across the island to solve various cases.
– Experience rich, open exploration, full of deep dialogue with meaningful choices that impact the narrative and relationships with your companions.
For those who do not follow the Dark Lord Cthulhu, a brief explanation. Created by H.P. Lovecraft in 1928, Cthulhu was the titular creature in the short story The Call of Cthulhu. An elder god worshipped by cultists, Cthulhu is merely one of many “Great Old Ones” whose existence is too terrifying for the human mind to comprehend. To worship Cthulhu or his brethren is to court madness. The closer one gets to the elder gods and their “corpse city” of R’lyeah, the looser one’s grip on reality becomes. The Call of Cthulhu would go on to spawn the dozens of stories an in interconnected universe and would launch H.P. Lovecraft into literary history.
Focus Home Interactive has had a spotty record in the past. Contrast was a darkly delightful puzzle game but The Technomancer was a mess. However, if Focus can, ahem, focus their efforts, Call of Cthulhu will be a must-have for fans of either Lovecraft or the horror genre.