Games

Call of Cthulhu

Publisher: 2K Games
Price: £39.99
Platform: Xbox
Buy it now from Amazon.co.uk

The famous horror stories of H.P. Lovecraft, and the mythos they inspired, don't immediately leap to mind as ideal fodder for the videogame experience. His reliance on "indescribably terrors" and shapeless, otherworldly things lurking just out of mortal view may make for flesh-crawling reading, but these fragile ideas must surely wither in the glare of modern gaming, where people have come to expect enemies they can both see and comprehend.

Remarkably, the long-awaited Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth does a pretty successful job of adapting Lovecraft's moody prose into a playable format. Many of his tales are told from the first-person perspective, so the leap isn't quite as outlandish as it first appears.

Set in the 1930s, you play as Jack Walters, a private eye who specialises in cases related to the Cthulhu myth - essentially, the idea that vast, ancient and malevolent gods lurk in the darkness waiting to reclaim the Earth. See, Jack had a brush with this black underbelly of existence and it put him in an asylum. Declared sane, he sets about discovering the truth - and his quest starts in the seafront town of Innsmouth, where a grocery company has asked him to look into the disappearance of one of their shop owners.

Right from the start, Dark Corners of the Earth sets about sucking you into this disturbing world. Despite appearances, this isn't a first-person shooter. It's an adventure game, through and through. You do get weapons, and must use them to defend yourself, but this doesn't happen until nearly a third of the way through. No, your main means of survival are your wits and your intellect.

Much like Half Life, once you're in the game you never see Jack. You view everything through his eyes. Unlike Half Life, and every other first-person game, there's no information on the screen to distract you or break the illusion. You'll need to learn to keep count of the bullets in your gun. Even injuries are implemented in a clever way. Damage your legs and you'll start to limp and move slower. Hurt your arms and you won't be able to hold your gun steady. Leave an injury untended and you risk bleeding to death.

Medical supplies can be found, but they break down into bandages, splints, painkillers and the like. Applying them takes time, and you need to find a quiet spot where you can patch yourself up rather than simply running over a first aid kit and magically feeling better.

And it's not just Jack's physical well-being you have to watch out for. His mental state is also represented in the game - and given how much of Lovecraft's horror is in the mind, this is more than appropriate. Fear and panic are represented not only by the expected thud and buzz of the joypad, but by a growing blurring of your vision. It sounds annoying, but it works terrifyingly well. Let your gaze linger on a dead body, and your vision will start to swim, your heartbeat pounding beneath your thumbs. Best of all, the game includes virtual vertigo - looking down from a dangerous height will make things zoom in and out, as Jack sways in fear.

Now, this all sounds like a game which goes out of its way to make life difficult for you. And it is. This is a tough game. The puzzles are old school adventure game stuff - real brainteasers that require you to pay attention to every clue, every object, every conversation. The combat is tough and unforgiving, often used only as a last resort.

It's a slow game though, and that may put some people off. And for all its admirable attempts to stretch the first-person genre, the reality of the controls and graphics sometimes fall short of what's required. However, if you can forgive those small irritations in order to submerge yourself in a carefully crafted and genuinely creepy horror game that dares to be subtle, that dares to treat you as an adult, then you'll find yourself loving what is destined to be one of the undervalued greats of the year.

Dan Whitehead