If I could give this game a mixed review on steam I would, but I have to give it a negative review because the bad definitely outweighs the good with this game. I have been waiting for this game for over 3 years and to say I'm disappointed is an understatement. My time with this game was somewhat enjoyable (and buggy) but there's just so much that bothers me.

The story is pretty bare-bones, like it's basically just hitting the beats a lovecraftian story is built off of (drunk grizzled detective, mysterious deaths, a cult lurking in the shadows, tentacles, etc.) and it never really challenges or tries to expand on the ideas that Lovecraft has laid down. Even with how basic this premise is if it was executed well could be at least serviceable albeit a somewhat generic story, however Call of Cthullhu fails to even keep a simple premise like this afloat, The dialogue ranges from "OK, but predictable" to "really, really bad" and it will fluctuate like that frequently (sometimes mid-conversation).

The gameplay is..... OK...... It reminds me of older adventure games which is fine but there's some really stupid shoehorned stealth and combat sections sprinkled in that are just so atrociously bad it's baffling why they even bothered. Exploring is nice and the few puzzles thrown in are disappointingly easy, however I'm ok with what they were since they broke up the flow nicely. However the "RPG" mechanics are so ridiculously bare-bones and shallow it really makes me wonder why they added it in the first place. Yes, there's a character sheet with stats, point to assign, and objects to increase these stats hidden out in the world but it really felt like there was no effect with what stat I chose. The only ones I can say made somewhat of a difference were the Hidden Object and Investigation stats, which made finding hidden objects and picking locks easier respectively. Having higher proficiency in certain stats leads to different dialogue options, however these never really felt impactful or important and I never felt like the outcome of a conversation hinged on my stats as all the vital information can be easily achieved with base stats in everything.

The horror is majorly disappointing, I'm a huge horror fan, I'm a huge HP Lovecraft fan, but the horror in this game was just pitiful. They build this nice tense atmosphere and ruin it with ♥♥♥♥ jumpscares that aren't even scary since they all mostly happen in poorly animated cutscenes (which I'll get to in a moment) and feel extremely out of place. Without spoiling much the main monster you encounter a few times looks like something out of Dead Space 2, and since it's shown so eagerly and without hesitation any tension surrounding it is instantly lost.

As I mentioned above, the cutscenes are some of the worst I've seen since like 2011. The lip-sync is completely off, the characters faces look disgusting (and I mean that genuinely, they are unnerving with how bad they look sometimes), and the animations vary from passable to something that wouldn't look out of place in a SFM or Gmod movie.

Lastly, bugs. I've ran into several while playing through this game from audio cutting out or skipping to menu functions not working until I restarted from my last save. However the most annoying one that I encountered multiple times was when I wouldn't be able to select any dialogue options, and since there's no way to leave dialogue with an npc I would have to plug in a controller to select an option, but once I did that all the in-game menus wouldn't respond so I would have to reload to my last save. These bugs aren't that big, but all this coupled with the above issues made the game seriously frustrating at points during my playthrough.

Overall, this game is mediocre at best. There's some good atmosphere building in the first 8 or so chapters but all of that is thrown away for ♥♥♥♥ in the last leg of the game. If you're a huge fan of Lovecraft like myself go play the original Call of Cthulhu and wait for this one to go on sale, like steeply on sale.

(Last thing and I'll shut up, but you should also be aware that there is no in game way to turn off motion blur or turn up the FOV which made me extremely sick until I did some .ini editing)

If I could give this game a mixed review on steam I would, but I have to give it a negative review because the bad definitely outweighs the good with this game. I have been waiting for this game for over 3 years and to say I'm disappointed is an understatement. My time with this game was somewhat enjoyable (and buggy) but there's just so much that bothers me. The story is pretty bare-bones, like it's basically just hitting the beats a lovecraftian story is built off of (drunk grizzled detective, mysterious deaths, a cult lurking in the shadows, tentacles, etc.) and it never really challenges or tries to expand on the ideas that Lovecraft has laid down. Even with how basic this premise is if it was executed well could be at least serviceable albeit a somewhat generic story, however Call of Cthullhu fails to even keep a simple premise like this afloat, The dialogue ranges from "OK, but predictable" to "really, really bad" and it will fluctuate like that frequently (sometimes mid-conversation). The gameplay is..... OK...... It reminds me of older adventure games which is fine but there's some really stupid shoehorned stealth and combat sections sprinkled in that are just so atrociously bad it's baffling why they even bothered. Exploring is nice and the few puzzles thrown in are disappointingly easy, however I'm ok with what they were since they broke up the flow nicely. However the "RPG" mechanics are so ridiculously bare-bones and shallow it really makes me wonder why they added it in the first place. Yes, there's a character sheet with stats, point to assign, and objects to increase these stats hidden out in the world but it really felt like there was no effect with what stat I chose. The only ones I can say made somewhat of a difference were the Hidden Object and Investigation stats, which made finding hidden objects and picking locks easier respectively. Having higher proficiency in certain stats leads to different dialogue options, however these never really felt impactful or important and I never felt like the outcome of a conversation hinged on my stats as all the vital information can be easily achieved with base stats in everything. The horror is majorly disappointing, I'm a huge horror fan, I'm a huge HP Lovecraft fan, but the horror in this game was just pitiful. They build this nice tense atmosphere and ruin it with shit jumpscares that aren't even scary since they all mostly happen in poorly animated cutscenes (which I'll get to in a moment) and feel extremely out of place. Without spoiling much the main monster you encounter a few times looks like something out of Dead Space 2, and since it's shown so eagerly and without hesitation any tension surrounding it is instantly lost. As I mentioned above, the cutscenes are some of the worst I've seen since like 2011. The lip-sync is completely off, the characters faces look disgusting (and I mean that genuinely, they are unnerving with how bad they look sometimes), and the animations vary from passable to something that wouldn't look out of place in a SFM or Gmod movie. Lastly, bugs. I've ran into several while playing through this game from audio cutting out or skipping to menu functions not working until I restarted from my last save. However the most annoying one that I encountered multiple times was when I wouldn't be able to select any dialogue options, and since there's no way to leave dialogue with an npc I would have to plug in a controller to select an option, but once I did that all the in-game menus wouldn't respond so I would have to reload to my last save. These bugs aren't that big, but all this coupled with the above issues made the game seriously frustrating at points during my playthrough. Overall, this game is mediocre at best. There's some good atmosphere building in the first 8 or so chapters but all of that is thrown away for shit in the last leg of the game. If you're a huge fan of Lovecraft like myself go play the original Call of Cthulhu and wait for this one to go on sale, like steeply on sale. (Last thing and I'll shut up, but you should also be aware that there is no in game way to turn off motion blur or turn up the FOV which made me extremely sick until I did some .ini editing)