Buggy, but very atmospheric.
The developers did great at capturing and bringing Lovecraftian horror into the game.

I only dream of what this game was supposed to be. Originally, this game was supposed to be a much larger, non-linear RPG-type storyline, including more characters and locations, as well as a co-op system for up to four players. This 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 on-line 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. Multi-player would have drawn a larger interest from the PVP/PVE crowd who don't like single player games to enjoy with their friends. A larger RPG element and environment interactivity, along with editing tools would have created a community continuously willing to improve game play, graphics and providing new content to explore. This game has neither element. It's heavily scripted and very linear, with only one path through the chapters from start to finish. Lots of good things can be said, its scary, eerie and creepy. The sound quality is nice. Lovecraft's work in it. The graphics look nice. It has a small fan base to patch it well enough for playability, relative to other games currently available. The vanilla version is buggier than Virginia, USA in the summertime. The learning tutorial is non-existent, so you simply have to dive into the key mapping to know what you are doing. It's not the next best thing to propel the thriller/horror based video game genre to a whole new level. I am sad that Bethesda Softworks had anything to do with its release, because it's nothing like Skyrim or Fallout. It's Bethesda 'light'. No light deserves to be in a Cthulhu game.… Expand

Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth is a horror FPS game set in the mad world of H.P. Lovecraft's works. The player is a private investigator tasked with investigating a disappearance in the village of Innsmouth, which would be familiar to fans of Lovecraft.

The game is heavily focused on the horror aspect - for the first long time you're not armed and merely have to explore or avoid the locals, which makes for a mighty frightening experience. The game operates with a madness-counter of sorts, and the more mentally stressful things you see or experience the more this counter will rise. The result is some heavy blurring of vision and such, which is a very cool and very unwelcome effect in some challenging situation.

The story is captivating and stays true to Lovecraftian horror - the main character commits suicide in the opening scene after which the game jumps back six months and accounts the events that led up to the suicide. The game has no HUD but rather communicates though sound, post processing and such, which adds a lot to the feel of the game.

There are flaws in the game though. Whereas the first couple of acts have a very high quality the quality drops around the middle of the game. The story makes less sense, the environments are less inspiring and you get the impression that it's added merely increase game time. The quality rises again near the end though and delivers a satisfying conclusion after some of the more mediocre parts. The game operates with save points, so you will find yourself doing the difficult parts of the game over and over. Also it won't run on some video cards (google it before you buy it). This is a problem that won't ever be fixed as the developer is not in business any more.

Definitely one of the better games I've played in the genre, and one of the only ones I think captured the spirits of Lovecraft's works.… Expand

Call of Cthulhu Dark Corners of The Earth (Steam PC) Released 2006 (Head First Productions / Bethesda Softworks) Played date 2012.02 Genre: Horror Adventure Overall Score: 6 Controls: 7 Graphics: 7 Story: 9 Audio: 10 DRM: Steam [Playthrough] I was interested in getting to know about the Cthulhu World through the eyes of game artists but I had never read any of the books or played the RPGs; I went in expecting nothing. I really enjoyed this story and the mood set by the game, in fact for the first four hours the game was freaking me out. All hell started to break loose in the game.... there are many difficult sequences that end in death and require reloading....but as I was in it for the game-story-environment so I held in there. I leaned heavily on a walk-through to get through the game - but I could never finish it.... the last sequence was just to hard ! ! ! Play this on â… Expand

Frictional Games, the developers of Penumbra series and Amnesia:The Dark Descent were obviously inspired by this awesome game (it's obvious).. This fact alone speaks enough. A pure underrated classic. Judging by some noobish comments here, these kinds of games are obviously not for everyone, because some people might find it (hurr durr) ''confusing, too complicated'.

It had a fantastic story but was ruined by frequent crashes. The no HUD is good for immersion but it would have helped so much during the times when i was getting shot at.

I despise giving a game based on Lovecraft works a 0, but that's all I can do for this miserable pile of bugs and nonsense. Usually I can ignore bugs and compensate to deal with tiny issues, but this game was full of (as much as I hate this term) game breaking bugs. First off: CRASHES GALORE! I have never seen a game crash this much, even when it was patched. You can't alt+tab and come back or it crashes. I know this because of the many times I had to (regrettably) look at a guide for the game because what you were supposed to do was so incredibly unclear and ridiculous that I had no other option. A random crowbar the same color as the texture it's sitting on in a random location that is necessary to progress? Check. A conveniently carved out hole in the middle of a solid wooden crate for you to crawl through to get behind an enemy gunner? Check. The final blow for me was at the first appearance of a real monster: a Shoggoth. Straight out of Lovecraft, terrifying as hell, aaaaand bugged. To pass it, the monster must attack you with it's tendril, which is supposed to stick in place so you can run past the spot it was blocking. Instead, half of the time it will one shot you, the other half it won't stick, it'll just go back to the default position instantly and get you stuck. After 3 days of constant frustration, this is where I quit. The shooting is also absolutely horrendous (I felt like I was playing the first Medal of Honor game, but worse), and unfair (instant death by headshot is incredibly common and unpreventable). The only good thing about this game was the horror elements; The sanity effects, the eerie mood, the sounds, everything was pure Lovecraft and it was fantastic. Sadly, I never got to experience it in full, because between every 5 minute horror sequence was 2 hours of frustrating, buggy shooting and nonsense. So disappointing.… Expand

I couldn't figure out what the heck this game wanted me to do and was confused and frustrated right from the beginning. The art design seems great and the inspirationg from HP Lovecraft is awesome, but this game is just not any good. It's a real shame that it has to be such a vague, confusing, and bland adaptation of great ideas.

Would have been 10 if not for the amount of bugs. Headfirst Productions should have been given a little more time to finish it.

Yes there are a few shortcomings but a great story and great atmosphere. you don't even get a weapon till a third of the way through but this works very well. Lots of variation in gameplay from chase scenes both on foot and in vehicles. My niece wandered in and caught a glimpse of this game before I sent her out of the room. She didn't sleep for a week and now she seems slightly odd. Buy it.… Expand

Terrible shooting, very, very weak main character, the little variety of enemies. Disapointing. The beginning was interesting, but later game become clownade.

Fascinating but buggy as hell. A good game ruined by bad QA.

awesome game. The story is filled with twists and turns and generally a lot of weird shit. Theres no hud wich makes things even nicer and theres this sanity thing wich is a very unique touch to the gameplay. It takes quite long before the action starts and you cant skip the cinematics wich could get annoying. Also the engine is well shaky, it just takes an alt-tab to crash the game. I lost count of how many times i crashed but i kept on playing it and playing it. The story makes up for the imperfections cause its just so surreal and you really want to see it trough to the end.… Expand

Good ambiance and mood all over. Story is well based on Lovecraft's literature with interesting additions. Voice acting and dialogs are good and reinforce the atmosphere and time setting in the early 20's. Concept is quite unique blending 3 or 4 major genres, and it is one of a very scant group of games based on the Cthulhu mythos. The "however" is that, at least once along the game, all of these genres perform ifalteringly when compared to the average of games using as their core one these styles. Puzzles unintuitive or strangely easy (you are done and do not realize it); shooter erratic and with an infinite amount of respawns; stealth with unreadable patrols to almost render this nice possibility unfeseable; etc. Anyway in most cases the game pulls through and no matter how frustrating it could become, and how close to real insanity it may push you towards, you very soon forget and forgive, since it has the virtue of truly making you curious of what is yonder the next, very dark, corner.… Expand

The game follows the Lovecraft style very well. The main character is influenced by the things he sees, and he gets (annoyingly sometimes) dizzy, hears voices, etc., as he "loses sanity". Find a quiet place to hide and you calm back down, so its generally not a problem, per se. The developers kept the screen clean, so there is no HUD or crosshair. You aim weapons with the metal sites that have become more popular recently (e.g., STALKER, COD4). The plot pulls from many different Lovecraft stories, but perhaps follows the Shadow over Insmouth most closely. If you are looking for a game that has a story to it, I highly recommend this one.… Expand

This game was not very well thought out at all. First off, the sanity level was completely useless most of the time. At first it was entertaining, but then you realize that most of the shocking imagery that you must avoid to keep your sanity detracts from the over all feeling of horror. You find yourself walking by corpses, not looking at them, and that actually makes the whole scenario seem not as intense, not that I am a sicko and like to stare at mutilated corpses. I just feel that instead of the screen going crazy and the character killing himself, I feel that I myself would feel freaked out enough. Not to mention, this character has every single phobia in the book. He is afraid of heights, which is annoying because there are some parts where you need to look down to figure out on how to get back down to ground level. He has claustrophobia, which is a pain because you have to travel through vents. Had this been toned down in some areas and peaked in some areas, it would have been more enjoyable and freaky, rather then terribly annoying. The game is also easier to play on the x-box, being that the aiming is much easier. On the computer, the aiming is much harder, and very annoying. The ironsights aiming in other games, such as Red Orchestra, are far superior. It seemed as if I was playtesting a basic, earlier version of the game, in which all the bugs were not worked out yet. Trying to shift your aim slightly is near impossible, not to mention you cannot aim to great when leaning around corners, something that is possible, and I have done it while playing paintball. It can be done. The stealth would be better if you could move faster, instead of crawling slowly, and the stealth is near impossible at points because the game is so linear that you find yourself trying to hide while you and an enemy are both in a very tight hallway. It is much easier to overcome the whole idea of not killing every creature in a survival horror, which makes you not feel as fearful, being that you just blew away everything you are supposed to be afraid of (Food for Thought: Wouldn't killing everything affect your sanity more then looking down a ladder that goes down about ten feet? Wouldn't that kind of make you a gun toting psychopath? Especially if you beat them to death with Gordan Freeman's crowbar?) Many people complain that the NPC's are morons, and not the greatest fighters, even when armed, but this actually makes sense, don't you think? This is not some well trained army that you are fighting, just a bunch of idiot hicks. However, I did not think there be would be much gunfighting, more like shooting hordes of insane monsters with needle teeth and curved claws. And now, THE DAMN WALKING!!! What the hell?! There are man times where all you can do is hope that you are lucky and that you be able to run, ahem, WALK out of that collapsing building or away from the monster that can kill you with one hit. I could not beat the game until I read on how to hack the game and turn up the movement speed. Seriously, I think that is the only way to beat this game. The no HUD thing is pretty cool, as well as the health system (medkits only contain medical supplies such as splints, stitches, bandages, morphine, etc. which must be applied to a specific wound; your arm gets cut, bandage of stitch it, broken leg, limp to a safe spot and use a splint), but the game is far from realistic. First, why the hell can you not pick up guns from dead enemies?! How many times can I break my arm in a day?! I thought the damage through the whole game would accumulate or something, but now, once stick a splint on a broken limb, it magically is fixed and good as new, which is ridiculous. And back to the game be linear: it is annoying, and if you manage to do something very small yet outside the script, the whole game just freaks out. The game is loaded with an insane amount of other bugs, which can severely limit your experience. If this was a mod, I would be very surprised and more approving that a small independent team managed to make this on almost no budget. However, this was supposed to be a professional and well made game, and it simply wasn't. This is a game for people who are not associated with any of Lovercraft's work (because even so-so fans would s*** themselves at some of the more insane happenings later in the game) and want to have more of a semi interactive horror movie experience. That's how I think of it, as a movie, not a game at all.… Expand

Best horror game, and best video game based on book story ever made. 10/10.

DISSAPOINTING with a capital D When I found out Bethesda had an action survival horror type game out I jumped on this. I was immediately encouraged by the look and eerie feel of everything the lighting ,sound, intriguing story, all seemed to work real well. Then I waited and kept waiting for some action to start.... waited some more... through horrendously long cinematics. Then ohh cool some action starts but wait.... I have no way to defend myself, not even my bare fists. oh well I ll just run from the fishmen for know I m sure I ll find a knife or stick or something soon..... I gave up when I was a third of the way through the game still without any means to make all this running and hiding more fun, though at least they load you up on bullets for the oh so non existent guns. All I can imagine is that some fairly talented game designers worked on the graphic / story portion, and a crack team of baboons was put in charge of the actual gamplay / control portion of it all. Don t get me wrong I enjoy a solid story immersed within a game, it definitely makes a game worth playing. But when it makes the thing so linear I feel more like I m watching a movie than playing a game... well thats just not enjoyable. Far and above worst game I've ever played!… Expand

Fantastic game, lots of interesting gameplay elements and intelligent puzzles set it aside standard first person games. My only gripes with the game is the way the enemy corpses fade away quickly and then constantly respawn until you pass the area. This spoils the otherwise fantastic immersiveness of the rest of the game!

Too dark, too frustrating. Maybe if you like HP, but I never read anything by him.

Great atmospheric game with some intense action scenes. The story is really what drives the game; without it there would be little value to it. I kept playing through all the bugs and difficult sequences just to find out what happens to Jack. After finishing the game I am more interested in reading H.P. Lovecraft than playing another Lovecraft based game. Be warned this game is one of the more difficult out there. Many long portions are played over and over again due to save system. The save system is designed to make the game more intense, but in the end it make it more tiresome than anything. I ran into one big glitch while fighting the Great Ones on the ship. The Great Ones would stop coming, but all my shipmates would continue firing at nothing. For some reason the game would not go to the next portion. I had to restore to a saved game from just as I got on the ship to resolve the problem.… Expand

I don't get all the negative reviews of this game. The story is phenomenal, the gameplay is simply riveting. Do you die and have to play a portion of the game over... yes. Is it that frustrating... no! The most I have had to re-do is a 5 minute section, and I needed to do it 3 times until I completed it successfully. So... if the game didn't have any challenging areas it wouldn't be fun! The mood is great, and the graphics are very good. Are they "oblivion" good, no, but they are still quite sharp and the environments are very detailed. This game is simply terrific. You can snag it in malls for $20 now... and for that price you won't be disappointed. The only thing dissappointing about this game is watching ther percent complete crank up towards 100!… Expand

If you get hung up on 'how many polygons?' and 'does it have bumpmapping?' look elsewhere. If you think 'survival horror' means blowing away as many zombies as you can, this game is not for you. If you like the idea of getting into a good horror novel, or immersing yourself in a great movie that sucks you in. This game is what you want. It is an immersive story about horror and fear. It is about the realistic fragility of man when faced with things he cannot understand. It's about true heroism. The heroism where you are terrified but still tentatively move foward. It's about stange goings on in a strange town, a dark, dank town, falling down at the edges. Otherwordly and yet of this world. You will meet horric monsters and see horrific things, but you will also meet brave, ordinary people trying to survive in the town of Innesmouth. You will replay sections like you used to in the golden days of gaming. You will not be led by the nose and run through the game in one go via saves every 30 seconds. You have the tension of finding the save location just like in real life you will find it tension filled to find a safe place to hide. The save is just that. A rare 'safe place'. This is the only game I have ever played where you have to run away from vastly more powerful entities, This the only game I have played where I really felt naked without a gun and yet was required to deal with the world for a long time without one. I was immersed in a game that denied me an on-screen HUD and gave my character vertigo and mental problems to make all jumps and high ledges an adventure, and being around horrific situations very mind altering (as it would!). These frailities make the character very believable and adds to the immersion. Don't buy this game because it's a great shooter, or a great sneak-em-up. Buy it because you want to support mature, adult gaming, great storytelling and ingenious innovations in gaming. I give it a solid 9.00 for all the great things this game IS, and not the small things it ISN'T,… Expand

The graphics are not very fresh, the game "guides"you on a linear path, some of the action environments are bloody frustrating... so a low score then? Not one bit of it, this game is all about trying to keep your sanity, whilst following a dark and disturbing story. An absolute must for Lovcraft and horror fans.

The Graphics are a little dated, but what really sets this game apart from the rest is the sanity system. Its so good that it starts affecting you in real life... did you hear something? I thought I heard something. There are plenty of heart stopping moments... Their coming for me I can feel it... and the more tense the situation and the more gore you see the worse the effect on your vision and movement. If anything I think I'd like more horror and less combat but I'm looking forward to the sequel.… Expand

If you want a terribly linear game with unskippable and extremely long cinematics that doesn't allow you to save, this is for you.

It captures the essence of cthulhu very well. It's not the perfect game and boy do you wish you had a gun alot earlier in the game. Turn out the lights, leave a door to your back, and play for a few hours. It really is a creepy dark and forboding game with a great storyline.

Nice athmosphere, bad gameplay. Looking for savepoints never worked before and never will do in the future. Without a quicksave some parts are too frustrating. This is an adventure but when you are chased there's no time to search for desired sequence of actions. So, you have to start over 20 times before you know where you should go. And don't make jumping errors. Bad purchase. I'll wait for a quicksave patch or else I simply dump the game.… Expand

Graphics? Who cares? The graphics are on par with Call of Duty and there was nothing wrong with those or the fun to be had in that game. Don't get hung up on that. This is NOT a shooter, this is an adventure game, so if you want non-stop zombie killing this isn't the place to go. The game is creepy and does capture Lovecraft (almost). This isn't the early Alone in the Dark style...this is more horror movie based than fantasy. What bothers me, like Call of Duty did, is that the game appears "wide open" but in reality is restricted and has a "stiffness" to it where you need to stay near the path the game presents. The one other thing that bothers me like Call of Duty is that I get headaches from this graphic engine for some reason...no problems in any other first person games, just this style. I liked a lot of the atmosphere that was put into the game and it is fascinating at times with some of the creatures that appear. Having no HUD does make you feel like you are inside of the game world and when I got to Innsmouth and saw a guy peeing in an alley and another digging through the trash, that really suprised me and shows the depth these guys put into the game. Still it is difficult trudging at times through the game and I doubt I could feel motivated to sit all day and play; some of the "fun" is missing for me. Lovecraft stories aren't really about "fun" though, they are about the fantastic vs. puny humans. Yet at times I felt like this was more slaughterhouse than exploration of the quantum-occult wolrd that Lovecraft was best at telling. I give it a 7 (10 means perfection to me, which I think few games are)...not bad but the game needed a little something more to it.… Expand

Brilliant, This is the game I have been waiting for. Great story, Exploration and something totally different. It's not just another mindless shooter.

Wow! Really, scarry... i could not play it more than a hour. But now, it has some unseen addiction, that i must finish it! I'll recommend it to every horror-fan around the globe.

Unusually scary game. Good atmosphere. Slightly dodgy controls. Not, really, Cthulhu but as close as it gets in a computer game and that is good.

A Survival Horror game that actually induces panic! Great game!