Hello all, and welcome to Volume Two of our Rebel FM Game Club series on Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth. This time around we’ve got Ryan O’Donnell, Matt Chandronait, Phillip Kollar, Anthony Gallegos (and me, Arthur Gies). This week, we played through to the end of The Escape From Innsmouth section of the game, and next week we’ll be playing through to the end of the Boat Sequence (Anthony says you’ll know it when you get there). As usual, leave comments about the game and discuss amongst yourselves below, and we’ll be reading more comments on next week’s podcast! Special thanks to user Kohlstream for his submission of cover art for the podcast.
P.S. This was recorded on real mics! Also, we love you Nick!
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looking forward to listen to this. gotta get to work first tho!
anyone who needs saves to get past those bastard ass bugs go here – http://www.madukas.estranky.cz/stranka/save-a-m
its contains saved states from every major interval in the game.
great podcast, loving the game despite the buggy crap, lookin forward to the next one.
I missed the reference of using the dead rat in the podcast. What does it do? I have managed to get to the point where I am escaping the town, but presumably am still holding it. I guess that its not some emergency ration like Metal Gear then? =)
@voodooray
from what i gathered listening to the podcast, you give the rat to the crazy guy in the jail cell, its probably useless once your past that point
Hey cool, they liked the cover. I made one for part 2 but….you guys may need to sit down for this….my nVidia 8800GTS 640mb (2 years old) died a slow and painful death lastnight. It started with red lines when playing Mount & Blade, then it would only let me play a minute of a game before a red line crash to desktop. Then i started getting red dots and glitches on the desktop, now it crashes when it tries to render the windows logo on the bootscreen. So now i cant access my HD with the new cover.
my friend is lending me a 6800 on thrusday so i should be up and running then. i decided to save up for a lovley GTX 260 869MB card. may take a while to get the money but at least i can play older games like Cthulhu and im hoping some TF2 cos the new scout update is out tonight. I think im gonna have a late 90s, early 00s ‘retro’ gaming session month.
familiar
Great show guys – just finished listening to it and am already looking forward to the third part. So to which Elder Gods do we need to pray to get one of these free Xbox copies then?
Game Club!
Kohlstream. I had the same two cards as you, first the 8800 GTS 640 and then a couple months ago I finally upgraded to the GTX 260 (core 216). This card actually bottlenecks my CPU (intel e6750 2.6 GHz) where the old one didn’t, so I recommend you either overclock if you aren’t already, or upgrade your CPU to a quad core or 3.0 GHz dual core.
The video card is a sexy best though
. I recommend EVGA.
So last week, I commented that you should watch the shlocky movie “Dagon”, based on Cthulhu mythos and also a blatantly direct visual inspiration to Resident Evil 4. I am glad that comment was read on the air, and then instantly “corrected” by Arthur as taking place in Italy… even though… every character in that movie speaks Spanish, the town has a Spanish name (“Inboca” instead of “Insmouth”), the actors are mostly all Spanish, etc. Good job.
awesome show. my first backlog participation and its been really fun. keep it up!
@Fundogmo : ( you’re absolutely right. It’ll be corrected next week, along with mea culpas. Email me to remind me though. Also, Kohlstream, could you email me from an email address you’d prefer to use? I had a question or two.
Two quick questions (which may have been answered before and I’ve missed it):
Will you ever separate the RSS feeds for backlog and RebelFM?
If/when you do, will you continue to mention what you’re playing on backlog on RebelFM?
They did mention that they will separate the feeds.
You all will love this, it’s a music video about the fishmen.
http://www.warrenellis.com/?p=7044
Enjoy
Don
The allusion to a book club dismisses any misconception that this might be an opportunity for the uninformed to become familiarized, but, as someone who has not played Call of Cthulu, and is unlikely to, I particularly enjoyed this episode.
More than the previous podcast, I was able to follow along and more specifically visualize what you were discussing. It was very enjoyable for an enthusiast interested in living vicariously through your playthrough.
This has, however, completely negated any need I have to play this portion of the game.
By removing snacks and white noise from your podcast, you have completely changed the casual mood, and apparently shifted your focus exclusively to the ruination of modern entertainment. Why do you hate video games?
Needless to say, it is much more convenient to keep Game Club in the RebelFM iTunes feed.
Not only for the purposes of easy downloading, but so I can unsubscribe from both incarnations of the podcast, simultaneously. I will be doing so immediately.
when you were talking about the fact that you didnt remember games having your feet visible in the game it reminded me of a crappy old pc game from i got for $10 around 97-99 called Jurassic Park Trespasser. you played a girl, and the only reason i remember this game at all was because when i first started the game i was moving the camera around, and i realized why the main character was chosen as a girl, you could see her chest and she had a tattoo on one of her boobs. i thought that was funny. and it was the earliest game by far to show more than a hand in an fps.
Attack of the Fishmen, possibly the most panic-inducing sequence in videogaming, completely demolishes Capcom’s argument that restrictive controls are a necessary element when it comes to making a game scary.
This is so minor it’s silly, but Anthony called J Edgar Hoover the preseident. That was Herbert Hoover.
The Crazy rat guy is a reference to the short story the rats in the walls. This is a really good short story by H.P. Lovecraft. I would recomend it.
BTW, thanks for doing a podcast on Monday guys. Its def. the least-used times for the podcasts out there and I missed your pre-Rebel version being on Monday. Nice to get some great content on the worst workday of the week.
Minor thing but I do not think the arrows arched in Morrowind, they do in Oblivion but that is another engine. I also couldn’t tell if I was hitting a target with arrows in the xbox version of Morrowind until the target died.
Speaking of Oblivion, there is a quest called “A Shadow Over Hackdirt” where your character must enter into the shady village of Hackdirt to find a missing merchant.
Is anyone else having this issue with the PC version?
http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/2519/raincall.jpg
The ‘rain droplet’ effect is pretty worthless when it shows up as a bunch of grey polygons sliding down the screen.
when I finished playing the Escape From Innsmouth level, I was a bit disappointed that they killed Bryan off so quickly. not to say that his character had any particularly redeeming values about it, just having him as a companion for a few levels and then simply dieing was a bit weak, in my opinion. but…
*SPOILERS*
That disappointment was soon made up by the next scene, when no other than J Edgar Hoover himself starts interrogating you in the asylum. Although it was a bit absurd seeing Hoover, it seriously got me thinking about the integrity of the narrator’s story. (what you see on the screen, that would have normally been told to you in a story by the author).
*SPOILERS*
what I’m trying to get at is that the game actually presents its self like a novel in tone as well as presentation. Even though there is an outward monologue, you, the player, inhabit the inward monologue of the main character, sharing all his thoughts of confusion and delirium.
I don’t think this is the best way to go about telling narrative in games, but it definitely utilizes the new form of story telling games present, unlike most games which try and tell the story like a linear piece (movie/literature). Part of the story is actually interactive and you’re directly involved with the mystery, instead of being an audience member on the other side of the 4th wall.
I echo the recommendation of “The Rats in the Walls,” as well as “At the Mountains of Madness,” which gives you the origins of the “shoggoth.” It’s one of Lovecraft’s longer stories, but worth the read.
If you want a good, cheesy horror movie, check out “In the Mouth of Madness.” It’s not inspired by any specific Lovecraft story, but very Lovecraftian.
did you guys happen to post about you playing this on thepiratebay.org? or was that just a helping fan
Awesome show guys!
Has anyone figured out what the morphine actually does, and if there’s any consequence to using it? I could’ve sworn I used it when I was fading to death and I died anyway.
@Greg: Wouldn’t it make more sense for it to aid the sanity meter, than actual health?
I also came across the climb-up-the-wood-plank-and-fall-through-the-roof-to-get-past-the-locked-door glitch. I did that by accident before I listened to the podcast. So, it would appear to be replicable. After I bumped into the piece of wood and started climbing upward, I thought I was supposed to use it to get onto the roof then perhaps go through a window (since the game let me break a different window and jump through earlier in that level). I got stuck a little at the top until I slid to the side and it let me over.
First off, I have played all of the backlog, and am very happy with the game club.
Call of Cthulhu is a great choice for many reasons. The main one for me is the interesting accessable story. My wife and I have been playing a little of it almost every night, and then we get to listen to the podcast. This is the first time that we have gamed together, and it is great. The way the game plays, being an adventure game, allows for her to experience the game like I am even though she isn’t holding the controller. That is my bit for right now.
I have played several of the backlog games in the past, but this one, I had to pass on because I do not have any of the systems it is available upon. However, I did play through the “tabletop” version of this story in a Call of Cthulu role playing session back in the late 1980′s. (I also read the original story after finishing this module.) It is great to hear how they have reimagined this story for a video game, and always great to hear all the guys getting together to play.
Thanks,
Mloco
@Greg the morphine temporarily gets rid of things like poor aim/slow movement due to broken limbs.
POSSIBLE SPOILER.
On the show you guys talked about how your sanity affects the ending. I can’t remember if sanity does, but there are actually a lot of factors that do: number of saves, total game time, finding certain items, saving people, etc. that you are graded on. As far as I know, the ending stays the same but has certain scenes (which help understand what happened) cut out.
Whoa, there is another Josh T that visits this website. Freaky.
Great job on the Game Club podcasts. I actually didn’t even notice the sound quality. However, I do listen to a lot of podcasts, many with bad audio quality.
A few points:
1 – There’s no reason for anyone not to read the stories the game refers to because a) they’re short stories and b) they’re in the public domain.
(and it’s entirely possible that because of point b that the fiction wasn’t forgotten after it got first published, sometimes copyright can be a killer)
So here’s the story the game takes it’s title from:
http://www.mythostomes.com/content/view/30/74/
Here’s one it takes most of it’s story from:
http://www.mythostomes.com/content/view/40/74/
And another it apparently refers to as well:
http://www.mythostomes.com/content/view/40/74/
2 – For more first person adventure games, there’s the Warren Spector/Looking Glass games on the PC, the Thief, System Shock and Deus Ex games.
But actually two GameCube games would be excellent choices for people who want more of;
cthulhu mythos in their games: Eternal Darkness.
first person advenures with scary stuff and plenty of twists and surprises: Geist.
Best of all when going into these two after CoC: DCotE is that the worst technical problems you’re likely to encounter are slight drops in the framerate and you won’t be doing much dying and restarting at all as the combat in each is pretty easy (ED) or forgiving (Geist).
(Geist is a game that’s totally forgotten and I hope the podcast will one day cover it. It looks like the Squadron of Shame podcast will do Eternal Darkness next).
3 – Ryan: shOgoth, not shAgoth. Also, regarding expecting a certain twist; any familiarity with Second Sight? The non Timesplitters game from Free Radical that was actually pretty good? It has a masive twist in the story sort of like what you’re describing only better.
4 – Re. game length. That’s the thing going into this generation. It takes as many wo/man-hours to make a room as it took a whole building then. It wasn’t just that then 8 hour games weren’t appreciated, it’s also that they pretty much didn’t exist until HD came along.
5 – Hope you finish this game soon so you can go back to thoughts and impressions on the game, what it does that other games dont and such and a bit less on the walktrough. Especially in these days were the slower pace is being gently removed from anything in first person.
Oh, and:
6 – Best Cthulhu Mythos movie, though it doesn’t actually say it is, but it’s pretty clear it is (much like Eternal Darkness is):
John Carpenter’s ‘In the Mouth of Madness’ (and like ED it too has an interesting thing going with the 4th wall*).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PFcOeM_Usk
* – Like:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seMK8EM2lEU&feature=related
(in case you couldn’t hear, the line at the beginning of the clip is: ‘did I ever tell you my favourite colour is blue’)
I have searched a bit and can’t find it it is possible to get this game for my lil ol’ Powerbook.
Im enjoying listening to you guys talk about the game and hopefully I can win me a copy of it since its hard to even find the game now and dont wanna spend an arm and a leg for it. Good job guys and keep backlog going!
As I have been playing through the game I have noticed my character has devoloped a noticable limp, possibly from getting hurt to much. Has anyone else noticed this or is it happening to anyone else?
@Simon
Most of the plot comes from the story “Shadow Over Innsmouth” as well, along with those you mentioned.
The game is actually like a sequel to this specific story.
I encountered a very annoying bug in the marsh refinery level. After starting the buckets, I tried getting into the buckets, but I was blocked by an invisible wall. I searched for almost an hour thinking that I missed something, not knowing I had to get onto the bucket. Finally in frustration I said “fuck it” and looked up my problem on a faq. I found out that there was a bug were if you didn’t examine the bucket controls twice, then an invisible wall would block you from entering into the bucket. God I was pissed.
Finally got the game working (thanks to whoever suggested compat. mode). My favorite bug so far, which takes place on Deadly Voyage.
SPOILERS—–
After being rescued, my character remained in the water while the captain gave me the lowdown on the voyage. When he was done, I walked through the hull and into the lower part of the ship, where I found all of the weapons that you get later. Most of the ship was under water at this point. I was also able to unlock a lot of the critical doors. Later, when I tried to get to the surface to start the level proper, the game realized I was underwater and drowned me.
Skipping the cutscenes fixed this on my next attempt.
SPOILER END————
One big criticism: I haven’t beaten the boat voyage, but so far, I’m not a fan of the way the game suddenly decided to be a regular shooter. I like the aiming just fine, but the healing system finally became a problem for me during this level.
You can definitely tell that the development of this game was inconsistent. Some parts got a lot of love, but this section? Not so much. My popular culture professor, a non-gamer, mentioned during his Cthulhu lecture this semester that he quit at this part of the game. For me, this is where it stops being a Lovecraftian horror game and becomes a basic shooter. I expected a little more based on the preceeding segments.
I’ve found the game to be a lot less tense ever since I started having guns. I still like it and the game’s shooting mechanics definitely feel pretty solid, especially for a game that isn’t supposed to be a shooter, but I don’t feel the tension or the stress as much. For a game that’s supposed to be scary that’s a problem.
@ Andryan:
Dangit, miscopied an url.
Link to the Shadows over Innsmouth short story:
http://www.mythostomes.com/content/view/61/74/
STOP EATING AND DRINKING DURING THE PODCAST!
Whoever the person is that is eating chili needs to die in a car fire.
A heads up for next week. You’re going to encounter another Attack of the Fishmen-like section in the Marsh Refinery. Just keep in mind this: VENTS!
Good podcast this week.
Ok i got a nvidia 7600GT from my friend, got my pc up and running again. Gonna play the next section over the weekend. Arthur i emailed you the other day just so you know.
First thing, this podcast is the best.
I loved hearing Ryan talk about the right way to do the jailbreak section, I did that so wrong, and never would have guessed that how you’re supposed to play it was that cool. It kind of makes me want to go back and play that section again. It’s also got me rethinking how I’m playing the game.
I never did figure out the grate section in the sewers. I understood right away that I needed to lure them away by tapping on the first, then second grate, but once they were lured away, when I’d try to come up the ladder, they saw me coming up the ladder before I was even off of it. I guess I don’t get how you were supposed to get around that part using stealth. I ended up just running past them, healing, and then running some more until I got to the next part.
I love this game, and the atmosphere, it’s too bad there are so many bugs. I’m playing on a 360, so maybe that’s part of it, but during the jailbreak I apparently talked to Brian while not standing in exactly the right spot, and then Brian blinked (like a mage in wow) from where he was sitting in jail, to then standing at the door to his cell. After that he proceeded to spin in circles forever. If I talked to him, he’d stop spinning for a second until he was done talking, and then he’d just spin some more. So I tried going into the sewer then and saving, turning off the console, and coming back, (before I saved Brian continued talking to me as if he were still with me and standing next to me while in the sewer, even though he was still spinning in his jail cell). None of that work, so I had to go to a previous save (in the water tower) and start again.
The second bug happened in the warehouse scene with Ruth. I initiated the talking part with Ruth, and skipped out of it, only she kept talking instead of just skipping the scene, but it gave me control of my character again. So before the guys spawned to attack me I took off back towards the crates to go into the rafters. She stopped talking when I was out of range, and when I came back through the locked door, she resumed. Then once she was done talking and it was time for the guys to spawn, while I was in the rafters, I all of the sudden started to slowly and gently float from the rafters back down to the spot where you’re supposed to be standing when the cut scene ends, and once I landed nice and gently, the guys spawned. I ended up getting past it on that try with no troubles.
Another bug I experienced during that section, before I figured it out, was that Ruth would die, and then I’d go look at her, see she was dead, and then I’d go talk to Brian, and he was stuck saying that he wouldn’t leave without Ruth. That happened to me twice. So essentially, my game was borked and I had to load from my last save to move forward and save Ruth.
Also, I don’t understand how you guys got past that truck section so easily. That was by far the most frustrating point of the game. I actually got a really bad headache from playing through that about 15 times before I finally gave up and turned the console off. I tried the ducking thing and only shooting people who were directly behind me, and every time I did that someone would head shot me or something and I’d never even make it to the explosive truck. That part was just really poorly done, and is so far the only part of the game I didn’t like. After a total of at least 20 tries, I finally made it past, but it seemed more luck than skill.
Can’t wait for the next installment, thanks for doing this guys, it really is fun.
I’d also like to add, that if you weren’t doing this podcast I probably would have quit at the truck section because it was so frustrating for me. Wanting to keep playing along with you and listening to the podcasts was my main motivation when I got to try 20.
Nice job on the podcast guys but one thing has been bothering me.
While both Call of Cthulhu and Morrowind run on the Netimmerse 3d engine, I wouldn’t call it the Morrowind engine. Headfirst was developing the game on that engine for years before they signed with Bethesda (in 2003).
If you really wanted to throw caution to the wind you COULD call it the ‘Simon the Sorcerer 3d’ engine (which was also powered by Netimmerse and created by many of the Headfirst team).
I too am amazed how an engine designed primarily to shoot gnomes smeared in butter out of a telescope could be adapted for decent gunplay.
@thedude
I had trouble with the truck part as well, took me about 5 tries, and even when i made it through i still got hurt.
Also some bugs i had during the Jailbreak was I first ran by the guards and locked the door like Anthony, and like anthony there were no other police in the jail, but i couldnt get the crowbar. It seems in my game it didn’t spawn until the first guard went back into the jail and locked the door. Also after getting into the jail, I was unable show Brian the photo of him and Ruth if i was spotted by an officer even if i killed them all he would constantly tell me to “Hide you idiot they’ll catch you”. Like the game was making me play through the section the “correct” way.
I just wanted to let you know how much your show is appreciated. I was listening on the way home from work and I actually found myself responding out loud to some of the things you said. I think it’s to your credit that the show feels like a conversation between friends (I guess that’s exactly what it is, but I actually feel like one of those friends).
I love the fact that, every once in a while, I can hear a cat meow in the background- it reinforces the casual, relaxed nature of the show.
I’m playing the 360 back-compat. version, and I’ve noticed there is absolutely no musical score, just sound effects and voiceovers. Anyone else notice that?
Just as an aside- the police chief in the upstairs bedroom isn’t shaving at the sink. At some point you find out that during the fishmen’s change they sleep a lot and need to keep their skin moist. That’s why when you shut the water off to the bedroom he comes to the bathroom.
Please play that youtube clip of FISHMEN during one of the next shows! Good stuff.
Sorry guys but I can’t play this game anymore, I’ve hit a game ending bug on a dangerous voyage where it’s impossible to see the 3 blue lights. I’m really furious at how many game ending glitches exist in this game, it’s simply inexcusable for paid retail content. I guess the time I got out of it was worth 20 dollars, so I won’t say it wasn’t worth the money, I’m just really disappointed it had to end this way, I really wanted to play through the rest of this game.
I’m not sure if this was posted previously but there is a very good Let’s Play of Call of Cthulhu on Something Awful’s Lets Play forums.
http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=2475140&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=1
Enjoy.
So, has anyone figured out whether the flashes you have that give you the vision of one of the fish people are something that Jack sees himself, or just the player? I don’t remember ever hearing him mention anything about them, it just changes back to his view without comment.
I think the Marsh Refinery is a good example of everything that’s great and annoying about this game. There are so many memorable adventure moments, but they’re mixed with mediocre action moments (and bugs, but so far I’ve been pretty lucky and haven’t encountered anything too bad).
The scene with Mackey in the beginning was the same kind of disturbing scene that made the first part of the game so intense. Later on, I loved jumping off the conveyor and puzzling through each stage of the boss fight. But when trying to turn the elevator on, it felt like the environment was encouraging me to run and gun. The halls were pretty wide and well lit so the Fishmen could see me from far away, and there were so many blind corners that I never knew where one of them would come from. Getting through without being seen felt more like dumb luck than effective sneaking.
I’ve also got a couple questions for everyone. I’m playing on the 360 so there’s no music. Just out of curiosity, is the music any good? Am I missing out on anything? Also, has anyone gotten Jack to kill himself? One of the loading screen blurbs said if you reload while going insane you risk suicide, but so far I haven’t gotten him to do it.
I take it back, I guess that wasn’t Mackey at the beginning of the Marsh Refinery. I thought I remembered hearing his name then.
After some cooling down I went back and found a save file close to mine, and it was only about 3 seconds from where I couldn’t progress so it wasn’t too bad. The boss battle against Dagon was pretty epic and unexpected but very frustrating in the beginning. I absolutely could not figure out for the life of me how to prevent myself from going insane during that fight, I died from insanity like 7 times without ever dying to being physically killed by Dagon. Even after killing him I’m still unsure at how I managed to do it, but I think it has something to do with fighting him without actually looking at him for prolonged periods of time.
@Nick
Yes, my dude killed himself 7 times during the boss fight due to sanity loss, I wasn’t holding a gun at any of those times, Jack just grabs his face with both hands and the game ends.
@Bob Loblaw
He mentioned it in his journal entries if you look back, he mentioned seeing things through others peoples eyes and seeing things before they happen and questioning them to himself. I couldn’t pinpoint the entry off the top of my head but it is definitely addressed.
In an interesting bit of cross pollenization, I am playing through Oblivion at the same time as this game, and as part of the Main Quest currently looking for the Shrine of Dagon – home to the cult that assassinated the Emperor.
I’ve tried really hard. I performed numerous fixes, spent hours researching solution, and suffered through some really annoying trial and error gameplay. Now, I’ve hit my breaking point.
I’m on the boat, and I can’t see any lights on the shore, and my cannon won’t zoom in with Right Click. All the save games I can find do the same thing: apparently lights don’t show up on Vista, so this part is impossible, even in compatibility mode.
Every save game I find past this point puts me in a wounded state with barely any ammo, surrounded by fishmen. There is no conceivable way to see the rest of the game, and it’s just not scary watching some asshat play it on YouTube with asinine commentary.
Hopefully, the next backlog game will be a much more stable game. The fact that it’s taken me almost three weeks to do 5 hours of gameplay is just too much. I want to finish the game, but there’s only so much I’m willing to put up with. I’m pretty glad at this point that Headfirst closed the second this game was released.
Man, I really feel for you folks playing this on a PC or a 360. This was one of the games I bought a refurbished original XBox to play, and the experience was smooth and thoroughly play-tested. Never once did this game bug out on me, and so I’d like to give it credit for that. It’s getting a bad rap, but on the tech it was released on at the time, it ran solid.
That said, as I remember with the boat segment, you can’t see the lights clearly until you zoom in on them, and I remember it being kind of a guessing game at first. Maybe reassign your zoom key or something? I dunno. It seemed to work fine on XBox, once I figured out what to do.
The game is stable. Vista… and XBox 360 BC… not so much.
Sad to hear Nick go, but good to hear he’s left for a great gaming job. And you all did fine without him. Plus, the use of mics this time!
Nice to hear Bethesda might give you free copies of the X-Box version, but it’s probably because they know they can’t trade them in for store credit at Gamestop anymore.
To readdress my “see the nads but not the feet” complaint: I guess what really irked me is in this upcoming section, in the refinery. I can remember wandering around forever with no idea of how I was suppose to progress.
See, if I remember right, the elevator crashes down, and for some reason I didn’t notice the dangling cable in the elevator shaft. At this point the navigation takes an old-school N64 Turok feel, as I finally figured out that I should leap for the cable, and move down it. There’s no “climbing detail” at all. You float down and through the geometry of the cable.
Little parts like this stand out from the rest of the game, and seem weirdly unpolished compared to what, I must agree, is a game constructed with an eye for detail.
Wait ’til you get to Devil’s Reef. At that point, you’re using the action button to hold on to hand rails as the waves lap at you as you walk along a perilous ledge (this part really sucks, many retries for me here). Look down at that point, and you CAN see your hands holding the ring.
There is a lot of loving detail in this game, it is just inconsistently spread across it. Maybe it stands out more in hindsight–I played this game nearly 2 years ago. It is however a testament to the game that I even remember that much about it.
Hands! Not nads! Some typos are very unfortunate!
Have to save the nads for when you’re doing “Lost and Damned” on Game Club. ;D
@Imbarkus
I think that the climb down the rope in the elevator shaft could have been better handled as a cut scene with greater detail. The odd floating/climbing was really not in tune with the rest of the game. At least it wasn’t as bad as climbing down the little rope at the start of the ‘Cult of Dagon’ section. I died several times too many just because I couldn’t tell if I was floating down that rope correctly or not.
I’ve been playing on PC, and it has been quite stable. Aside from the “crash when minimizing” bug, I think I’ve really only seen one other bug. And it wasn’t anything game breaking.
I’m enjoying the game, but I must admit, I am a bit disappointed that it took a more action oriented approach. I was really hopping it would stay more of a first person adventure game and less of a shooter. Although, I do rather enjoy the shooting. It seems to tilt more towards the realism side (no cross hair, no auto reload, no magical number floating in mid air telling you how many bullets are left in you clip) which I prefer.
Something else, did anyone think that the games action seemed in odd contrast to the sanity effects? Looking at a corpse hanging from a noose or down from a high ledge causes Jack’s vision to become distorted, his heart rate to go up, and his breathing to become heavy. But, when dozens of crazy fish people are trying to mow you down with Tommy Guns, Jack treats it like another day at the office.
I just finished the boat ride this evening, so I’m caught up. I’m still enjoying the gameplay and story at this point, but like others I’m wishing the game had kept the eerie atmosphere of the first Innsmouth section instead of relying heavily on corridor shooting.
• I had to up the brightness significantly in the refinery section, as I kept losing enemies in the shadows, such that they could see me long before could see them. The “some games are made to be played in the dark” argument holds up to a point, but I can’t play it at all if I can’t see anything.
• Gunfights against the Innsmouth denizens felt a little scattered through this section – Sometime I’d go into a firefight against one or two opponents and get schooled by a couple lucky headshots, but other times I’d dance right through sprays of bullets without being sctatched. The lack of any aim-assist on the console and the fairly sluggish 360 controls make aiming in general fairly imprecise, especially at close range. I’ve heard the 360 is worse than the original XBox in this respect, and I assume the PC version handles like a PC version should.
• The two big creature battles, against the shoggoth and Dagon were both really cool, but somewhat frustrating. It took a bunch of tries to figure out I could sneak past the shoggoth’s tentacle at the beginning of the former, and while the latter was self-explanatory, it took a while to realize I had to lure Dagon to the front of the boat.
• I loved using the knife to shank dudes in the Order of Dagon, and I think the slow-but-powerful animation serves it well there. Not so keen on the permanent blood stain, but I can dig it. The rifle is also keen. Overall, I found myself wishing there was more lore to find in this section – in Innsmouth itself I couldn’t look at a desk without finding some kind of evidence, you’d think there would be more than one or two journals in the freaking cult headquarters. The Cthulhu stained glass windows, and the big sanity-sucking statue were both badass.
• The only time I got really and truly stuck in this section was at the engine repair bit, where I didn’t figure out I had to close the door on the engine before doing anything else. Instead I thought I had to hit the main engine valve, then run to one of the other valves to release the pressure before the boat blew up, and ended up exploding the boat about 20 times (watching the in-game cinema preceding that section every single time). Oh well, GameFAQs to the rescue!
Thanks again for the great pick guys, look forward to seeing your thoughts on this section!
@Tinny Tim
The one thing that really made no sense to me is that after the first time you get away from the shoggoth in the refinery, you get out of the elevator and are having sanity effects from the stress, and Jack was even talking to himself by the time I got to Hoover. And Hoover barely makes one threat and Jack’s like “Uh – ok, I’ll head right back in there!” In an ubeat voice. I’m no so sure he wouldn’t just shoot the jerk in the head and make a run for it.
I like how you can basically break your wrists to no effect while holding onto the rails during the boat level. It’s quite humorous seeing your hand twist around your wrist in a very unnatural way lol
I finally figured out why everyone in the town is so strange! They all have down syndrome!
more like drown syndrome.
***spoiler***
I found the battle against Dagon to be unsatisfying. His pattern was very simple and the whole part played like a super interactive cut scene more than a real boss fight.
@Hana
***SPOILERS***
that boss fight was very sloppy. All you basically have to do is run up to the ships head, wait for him to appear, shoot a round into ‘em and go back. it’s a very weak boss fight and would have been done better if it was just a cutscene or something
It’s kind of funny, but during that battle I had no idea that was Dagon. I thought it was just a servant of him/hydra/cthulhu.
@Hana
I could argue that a lot of things in Cthulhu resemble interactive cutscenes. Climbing down the elevator, the truck escape, and attack of the fishmen would probably all be done as QTEs if the game were made today. What I like about them, and the Shoggoth battle as well is that they’re more like environmental puzzles that test the skills you’ve learned over the course of the level . . . much like adventure game puzzles.
On the topic of Jack’s visible/invisible hands and feet, I seem to recall an interview with one of the developers saying they scaled back “the hand” as focus testers found it obtrusive; apparently it used to appear when the player opened, closed, locked or unlocked doors, for example, but blocked the player’s view too much in the process.
@ Jer_LRR
I did appreciate the battle with the Shoggoth, as it had did require you to solve environmental puzzles and use previously aquired skills (such as bolting doors). The Dagon battle didn’t have this same appeal. Stand in bow of boat, run to gun, hit two buttons. Repeat. You didn’t have to grab the rail, or even aim the cannon most of the time. It just was unsatisfying to go up against this immense creature, and then be presented with such an easy means of distroying it.
You are totally right that if made today, the battle would prbably be a quick time event with dramatic camera angles. I like how this game has no HUD and never takes you out of the first person perspective. It really invites you to be involved in the action and have a personal stake in it.
@mastersmith
Same here, I had no idea that was Dagon. In fact, until you said it, I didn’t know. I was very curious who it was, but I didn’t think it was Dagon, because certainly they’d tell you that…right? It’s pretty odd that they didn’t spell that out better.
When is the next podcast coming?
i dont think they ever make refernce to the name of the Shoggoth or Dagon…the only reason i knew what they were was a FAQ, are they shown in the manual, my game didnt come with one.
Like many people I came the the point which if not for the game club playing through the game i would be done with it. The Refinery was this moment for me, I think part of this was me not finding the Rifle though. I was very happy when i got past it, I enjoyed the Order of Dagon house and the boat to some degree.
I dont like how they completely removed all stealth aspects of the game at this point and it has transferred in to a shooter. I think i enjoyed the first hour or so of the game the most when it was a detective stealth horror game.
Joseph,
That’s odd, I found the Dagon house to be the best stealth part of the game. I don’t know if you went through the hidden passageway by the bookcase, but I went through there and stealth killed all four guys on the first floor with my knife. It was the most satisfying stealth part in the game so far IMO.
I think that the game loses a lot of its charm once you start getting weapons. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still really enjoying it, and were it not for the bugs, I’d be liking it a lot more. I just think there was something great about the first quarter of the game when you had no weapons. It felt like such a unique experience up until that point. It still feels unique, it’s just not as interesting as soon as you have to start shooting guys like every other game out there. I actually had a much different experience in the refinery than you. I thought that was an excellent part of the game (outside of the bucket invisible wall bug that took me an hour to figure out how to resolve (almost an unintentional, yet solvable puzzle)). I felt that the refinery was so well laid out, and thought through. It felt like a real place to me. Everything wove together in that space in a way that just made sense and was quite cool. I didn’t start using the rifle until the dagon house, most of the time I just ran past the guys in the refinery in that main hall near the bucket area. If you ran into the bucket area they almost always can’t find you.
I also hit that invisible wall in the refinery. I spent a lot of time running and jumping at it, and finally I thought I’d try going back to the main hall area of the refinery and saving up by that little chute in the fenced in area. Once I saved there, I went back to the bucket and the invisible wall was gone!
Despite the myriad of bugs other people have been having, my play through has been completely bug-free. Or it was until the boat trip. There I ran into the problem with the blue lights that some other people have mentioned, namely that they don’t appear. I tried just randomly shooting for quite a while, but I never managed to take out the lights. I finally gave up and just downloaded a save set immediately after that section. Kind of sucks that I’m no longer playing my game with my stats/items/etc.
As others have said, the addition of guns really does detract from the horror factor. On the boat, for instance, the ship is being overrun by viscous fish creatures. But, with my trusty shotgun in hand, I was less afraid of them then I used to be of the townspeople back in the earlier chapters.
I think the game would have been much better if you never, ever got a gun.
As with a few other posters there was a point of the game I would have quit and not come back if it were not for the backlog. That part being the escape from the fishmen. Which would have been unfortunate since I am greatly enjoying this game.
I am playing on 360 bc and would not have known that there should be music except for two things. The menu screen is completely silent and forum posts that mention it. I am not sure what the music adds, but the game hold up well without, with all of the background sounds and the commentary of Jack filling in.
@thedude – my only bug was on a dangerous voyage where I shot a fish creature into the water and he got stuck off screen. There were no other fish creatures on the boat, but the sailors still continued to run around shooting their guns. I had to reload this section and be careful not to shoot them when they were near the edge of the boat.
@Nick – When I reload the game sometimes Jack is almost insane and I need to stare at a wall for a few min. before moving on.
@Tinny Tim – Though his sanity is fine in the refinery when fighting the fishmen, his sanity seems to go crazy on the boat when the fish creatures are attacking.
I find it interesting how this game does not give you many clues how to play through sections leaving you to figure them out through trial and error or to try to look carefully at your surroundings for an answer. Specifically the section where the boat is being hit by heavy waves. I kept dieing trying to look through the cannon to see something. It took me a while to notice that one of the sailors was holding on to a railing whenever the waves hit and that I could zoom in with the cannon. I hit the left trigger by accident, then it hit me… Oh I can zoom in.
I should be able to finish the boat section tonight and be prepared to listen to the next episode.
thedude,
I tried stealthy killing the guys in the house with the knife. I snuck right up behind him almost touching, did the aim-stab, and it missed causing him to turn around and alert the whole room.
I dont know what the invisible wall you ran into, i didnt have any problems in this part only getting lost a few times.
The good of this game reallt out weighs the bad though. I am loving the game that i wouldnt have ever found if not for the game club.
I didnt even know there was supposed to be music, i thought it was trying to be more realistic in that sense that there wasnt eerie music playing from nowhere while i walked around town. I think not having music in game makes it feel more real.
wow, I’ve never yelled bullshit so loudly after figuring out that damned engine puzzle.
***SPOILERS***
So basically once you stick the dynamite into the vent fan (which was also completely unobvious) you find a guy who locked him self up in the mess hall. The engine dies, and because he’s too much of a coward to go fix it, you’re forced to figure out this dilemma all by your self (even though the prick is a fricken engineer).
basically there is a valve that you turn, which just so happens to be so close to the coal door that you can accidentally use the valve instead of the door, which causes the ship to explode if you don’t turn it after turning another valve which is off in never never land and fix a broken pipe. Simple enough, but if you fuck up the order of events (like I did) then you end up confused thinking that you’re purposely supposed to turn the valve that blows up the ship and make a run for the cargo hold.
This puzzle represents everything that is unholy and evil about game design. If you manage to fuck up a puzzle this bad, I think you deserve to have your proverbial game developer license revoked and have your head smashed between two cinder blocks.
Joseph,
Yeah, I can’t even imagine this game with music. I absolutely love that there’s no music. It gives it a feel like no other game I’ve played, and I didn’t know it was missing until reading about it online. I think it’s perfect without it.
That’s odd that you couldn’t stealth kill those guys. I never missed a single time. It’s strange how everyone seems to have a different experience playing this game. I guess that’s what makes it a great backlog game.
I didn’t have too much trouble with the engine puzzle.
***SPOILERS***
However, I wasn’t upset when a fish guy killed the engineer while he was trying to weld the ship’s door shut behind me.
/***SPOILERS***
I had a bug where the audio would cut out before the characters finished talking. It wouldn’t happen every time though.
I’m really enjoying this particular series of backlog podcasts, so kudos and thanks. The guys had been talking about 360-specific bugs but failed to mention a REALLY bad one. Hopefully no one has encountered this, but title updates have the ability to damage your game saves. This is my fourth time playing the first half of the game because. I would get distracted by any number of other games, go back to CoC sometimes months later, get a mandatory update and lose all my progress. If it weren’t for this podcast I probably never would have played it again. Which would be super lame because it’s a damn cool game despite all of the bugs and flaws.
@daveg
Given that this game was licensed by Chaosium, I wouldn’t be surprised if they ripped the creatures’ sanity damage directly out of the RPG. In the pen-and-paper game, humans with the “innsmouth look” don’t do sanity damage, but full-on Deep Ones do 0/1d6 (0 on a passed check, 1d6 on a failed one). Dagon, for reference does 1/1d10, and a shoggoth does 1d6/1d20.
@mastersmith98
I had the same issue
. Could have used more testing.
It’s a pity that after all the buildup to both the Shoggoth and Dagon, neither is identified when they make an actual appearance – seems a missed payoff for anyone besides hardcore Lovecraft nerds. Old H.P. wasn’t exactly known for his illustrations either . . . so even reading the stories doesn’t help match the critters to their names.
oh yes, I thought the guy welding the door shut behind you was quite amusing. thanks for bringing that up zach
@Jer_LRR
That makes sense. That is one of the main reasons I had to fight Dagon like 6 times because I was battling my sanity the whole time. During one of those battles the funniest thing happened. I was trying to shoot Dagon with my shotgun, used up my two rounds, when I went insane. Jack points the shotgun up to his head, pulls the trigger, but nothing. He puts the gun back down puts his hands to his head and squeezes then blacks out.
Has anyone else gone insane while your gun is empty?
Those looking for something to listen to tonight (in the absence of a Game Club) should check out ‘Shoggoth’s Old Peculiar’, a Neil Gaiman short story that pairs well with Dark Corners of the Earth.
You can listen to it in its entirety here:
Hmm. . .odd the link didn’t come through. One more time:
Neil Gaiman – Shoggoth’s Old Peculiar
@Jer_LRR -
Once it gets going ‘Shoggoth’s Old Peculiar’ is very funny. Though I have yet to read any Lovecraft stories the game gives me enough insight to make this funny.
I’m playing on 360, and I’m having a problem where (SPOILERS) I’m in the vent trying to get to the captain’s room, I get the vision, and then my game crashes.
Sent my Xbox copy back to GameFly, bought the PC version, and found the save I needed to continue.
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