The intro is simply amazing. Once you reach a certain point, however, the game becomes cumbersome and disappointing.
At first, Call of Cthulhu seems like a very extraordinary game. There is a very strong indication that the developers took their time with the introduction. You start off with no weapons, and you simply walk around and see a very interesting story unfold before you. Once you get a weapon, however, the game takes a turn for the worst. There are several problems with the game that makes it very cumbersome and difficult to play properly.
Story ~ It cannot be argued. The story to this game is simply amazing. I am not familiar with H.P. Lovecraft, but it seems that his horror-fiction books are amazing. The game is very detailed and seems very well planned.
Gameplay ~ This is where this game fails and which is the reason why it will never amount to anything except “the game with a good story but a very bad gameplay.”
Don’t get it wrong, the game functions quite well, but the problem is the fact that when you try and apply it, it just somehow goes wrong. Some key problems to this game are the weapon damages, and weapon accuracy.
Basically, the weapon damages are none. A Colt .45 1911 handgun does nothing to a person in this game. It can take an entire clip just to kill someone and then some. However, the trick is to use your wits and travel around the person without them knowing you were there. Problem is that crawling and sneaking around is extremely hard if not impossible in this game.
The next problem is the fact that the weapon accuracies are very bad. You shoot by iron sight (which means like how you would shoot in real life where you align the iron sight on one end of the gun to the next). This is fine, but the problem is that it is very hard to hit something unless you are totally focused on just that one person (which is never true in this game). I remember one time I was sitting in a factory and all these guys came in and I had a Thompson machine gun and I missed every single person and I wasted the whole 100 clip and hit nothing and killed no one.
Aside from the problems, the game’s atmosphere is very nice. It has that "eerie" side to it. The developers created that "it" factor when they made the environment for this game. You will sweat, and you will get scared at some points early in the game.
Keep in mind that once you get a gun, that’s it. The entire game because another dull game. If I had to rate this game solely on the beginning (which is about 3-4 hours long), I would give this game a 10 because it is that perfect.
Sounds ~ Along with the "eerie" atmosphere, the sounds to the game is wonderful. It has some dramatic music and sounds. The voice actors play quite well and everything about the sound is wonderful.
Conclusion ~ You can get easily fooled by the game’s strong introduction. However, once you get a weapon and start using your head, the game becomes as ill as the horror you face in the game. If you can manage past the somewhat horrible game play, you will find this game very rewarding and very well thought out.