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Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth at E3 2001

The Specs

Dark Corners of the Earth has the unusual premise of having the player investigate his own death. The game begins with a cutscene showing a character in an asylum driven mad and hanging himself, his diary open beneath his dangling legs. The game then retells the events leading to the suicide, with the player having to solve puzzles and fill in the diary as the game unfolds. As each day is completed, the events recorded in the diary can be read as a story. This is an officially licensed H.P. Lovecraft action adventure game played in first person. There will be puzzles set in diverse locations such as catacombs, an insane asylum, ships, and submarines. A realistic physics model will allow for flying debris and destructible walls and windows. To further realism, the player will gauge his health by looking at his character's body and check his ammo by opening the gun. Events will affect the character's sanity, which can skew his view of the world as it erodes. Dark Corners of the Earth will also come with an editor and support for multiplayer deathmatch and cooperative modes.

The Speculation

Mark's Comments: This one looked interesting, though I'm not sold on the idea of having to open a revolver to count ammo or inspect my character to determine his health level. I'm not a big fan of Lovecraft, but I am a big fan of effective horror in action games, so I hope this game pulls it off. By the way, if you get motion sickness from games, this one might be hard to take; it will model vertigo by making the display spin if you look down from a great height.

Tom's Comments: All Headfirst was showing at E3 was a handful of non-interactive movies, so it's hard to tell how the crucial factors are coming along. This game will live or die based on how well they can build the essentials of Lovecraft into a computer game: horror, mystery, insanity, and other things prone to going by the wayside and leaving behind just another Undying style shooter. It doesn't exactly instill confidence that the bulk of the team's experience is with the light-hearted Simon the Sorcerer games. But at least we can credit Headfirst with not focusing on a bunch of footage of Deep Ones being blown away with a shotgun.

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May 22, 2001