Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth
Encyclopedia
Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth is a Lovecraftian horror
first-person action-adventure game
developed by Headfirst Productions
and published by Bethesda Softworks
in 2005, in conjunction with 2K Games
. The game was released for the PC and Xbox
systems; the Xbox version is officially compatible with the Xbox 360
in certain regions.
The game is based on the works of H. P. Lovecraft
, author of The Call of Cthulhu
and progenitor of the Cthulhu Mythos
. It is a re-imagining of Lovecraft's novella The Shadow Over Innsmouth
, also containing elements from the Call of Cthulhu
role-playing game campaign "Escape from Innsmouth". Although the story diverges in several places and features a different protagonist, several levels in the game mirror passages from the novella. A major sub-plot of the game is also inspired by Lovecraft's novella The Shadow Out of Time
.
At least two and possibly three additional Cthulhu Mythos games were planned by Headfirst Productions, including the direct sequel to Dark Corners titled Call of Cthulhu: Destiny's End
. However, due to the bankruptcy and liquidation of Headfirst in 2006, these games were effectively canceled.
located in Boston, Massachusetts. The manor is inhabited by a small cult called the Fellowship of the Yith
, led by one Victor Holt. Taking cover from an ensuing firefight, Jack finds himself separated from the police and trapped inside the mansion, with no option but to investigate. When the rest of the police finally break in, they find the cultists dead by mass suicide
and Walters apparently insane. He is committed to Arkham Asylum, where he stays for several years.
More than six years later, Walters is released and returns to life as a private detective. He takes up a missing person case at Innsmouth
, a strange and xenophobic coastal town. After asking the rude locals about the incident, he stays a night at the local hotel, where he barely escapes an attempt to murder him. From that point forward, he is forced to sneak through the town, avoiding the murderous patrols of the townsfolk. He meets undercover agent Lucas Mackey, who tells him that the town is under government investigation. Jack finds the missing person and his girlfriend Ruth and they attempt to escape Innsmouth, but their car crashes, killing both of them.
Jack recovers from the incident and, following an interrogation, is taken in by the FBI under lead agent (and real-life FBI director) J. Edgar Hoover
. On September 8, the FBI raid the Marsh Gold Refinery, where Jack is attacked by an ancient creature known as a Shoggoth
and uncovers a Cthulhu
shrine. The FBI finally manages to destroy the refinery through the use of explosives.
Following the refinery raid, a combined land-and-sea assault by the U.S. government forces attacks Innsmouth on September 9. The only thing that proved problematic was the headquarters of the Esoteric Order of Dagon
, a religious organization centered on two undersea demigods and Cthulhu that holds the whole town under its grip. The building proved nigh-impossible to breach by the Coast Guard
and the Marines
, but Jack finds a way in through an old smuggling entrance (guarded by a star-spawn of Cthulhu) where he frees Agent Mackey and puts down the magical shield protecting the building. After discovering a secret chamber, he falls through the floor of a tunnel which leads into the sea.
Jack is rescued by the USS Urania, a Coast Guard cutter which is part of a group heading to Devil's Reef on September 10, following up on a lead provided by the FBI. A massive attack by Deep One
s and Father Dagon himself causes the Urania to sink, but Jack survives the encounter and finds himself on Devil's Reef. On Devil's Reef, Jack discovers old smuggling tunnels beneath the seabed and finds a tunnel leading to the underwater city of Y'ha-nthlei.
The city is found to be located below Devil's Reef and is the home of the Deep Ones and members of the Order. The Navy
submarines plan to torpedo the city, but are stopped by a magical barrier protecting the city. The Temple of Dagon is the source of the barrier, but the entrance is sealed off in anticipation of invasion. Walters finds another way in through ancient tunnels feared by the Deep Ones at the bottom of the city's foundations. Apparently, this passage, which leads to the temple, is the ancient prison of the flying polyps
, the enemy of the Great Race of Yith
. Jack manages to defeat them with the help of an Yithian energy weapon he found earlier. Jack enters the Temple of Dagon and kills Mother Hydra (whose song is generating the barrier) with the help of some mind-controlled Deep Ones. With the barrier gone, the submarines destroy the city, and Jack manages to escape through a portal leading back to the Order's headquarters.
In the end, it is revealed that a Yithian swapped minds with Jack Walter's father during the moment of Jack's conception. In flesh, Jack Walters is human, but he inherited Yithian psychic powers, which is the reason for the cultists' interest in him. Confined back in the asylum, the insane Jack hangs himself, unable to handle the reality of himself and what he has witnessed.
Literature
Entities
interface. The player character's condition is relayed through the sound cues of his heartbeat and breathing, which become more pronounced when wounded, and color draining from the screen with loss of blood and strength. Specific injuries are also indicated visually and aurally. For example, a broken leg causes Jack to limp while making appropriate noises, and a broken arm makes aiming more difficult. The health system was designed as a more realistic take on character injury than other games of its genre in that different wounds and injuries require different remedies, such as a splint for a broken leg.
Jack loses sanity when he looks directly at upsetting aspects of the game world, such as mutilated bodies or precipitous drops, similar to the Nintendo Gamecube
game Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem
. Sanity loss can lead to hallucinations and visions, which manifest as graphical anomalies, sound distortion, and changes in control sensitivity. Jack also begins to suffer from schizophrenia, hearing voices from various sources, such as his inner child pleading for him to go back to darker personalities. If he becomes too unsettled, permanent insanity or suicide
cause a Game Over
.
Initially, the gameplay mostly comprises unarmed escape and evasion, together with investigative exploration, although weapons and combat are introduced later on. As with most survival horror action/adventure games, ammunition is limited and must be conserved carefully for situations when it will really be indispensable, occasionally requiring the player to avoid combat even when armed. The game as a whole is heavily scripted and very linear, with only one path through the chapters from start to finish, in contrast with some earlier survival horror games such as the original Alone in the Dark
(which is also based on the Mythos). The areas marked with the Elder Sign
s serve as sanctuaries against the enemies and as save points
.
Most of the weapons in the game have real-life counterparts, including a Smith & Wesson M1917
, a Colt 1911, a double-barreled shotgun
, an M1903 Springfield and an M1921 Thompson
. The only exception is a Yithian directed-energy weapon
. The game does not have an artificial on-screen targeting reticle. Instead, the player must aim through the iron sights
on the weapons themselves. Sustained aiming tires the character and drops accuracy. The player character can melee
attack with a gun if all ammunition for it has been used up. The shooting system is unique in that fired rounds go exactly where the barrel is pointing. For example, if the player readies a weapon and pulls the trigger before the character animation has finished, the round may fly towards the sky if that's where the barrel was pointing when the shot was fired.
The game contains a number of bugs, which have never been officially patched. For example, during one mission the player needs to fire a cannon at enemy wizards. On some Windows systems
the enemies are not rendered by the game at all, making it very difficult for the player to hit them. There is an unofficial patch available that fixes some bugs and lowers the game's overall difficulty level. The bugs are generally intermittent, and restoring from an earlier saved game can be enough to get past them.
The first screenshots were shown in December 1999, and the game, originally planned for the PC and PlayStation 2
, was scheduled for release in the third quarter of 2001. Before E3 2001 the game was stated to be "70 percent complete", but it ended up being repeatedly delayed. In late 2002 the game's original publisher Fishtank Interactive
was taken over by JoWood
, which had no interest in the title. The developers then signed a deal with Bethesda to release the game for the PC and Xbox, and the development of the PS2 version was cancelled.
Headfirst Productions originally intended for a much larger, non-linear RPG
-type storyline to be fitted within the game, including more characters and locations, as well as a co-op system for up to four players, which would have enabled players to pick one of four characters and carry out their own investigation independently or team up with the others. A multiplayer version of the game would have allowed for online deathmatch
battles in specifically designed levels. A lot of other features, such as high environment interactivity, were also scrapped due to budget and time constraints and problems with the level design.
Player weapons originally conceived but ultimately removed from the game include a wooden club with a nail protruding from one end, a wooden police baton, a meat cleaver
(the cleaver can still be seen in the Gilman hotel, however Jack refuses to touch it as it is covered in blood), a fishing harpoon
, a tomahawk
axe, a metal bar (the bar survived to be used as an item in the game), a poison-tipped Deep One spear, dynamite
sticks, hand grenade
s, a flamethrower
(which does appear as a non-acquirable weapon in the final game), a Luger P-08 pistol, a Mauser C96
broomhandle pistol (removed because it was too similar to the two handguns that made it into the game), a single-barrel Winchester Model 1912
12-gauge
pump action shotgun
(some enemies carry this shotgun, but the player cannot use it), a 4" Colt Python
.357 Magnum
revolver, and a stationary M2 Browning machine gun (it is seen in the Marsh Refinery level but cannot be used). The Springfield rifle was originally going to be equipped with a scope
and bayonet
.
Headfirst initially used the game engine
NDL NetImmerse for rendering graphics combined with the Havok
physics engine but later developed its own engine. The game's protagonist Jack Walters went through up to eight different phases before a final look was designed by Tim Appleton. The title was eventually released in October 2005 for Xbox and in March 2006 for the PC.
, the PC version of the game has an average critic score of 76/100 ("Generally favorable reviews"), with 9 positive and 8 mixed reviews. GameRankings averages the review scores of the Xbox version to 78%.
It was one of the five games nominated by GameSpot
for the title of Most Surprisingly Good Game of 2005, with a comment: "After a development cycle that was nearing infinity, it's hard to imagine a world where this H.P. Lovecraft-based horror game turned out all right. Luckily for us, we don't have to imagine it." In 2010, 1UP.com
featured it on the list of Top 5 Game Worlds Where Insanity Is The Entire Point. In 2011, PC Gamer
ranked it as 87th on the list of the 100 best PC games of all time.
Lovecraftian horror
Lovecraftian horror is a sub-genre of horror fiction which emphasizes the cosmic horror of the unknown over gore or other elements of shock, though these may still be present. It is named after American author H. P...
first-person action-adventure game
Action-adventure game
An action-adventure game is a video game that combines elements of the adventure game genre with various action game elements. It is perhaps the broadest and most diverse genre in gaming, and can include many games which might better be categorized under narrow genres...
developed by Headfirst Productions
Headfirst Productions
Headfirst Productions was a British video game studio established by father and son Mike and Simon Woodroffe in 1998. The studio was an independent developer of games for both the console and PC market.- Games :...
and published by Bethesda Softworks
Bethesda Softworks
Bethesda Softworks, LLC, is an American video game company. A subsidiary of ZeniMax Media, the company was originally based in Bethesda, Maryland and eventually moved to their current location in Rockville, Maryland...
in 2005, in conjunction with 2K Games
2K Games
2K is a global developer, marketer, distributor and publisher of interactive entertainment software games. 2K Games is a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive, which also owns Rockstar Games notable for the Grand Theft Auto series...
. The game was released for the PC and Xbox
Xbox
The Xbox is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe and is the predecessor to the Xbox 360. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console...
systems; the Xbox version is officially compatible with the Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
in certain regions.
The game is based on the works of H. P. Lovecraft
H. P. Lovecraft
Howard Phillips Lovecraft --often credited as H.P. Lovecraft — was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction....
, author of The Call of Cthulhu
The Call of Cthulhu
The Call of Cthulhu is a short story by American writer H. P. Lovecraft. Written in the summer of 1926, it was first published in the pulp magazine Weird Tales, in February 1928.-Inspiration:...
and progenitor of the Cthulhu Mythos
Cthulhu Mythos
The Cthulhu Mythos is a shared fictional universe, based on the work of American horror writer H. P. Lovecraft.The term was first coined by August Derleth, a contemporary correspondent of Lovecraft, who used the name of the creature Cthulhu - a central figure in Lovecraft literature and the focus...
. It is a re-imagining of Lovecraft's novella The Shadow Over Innsmouth
The Shadow Over Innsmouth
The Shadow Over Innsmouth is a novella by H. P. Lovecraft. Written in November-December 1931, the story was first published in April 1936; this was the only fiction of Lovecraft's published during his lifetime that did not appear in a periodical....
, also containing elements from the Call of Cthulhu
Call of Cthulhu (role-playing game)
Call of Cthulhu is a horror fiction role-playing game based on H. P. Lovecraft's story of the same name and the associated Cthulhu Mythos.The game, often abbreviated as CoC, is published by Chaosium.-Setting:...
role-playing game campaign "Escape from Innsmouth". Although the story diverges in several places and features a different protagonist, several levels in the game mirror passages from the novella. A major sub-plot of the game is also inspired by Lovecraft's novella The Shadow Out of Time
The Shadow Out of Time
The Shadow Out of Time is a novella by Americanhorror fiction writer H. P. Lovecraft. Written between November 1934 and February 1935, it was first published in the June 1936 issue of Astounding Stories.-Plot summary:...
.
At least two and possibly three additional Cthulhu Mythos games were planned by Headfirst Productions, including the direct sequel to Dark Corners titled Call of Cthulhu: Destiny's End
Call of Cthulhu: Destiny's End
Call of Cthulhu: Destiny's End was a third-person survival horror video game that was in production at British developer Headfirst Productions. It was planned as a sequel to the 2005 game Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth....
. However, due to the bankruptcy and liquidation of Headfirst in 2006, these games were effectively canceled.
Plot
On September 6, 1915, Detective Jack Walters is called to investigate a decrepit manor houseManor house
A manor house is a country house that historically formed the administrative centre of a manor, the lowest unit of territorial organisation in the feudal system in Europe. The term is applied to country houses that belonged to the gentry and other grand stately homes...
located in Boston, Massachusetts. The manor is inhabited by a small cult called the Fellowship of the Yith
Great Race of Yith
The Great Race of Yith are aliens in the Cthulhu Mythos of H. P. Lovecraft. They first appeared in Lovecraft's short story "The Shadow Out of Time" . They are called the Great Race because they are the only beings to have mastered time travel...
, led by one Victor Holt. Taking cover from an ensuing firefight, Jack finds himself separated from the police and trapped inside the mansion, with no option but to investigate. When the rest of the police finally break in, they find the cultists dead by mass suicide
Mass suicide
- Examples :Mass suicide sometimes occurs in religious or cultic settings. Defeated groups may resort to mass suicide rather than being captured. Suicide pacts are a form of mass suicide unconnected to cults or war that are sometimes planned or carried out by small groups of frustrated people...
and Walters apparently insane. He is committed to Arkham Asylum, where he stays for several years.
More than six years later, Walters is released and returns to life as a private detective. He takes up a missing person case at Innsmouth
Innsmouth
Innsmouth is a fictional town in the writings of H. P. Lovecraft, part of the Lovecraft Country setting of the Cthulhu Mythos.Lovecraft first used the name "Innsmouth" in his 1920 short story "Celephaïs" , where it refers to a fictional town in New England...
, a strange and xenophobic coastal town. After asking the rude locals about the incident, he stays a night at the local hotel, where he barely escapes an attempt to murder him. From that point forward, he is forced to sneak through the town, avoiding the murderous patrols of the townsfolk. He meets undercover agent Lucas Mackey, who tells him that the town is under government investigation. Jack finds the missing person and his girlfriend Ruth and they attempt to escape Innsmouth, but their car crashes, killing both of them.
Jack recovers from the incident and, following an interrogation, is taken in by the FBI under lead agent (and real-life FBI director) J. Edgar Hoover
J. Edgar Hoover
John Edgar Hoover was the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States. Appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation—predecessor to the FBI—in 1924, he was instrumental in founding the FBI in 1935, where he remained director until his death in 1972...
. On September 8, the FBI raid the Marsh Gold Refinery, where Jack is attacked by an ancient creature known as a Shoggoth
Shoggoth
A shoggoth is a fictional monster in the Cthulhu Mythos. The being was mentioned in passing in sonnet XX of H.P...
and uncovers a Cthulhu
Cthulhu
Cthulhu is a fictional character that first appeared in the short story "The Call of Cthulhu", published in the pulp magazine Weird Tales in 1928. The character was created by writer H. P...
shrine. The FBI finally manages to destroy the refinery through the use of explosives.
Following the refinery raid, a combined land-and-sea assault by the U.S. government forces attacks Innsmouth on September 9. The only thing that proved problematic was the headquarters of the Esoteric Order of Dagon
Esoteric Order of Dagon
The Esoteric Order of Dagon is a fictional cult in the Cthulhu mythos of H. P. Lovecraft.-Esoteric Order of Dagon in the mythos:Esoteric Order of Dagon was the primary religion in Innsmouth after Captain Obed Marsh returned from the South Seas with the dark religion circa 1838...
, a religious organization centered on two undersea demigods and Cthulhu that holds the whole town under its grip. The building proved nigh-impossible to breach by the Coast Guard
United States Coast Guard
The United States Coast Guard is a branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven U.S. uniformed services. The Coast Guard is a maritime, military, multi-mission service unique among the military branches for having a maritime law enforcement mission and a federal regulatory agency...
and the Marines
United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...
, but Jack finds a way in through an old smuggling entrance (guarded by a star-spawn of Cthulhu) where he frees Agent Mackey and puts down the magical shield protecting the building. After discovering a secret chamber, he falls through the floor of a tunnel which leads into the sea.
Jack is rescued by the USS Urania, a Coast Guard cutter which is part of a group heading to Devil's Reef on September 10, following up on a lead provided by the FBI. A massive attack by Deep One
Deep One
The Deep Ones are creatures in the Cthulhu Mythos of H. P. Lovecraft. The beings first appeared in Lovecraft's novella "The Shadow Over Innsmouth"...
s and Father Dagon himself causes the Urania to sink, but Jack survives the encounter and finds himself on Devil's Reef. On Devil's Reef, Jack discovers old smuggling tunnels beneath the seabed and finds a tunnel leading to the underwater city of Y'ha-nthlei.
The city is found to be located below Devil's Reef and is the home of the Deep Ones and members of the Order. The Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
submarines plan to torpedo the city, but are stopped by a magical barrier protecting the city. The Temple of Dagon is the source of the barrier, but the entrance is sealed off in anticipation of invasion. Walters finds another way in through ancient tunnels feared by the Deep Ones at the bottom of the city's foundations. Apparently, this passage, which leads to the temple, is the ancient prison of the flying polyps
Flying polyp
A flying polyp is a member of a fictional alien race in the Cthulhu Mythos. The creature first appeared in H. P...
, the enemy of the Great Race of Yith
Great Race of Yith
The Great Race of Yith are aliens in the Cthulhu Mythos of H. P. Lovecraft. They first appeared in Lovecraft's short story "The Shadow Out of Time" . They are called the Great Race because they are the only beings to have mastered time travel...
. Jack manages to defeat them with the help of an Yithian energy weapon he found earlier. Jack enters the Temple of Dagon and kills Mother Hydra (whose song is generating the barrier) with the help of some mind-controlled Deep Ones. With the barrier gone, the submarines destroy the city, and Jack manages to escape through a portal leading back to the Order's headquarters.
In the end, it is revealed that a Yithian swapped minds with Jack Walter's father during the moment of Jack's conception. In flesh, Jack Walters is human, but he inherited Yithian psychic powers, which is the reason for the cultists' interest in him. Confined back in the asylum, the insane Jack hangs himself, unable to handle the reality of himself and what he has witnessed.
Cthulhu Mythos elements
Persons- Zadok Allen provides the protagonist with a detailed recent history of the town, but is killed and thrown to the sewers to be fed to a Shoggoth.
- Obed Marsh's descendants play a large and prominent role in the story.
- A few fictional members of the Waite family ("The Thing on the DoorstepThe Thing on the Doorstep"The Thing on the Doorstep" is a short story written by H. P. Lovecraft, part of the so-called Cthulhu Mythos universe of horror fiction. It was written in August 1933, and first published in the January 1937 issue of Weird Tales.-Inspiration:...
") are part of the story. - One of the jailhouse inmates, Henry, complains of rats in the walls, as taken from Lovecraft's short story The Rats in the WallsThe Rats in the Walls"The Rats in the Walls" is a short story by American author H. P. Lovecraft. Written in August–September 1923, it was first published in Weird Tales, March 1924.-Plot summary:...
. - A direct reference to the short story The Whisperer in DarknessThe Whisperer in Darkness"The Whisperer in Darkness" is a short story by H. P. Lovecraft. Written February–September 1930, it was first published in Weird Tales, August 1931. Similar to "The Colour Out of Space" , it is a blend of horror and science fiction...
can be seen in the first level, where a cultist is found bound to a surgical table, his organs dissected from his body, yet still functioning in containers attached by tubes to his body. - Although not related to the Mythos, the character of Agent Mackey has a notable physical resemblance to H.P. Lovecraft himself.
Literature
- The game is a retelling of The Shadow Over InnsmouthThe Shadow Over InnsmouthThe Shadow Over Innsmouth is a novella by H. P. Lovecraft. Written in November-December 1931, the story was first published in April 1936; this was the only fiction of Lovecraft's published during his lifetime that did not appear in a periodical....
. - The Greek copy of the Pnakotic ManuscriptsPnakotic ManuscriptsThe Pnakotic Manuscripts is a fictional manuscript in the Cthulhu Mythos. The tome was created by H. P. Lovecraft and first appeared in his short story "Polaris"...
, known as the Pnakotica, appears in the game. - On a shelf in the protagonist's office, a copy of Unaussprechlichen KultenUnaussprechlichen KultenUnaussprechlichen Kulten is a fictional work of arcane literature in the Cthulhu Mythos. The book first appeared in Robert E. Howard's short stories "The Children of the Night" and "The Black Stone" as Nameless Cults. Like the Necronomicon, it was later mentioned in several stories by H. P...
and the Book of Eibon can be seen. - Most of the texts are directly tied to Dagon, such as his Book, Oaths, Tablets, and prayers.
- "The Music of Erich ZannThe Music of Erich Zann"The Music of Erich Zann" is a short story by American author H. P. Lovecraft. Written in December 1921, it was first published in National Amateur, March 1922.-Synopsis:...
" is alluded to in a newspaper clipping.
Entities
- The Great Race of Yith plays a major role in the plot, even though they are not physically present except for the very beginning and end of the game.
- The Deep Ones and their related half-human citizens of Innsmouth are central to the plot and comprise the main opposition to the player throughout most of the game. Father Dagon and Mother Hydra are the game's bosses.
- The Innsmouth sewer system hints at the presence of a Shoggoth through numerous human remains and strange residue that is highly-corrosive to organic material. The creature itself is confronted directly during the refinery raid.
- The flying polyps are encountered in an ancient chasm near the end of the game, and are the subject of a dream that Jack Walters has while drifting to Devil's Reef.
- A star-spawn of Cthulhu appears as an enemy.
- While not present, the Mi-goMi-goThe Mi-go are a race of extraterrestrials in the Cthulhu Mythos created by H. P. Lovecraft and others. The name was first applied to the creatures in Lovecraft's short story "The Whisperer in Darkness" , taking up a reference to 'What fungi sprout in Yuggoth' in his sonnet cycle Fungi from Yuggoth...
are mentioned in passing during the epilogue. - Despite the title, Cthulhu himself does not appear, though statues in his likeness can be found as well as documents about him. In one room, Cthulhu exerts a cosmic influence through his statue: if Jack does not escape the room quickly enough, he is driven insane and kills himself.
- The Elder Things are mentioned in a sermon found upon a podium during the prologue level.
Gameplay
The game features no HUDHUD (video gaming)
In video gaming, the HUD is the method by which information is visually relayed to the player as part of a game's user interface...
interface. The player character's condition is relayed through the sound cues of his heartbeat and breathing, which become more pronounced when wounded, and color draining from the screen with loss of blood and strength. Specific injuries are also indicated visually and aurally. For example, a broken leg causes Jack to limp while making appropriate noises, and a broken arm makes aiming more difficult. The health system was designed as a more realistic take on character injury than other games of its genre in that different wounds and injuries require different remedies, such as a splint for a broken leg.
Jack loses sanity when he looks directly at upsetting aspects of the game world, such as mutilated bodies or precipitous drops, similar to the Nintendo Gamecube
Nintendo GameCube
The , officially abbreviated to NGC in Japan and GCN in other regions, is a sixth generation video game console released by Nintendo on September 15, 2001 in Japan, November 18, 2001 in North America, May 3, 2002 in Europe, and May 17, 2002 in Australia...
game Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem
Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem
Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem is a psychological horror action-adventure video game released for the Nintendo GameCube. Developed by Canadian developer Silicon Knights and originally planned for the Nintendo 64, it was first released and published by Nintendo on June 24, 2002 in North America...
. Sanity loss can lead to hallucinations and visions, which manifest as graphical anomalies, sound distortion, and changes in control sensitivity. Jack also begins to suffer from schizophrenia, hearing voices from various sources, such as his inner child pleading for him to go back to darker personalities. If he becomes too unsettled, permanent insanity or suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
cause a Game Over
Game over
Game Over is a message in video games which signals that the game has ended, often due to a negative outcome - although the phrase sometimes follows the end credits after successful completion of a game...
.
Initially, the gameplay mostly comprises unarmed escape and evasion, together with investigative exploration, although weapons and combat are introduced later on. As with most survival horror action/adventure games, ammunition is limited and must be conserved carefully for situations when it will really be indispensable, occasionally requiring the player to avoid combat even when armed. The game as a whole is heavily scripted and very linear, with only one path through the chapters from start to finish, in contrast with some earlier survival horror games such as the original Alone in the Dark
Alone in the Dark (video game)
Alone in the Dark is a 1992 survival horror video game developed by Infogrames. The game has spawned several sequels as part of the Alone in the Dark series , and was one of the first survival horror games, after the 1989 Capcom game, Sweet Home...
(which is also based on the Mythos). The areas marked with the Elder Sign
Elder Sign
The Elder Sign is an icon in the Cthulhu Mythos, first mentioned in H. P. Lovecraft's The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath, written in 1926.-Description:...
s serve as sanctuaries against the enemies and as save points
Saved game
A saved game is a piece of digitally stored information about the progress of a player in a video game. This saved game can be reloaded later, so the player can continue where he or she had stopped...
.
Most of the weapons in the game have real-life counterparts, including a Smith & Wesson M1917
M1917 revolver
The M1917 Revolver was a U.S. six-shot revolver of .45 ACP caliber. It was adopted by the U.S. Army in 1917 to supplement the standard M1911 .45 ACP semi-automatic pistol during World War I. Afterwards, it was primarily used by secondary and non-deployed troops...
, a Colt 1911, a double-barreled shotgun
Double-barreled shotgun
A double-barreled shotgun is a shotgun or combination gun with two parallel barrels, allowing two shots to be fired in quick succession.-Construction:...
, an M1903 Springfield and an M1921 Thompson
Thompson submachine gun
The Thompson is an American submachine gun, invented by John T. Thompson in 1919, that became infamous during the Prohibition era. It was a common sight in the media of the time, being used by both law enforcement officers and criminals...
. The only exception is a Yithian directed-energy weapon
Directed-energy weapon
A directed-energy weapon emits energy in an aimed direction without the means of a projectile. It transfers energy to a target for a desired effect. Intended effects may be non-lethal or lethal...
. The game does not have an artificial on-screen targeting reticle. Instead, the player must aim through the iron sights
Iron sights
Iron sights are a system of shaped alignment markers used as a sighting device to assist in the aiming of a device such as a firearm, crossbow, or telescope, and exclude the use of optics as in telescopic sights or reflector sights...
on the weapons themselves. Sustained aiming tires the character and drops accuracy. The player character can melee
Mêlée
Melee , generally refers to disorganized close combat involving a group of fighters. A melee ensues when groups become locked together in combat with no regard to group tactics or fighting as an organized unit; each participant fights as an individual....
attack with a gun if all ammunition for it has been used up. The shooting system is unique in that fired rounds go exactly where the barrel is pointing. For example, if the player readies a weapon and pulls the trigger before the character animation has finished, the round may fly towards the sky if that's where the barrel was pointing when the shot was fired.
The game contains a number of bugs, which have never been officially patched. For example, during one mission the player needs to fire a cannon at enemy wizards. On some Windows systems
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
the enemies are not rendered by the game at all, making it very difficult for the player to hit them. There is an unofficial patch available that fixes some bugs and lowers the game's overall difficulty level. The bugs are generally intermittent, and restoring from an earlier saved game can be enough to get past them.
Development
The game has been in development for at least six years, and the development can be traced back to August 1999 and this Usenet discussion where the Mythos fans contributed ideas for the game to Headfirst's artist designer Andrew Brazier. This and other feedback was later used to create the game.The first screenshots were shown in December 1999, and the game, originally planned for the PC and PlayStation 2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
, was scheduled for release in the third quarter of 2001. Before E3 2001 the game was stated to be "70 percent complete", but it ended up being repeatedly delayed. In late 2002 the game's original publisher Fishtank Interactive
Fishtank interactive
Fishtank Interactive was a German computer game publishing company, a division of Ravensburger Spieleverlag. It was founded in 2000 to try to expand the horizons of Ravensburger Spieleverlag by publishing more mature games than the rest of the mostly pre-school oriented games of the company without...
was taken over by JoWood
JoWooD
JoWooD Entertainment AG is an Austrian computer game publisher of video games, founded in 1995 by Andreas Tobler and currently led by Franz Rossler....
, which had no interest in the title. The developers then signed a deal with Bethesda to release the game for the PC and Xbox, and the development of the PS2 version was cancelled.
Headfirst Productions originally intended for a much larger, non-linear RPG
Role-playing game
A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...
-type storyline to be fitted within the game, including more characters and locations, as well as a co-op system for up to four players, which would have enabled players to pick one of four characters and carry out their own investigation independently or team up with the others. A multiplayer version of the game would have allowed for online deathmatch
Deathmatch (gaming)
Deathmatch or Player vs All is a widely-used gameplay mode integrated into many shooter and real-time strategy computer games...
battles in specifically designed levels. A lot of other features, such as high environment interactivity, were also scrapped due to budget and time constraints and problems with the level design.
Player weapons originally conceived but ultimately removed from the game include a wooden club with a nail protruding from one end, a wooden police baton, a meat cleaver
Cleaver (knife)
A cleaver is a large knife that varies in its shape but usually resembles a rectangular-bladed hatchet. It is used mostly for hacking through bones as a kitchen knife or butcher knife, and can also be used for crushing via its broad side, typically garlic....
(the cleaver can still be seen in the Gilman hotel, however Jack refuses to touch it as it is covered in blood), a fishing harpoon
Harpoon
A harpoon is a long spear-like instrument used in fishing to catch fish or large marine mammals such as whales. It accomplishes this task by impaling the target animal, allowing the fishermen to use a rope or chain attached to the butt of the projectile to catch the animal...
, a tomahawk
Tomahawk (axe)
A tomahawk is a type of axe native to North America, traditionally resembling a hatchet with a straight shaft. The name came into the English language in the 17th century as a transliteration of the Powhatan word.Tomahawks were general purpose tools used by Native Americans and European Colonials...
axe, a metal bar (the bar survived to be used as an item in the game), a poison-tipped Deep One spear, dynamite
Dynamite
Dynamite is an explosive material based on nitroglycerin, initially using diatomaceous earth , or another absorbent substance such as powdered shells, clay, sawdust, or wood pulp. Dynamites using organic materials such as sawdust are less stable and such use has been generally discontinued...
sticks, hand grenade
Hand grenade
A hand grenade is any small bomb that can be thrown by hand. Hand grenades are classified into three categories, explosive grenades, chemical and gas grenades. Explosive grenades are the most commonly used in modern warfare, and are designed to detonate after impact or after a set amount of time...
s, a flamethrower
Flamethrower
A flamethrower is a mechanical device designed to project a long controllable stream of fire.Some flamethrowers project a stream of ignited flammable liquid; some project a long gas flame. Most military flamethrowers use liquids, but commercial flamethrowers tend to use high-pressure propane and...
(which does appear as a non-acquirable weapon in the final game), a Luger P-08 pistol, a Mauser C96
Mauser C96
The Mauser C96 is a semi-automatic pistol that was originally produced by German arms manufacturer Mauser from 1896 to 1937...
broomhandle pistol (removed because it was too similar to the two handguns that made it into the game), a single-barrel Winchester Model 1912
Winchester Model 1912
The Winchester Model 1912 is a hammerless slide-action, i.e., pump-action, shotgun with an external tube magazine. Popularly-named the Perfect Repeater at its introduction, it largely set the standard for pump action shotguns over its 51 year high-rate production life...
12-gauge
Gauge (bore diameter)
The gauge of a firearm is a unit of measurement used to express the diameter of the barrel. Gauge is determined from the weight of a solid sphere of lead that will fit the bore of the firearm, and is expressed as the multiplicative inverse of the sphere's weight as a fraction of a pound . Thus...
pump action shotgun
Pump action shotgun
Pump-action shotguns, also called 'slide action repeating shotguns' or 'slide action shotguns' are a class of shotguns that are distinguished in the way in which spent shells are extracted and fresh ones are chambered. The weapon has a single barrel above a tube magazine into which shells are...
(some enemies carry this shotgun, but the player cannot use it), a 4" Colt Python
Colt Python
The Colt Python is a .357 Magnum caliber revolver formerly manufactured by Colt's Manufacturing Company of Hartford, Connecticut. It is sometimes referred to as a "Combat Magnum". It was first introduced in 1955, the same year as Smith & Wesson's M29 .44 Magnum. The now discontinued Colt Python...
.357 Magnum
.357 Magnum
The .357 S&W Magnum , or simply .357 Magnum, is a revolver cartridge created by Elmer Keith, Phillip B. Sharpe, Colonel D. B. Wesson of firearms manufacturer Smith & Wesson, and Winchester. It is based upon Smith & Wesson's earlier .38 Special cartridge. The .357 Magnum cartridge was introduced in...
revolver, and a stationary M2 Browning machine gun (it is seen in the Marsh Refinery level but cannot be used). The Springfield rifle was originally going to be equipped with a scope
Scope
The word scope may refer to many different devices or viewing instruments, constructed for many different purposes. It may refer to a telescopic sight, an optical device commonly used on firearms. Other uses of scope or Scopes may refer to:...
and bayonet
Bayonet
A bayonet is a knife, dagger, sword, or spike-shaped weapon designed to fit in, on, over or underneath the muzzle of a rifle, musket or similar weapon, effectively turning the gun into a spear...
.
Headfirst initially used the game engine
Game engine
A game engine is a system designed for the creation and development of video games. There are many game engines that are designed to work on video game consoles and personal computers...
NDL NetImmerse for rendering graphics combined with the Havok
Havok (software)
Havok Physics is a physics engine developed by Irish company Havok. It is designed primarily for video games, and allows for real-time collision and dynamics of rigid bodies in three dimensions. It provides multiple types of dynamic constraints between rigid bodies , and has a highly optimized...
physics engine but later developed its own engine. The game's protagonist Jack Walters went through up to eight different phases before a final look was designed by Tim Appleton. The title was eventually released in October 2005 for Xbox and in March 2006 for the PC.
Reception
The game was generally well received, including outright praise by some. On MetacriticMetacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, the PC version of the game has an average critic score of 76/100 ("Generally favorable reviews"), with 9 positive and 8 mixed reviews. GameRankings averages the review scores of the Xbox version to 78%.
It was one of the five games nominated by GameSpot
GameSpot
GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...
for the title of Most Surprisingly Good Game of 2005, with a comment: "After a development cycle that was nearing infinity, it's hard to imagine a world where this H.P. Lovecraft-based horror game turned out all right. Luckily for us, we don't have to imagine it." In 2010, 1UP.com
1UP.com
1UP.com is a video game website owned by IGN Entertainment, a division of News Corporation. Previously, the site was owned by Ziff Davis before being sold to UGO Entertainment in 2009....
featured it on the list of Top 5 Game Worlds Where Insanity Is The Entire Point. In 2011, PC Gamer
PC Gamer
PC Gamer is a magazine founded in Britain in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future Publishing. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games magazines in their respective countries...
ranked it as 87th on the list of the 100 best PC games of all time.