If Sherlock Holmes came across Eldritch horrors

Let me preface this by saying that what interested me about this game was the Lovecraftian horror aspect first and foremost. The detective aspect of this game is a real "take it or leave it" moment for me. Personally, I haven't dived into too much of Lovecraft's work in any form, but I figured, why not give it a go in my favorite medium of all.... video games. This resulted in a great 7-hour dive into mystery, madness, and........ squids?

The Plot

The game starts out in ways similar to what I would assume are other detective-style games. You, as the detective, get a job from someone that takes you somewhere where weird stuff is happening, all surrounding the disappearance of someone. The characters are fine, the locations are fine, it's all just fine. Nothing here will blow your socks off, BUT through the eyes of someone like myself who has not dived into any Lovecraftian media before, it interested me enough to verbally exclaim "Woah!" multiple times.

Private Eye Pierce is written in a way that made me feel neutral toward him, and I think it worked well for the story they wanted to tell and its structure. The rest of the cast is unfortunately very forgettable, as they all fall into some form of widely used trope. But they didn't need to be anything more than that, because the focus of this game is centered around Pierce and his mental stability, which brings me to the gameplay itself....

Playing the game

This is a first-person, narrative-driven horror game, to put it in its simplest form. Talking to people, gathering clues, putting together a mystery, and so on. Your search for answers takes you to places that are naturally going to be scary (because it's a horror game, right?), but what happens at those locations is what makes this game pretty noteworthy. A descent into madness, if you will.

On top of all this, this game incorporates RPG-style skills to assist you along your journey that are tailored toward being a private investigator. So think not "strength, attack power, etc." but more along the lines of "intelligence, persuasion, comprehension." This surely looks weird on paper, but considering this is a game with multiple endings and where your choices matter (with maybe one combat encounter, if you can even call it that?), it works really well.

One thing that didn't quite land with me was the frequency with which you had a choice to make. They felt few and far between, and in a relatively short 7-hour runtime, it makes me wonder how much they actually mattered. My suspicion is that it relies on a combination of your decisions, what dialogue options you choose, and your psyche by the end of it. It's either that, or it's just the final decision that matters. I have no idea, having played it only one time, and some could see that as a detriment, me included.

Graphics

Alright, so the game is $20 right now as of writing. Why do I say this when we are talking graphics? Because it looks like a $20 game. I don't mean that as an insult, but it's no AAA visual feast.

That being said, the world-building here is pretty top-notch. This team knows how to set a vibe and ambiance with the tools at their disposal. If you flipped through the Steam page screenshots or watched a gameplay trailer, you're most of the way there on what to expect.

The Short Version

In short, Call of Cthulhu was a pleasant time. For me, I think it's worth the $20, but it does go on sale often. It's a solid pick and a great dive into Lovecraft for anyone interested. I don't regret my time with it, and considering this was my first dive into Lovecraft, it's a pretty enjoyable title for me.