Subject: Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land Sat Mar 01, 2014 7:13 pm
This game is a treat for any Call of Cthulhu fans who enjoy turn based tactical games. It's fairly intuitive and easy to grasp especially for players used to the pen and paper Call of Cthulhu RPG. H. P. Lovecraft fans will enjoy the story as long as they can see this game as a homage and not a travesty. I'd like to point out that it's a game that is about tactical turn based combat with WWI weapons and Mythos creatures and spells, it's not a horror game.
The combat system is rather classic and based on Action Points that are spent to accomplish a number of actions on the battlefield. Characters are defined by various stats that can be increased in between missions by spending points from an experience pool that all characters share (so it open different strategies since you can decide to invest on the entire group or focus on one character in particular). Sanity becomes as crucial as health as the game progresses and the supernatural becomes more present on the battlefield. There is only one save slot and you can't save and reload to try things out. Hardcore players will enjoy that feature, more casual gamers will probably want to stick to the easier game difficulty to avoid the inconvenience of getting stuck later on.
The atmosphere is great and faithful to the original material (especially the pen and paper game) and the Cthulhu Mythos. Visually the game looks better than I had expected. Some textures are a bit blurry but considering the game only takes around 40 MB on a drive it certainly doesn't look bad. The sounds are fine. The game could have used more diversity but the main title and the battles are well rendered. The opening song in particular sounds both creepy and beautiful.
The game is played entirely with the mouse: left clicking is used to move characters or select them and right clicking to target attacks. Holding and dragging the mouse around the screen allows to see the terrain beyond the selected character. A wider scale would have been more practical on the PC but it works. It is also possible to zoom in but that is not very useful and the characters look much better if you zoom out. The interface feels a bit clunky though and controls could be a bit more responsive but the game is definitely playable.
I would recommend this game to fans of the turn based genre who won't mind a story that can be a bit campy at times (don't expect a horror game). If you're a Cthulhu fan it's a title that will definitely bring back memories of playing the pen and paper game or reading stories by August Derleth.
Carabas Pole Dancer Impersonator
Subject: Re: Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land Tue Mar 11, 2014 6:44 pm
Call of Cthulhu the Wasted Land is now available on Steam. It has achievements for people who care about that sort of things.
The game itself has some issues (and you can't really zoom out far enough which is a real pity on the PC) so it will only satisfy fans of the genre who can overlook the clunky interface and enjoy the World War I setting + all the Mythos references and creatures.
Carabas Pole Dancer Impersonator
Subject: Re: Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land Thu Jan 08, 2015 7:42 am
The game is part of a bundle and at that price it's definitely worth picking if you're into turn based games. The port could have been better executed but it's still worth getting for fans of the Cthulhu Mythos.
Sue77 Enlightened Viewer
Subject: Re: Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land Thu Jan 08, 2015 8:49 am
That is one heck of a bundle if you're into Lovecraft - which I am. Thanks for mentioning it here Cara