Game Review: Call of Cthulhu - Dark Corners of the Earth

The Welcoming Party

I'm extremely passionate about video games, and over the last few months I invested ~15 hours in one that I thought I'd really love. Here are my thoughts..

I wanted to like Dark Corners of the Earth but unimaginable horrors awaited me every time I returned to it... Horrors of poor programming to be specific. All of these crashes took place on a Fallout-4 Grade PC, and while there is a certain romance to retro horror games, unless you're a die-hard Dagon cultist who self-flagellates daily while waiting for darkness to overtake the world this game is not for you.

Cool Box Art!

Dark Corners of the Earth crashed on me every hour of gameplay, generally right as I was about to reach a save point. It left me with a new compulsive twitch and a feeling of dread every time I realized that I'd been playing for longer than 15 minutes and hadn't saved. It forced me into a sense of urgency which the game itself doesn't give (evidenced by the lack of a "run" button).

Despite a great story and premise set by Lovecraft, expanded on by a team that set off with good intentions, the writing was a sub-par. The voice acting was a mix of delightful talent paired with detestably unimaginative writing. Alas, I could not even experience all of this to its fullest as a glitch (which no amount of patching could counteract) cut off half the dialogue mid sentence! I swear at one point they said "We need to get to ---" (silence)

The varying volume level of the voices is easily overpowered by music or sound effects rather frequently, basically forcing you to use subtitles anyway. HOWEVER they forgot to subtitle large segments of the game involving more than 2 sentences of exposition. The game also crashed on almost every cinema (thankfully after the auto-save) and frequently froze. Alas, but if I could have only either READ or HEARD the plot-points while playing the game, as opposed to looking up what I missed online, would I have liked it more?

If only we knew where we were supposed to go

No.

The game's detailed story is poorly executed in all of its dialogues, though its 'journal entries' are enjoyable, and even still it somehow robs you of a real ending or sense of accomplishment. This abomination leaves you feeling entirely unresolved! It's like a sinister detached voice told the game's writers "explain the plot of the entire game in 5 minutes... Okay, that's the ending, roll credits... Oh, and don't give players the explanatory ending unless they win with 100% completion within a certain time limit; otherwise just skip to the credits after playing the intro video again."

Stealth is hit or miss... but generally miss, even if you know what you're doing.

The gameplay seemed vastly enjoyable at first, introducing exciting gameplay mechanics like insanity and addiction to pain killers, neither of which ever seemed to truly come into play. "Hallucinations, panic attacks, vertigo, paranoia, and more!" it reads on the box... Well yes, now that you mention it, the game did give me panic attacks and paranoia with all of its glitches, and vertigo the countless times that the motion-blur effect got stuck. The game's creators go really far out of their way to tell you how tenuous your grip on reality will be, and how it will unhinge your sanity... Only to heedlessly ignore their own warnings in favor of throwing a blur-filter over your field of vision, or slightly swaying the screen from side to side when something disturbing happens. These effects also frequently get stuck in the "on" position until you inevitably turn off the game, die, or a critical error causes the game to fail.

Dark Corners of the Earth could not be more linear, despite advertising investigative and exploration elements. Yet despite this there are a few ways to miss the 100% completion rate and be cheated of a "true" ending... Or (as in the case of various people I spoke to) you will like just get cheated of the "true" ending anyway because the game is a nightmarish abomination that seeks to unhinge the vestiges of your sanity. I suppose that much was advertised.

If you see this screen in your game... The enemies are invisible...

The glitches and bugs in this game are CRIPPLING. There's a moment where you need to use a scope to shoot at enemies (see above, no it's not a spoiler, it's a thing you NEED TO KNOW in order to complete the game)... However, due to a VERY COMMON PC glitch (look it up), which is still unresolved/unpatched despite the game being out for a decade, the enemies you need to shoot are completely invisible and impossible to see or interact with unless you know exactly where they are. You literally have to look up this segment of the game online to win. There are also numerous instances of poor level design AND poor lighting where a rational sane individual will not know what to do next without consulting a guide (like randomly jumping off a cliff to progress the story)... But I digress...

Other glitches include being unable to walk, falling through the floor (literally falling far through the level and getting stuck in the space where great Cthulhu dwells: Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!), suddenly flying (and thus unable to open doors), having enemies aware of your presence because when you died and loaded the game they didn't reset their awareness of your presence. That one in particular is infuriating during the game's many "stealth" segments. Also having enemies glitch into the wrong locations or stopping their patrol patterns randomly and indefinitely due to glitching into something, making traveling past them impossible without detection. These are just a few of the many issues I can remember, and reloading your game will not fix half of them, so you're forced to save often, and create multiple save files. I won't even get into the stupidity how of its supposedly "friendly" AI will go out of its way to make stealth segments impossible to stealth.

"Stealth"

There were many game mechanics that serve no true purpose. For instance, the STEALTH button doesn't actually do anything except fog up your screen... There's also a rail-grabbing mechanic that the game uses twice toward the end of the game that it never tells you about, and never uses again. No literally, it's a random segment of the game where you can extend your hand and grab onto a railing that no one tells you about. One time it's absolutely vital to your survival (and they don't tell you about it), and the other time it's actually just a useless aesthetic choice you can ignore. The supposedly "intelligent" puzzle mechanics were enjoyable half the time and mindbogglingly infuriating in the instances where they were unclear. There was one puzzle in specific, involving identifying and interacting with glyph pieces... only the game's creators drew one of the glyphs incorrectly. That could almost be a sort of in-game parallel to what happened to the production of this game. The creators had some really cool ideas but ultimately deviated from their intent.

Save your sanity, don't play this game...

TL;DR: AVOID THIS GAME. Great start, the first hour or two is very enjoyable. Everything after that is unforgivably glitchy, disjointed, and horrific in the bad way. Stop playing right the moment where you first get a gun and if you're still interested in the story just watch someone else play through it and save yourself the frustration. You can not beat this game unless you wish to sacrifice your sanity and make use of at least one walkthrough/guide to navigate the 'invisible enemy' section. It's literally impossible.

10 Reasons You Should Support My Kickstarter (you won't believe #3!)

Here are 10 reasons why you should support my Kickstarter and help bring my dream to life! Though written tongue in cheek, I hope that these arguments will make you consider becoming a Backer of Liberty: Deception Volume 1.

#10. It's New - Maybe you don't typically read comic books, maybe you don't like long-winded and confusing stories. You're in luck! As my first graphic novel you don't need to have any previous knowledge of the characters, story, or world. There isn't a better point of entry than it's initial release!

#9. It Has Pretty Pictures - Maybe you don't care about the story, maybe you don't like reading, or (like me) you're a slow reader. The beauty of the graphic novels is that you have something tangible to look at on every page! So even without reading anything you can get an understanding of what's happening.

#8. Quality - Liberty: Deception is being created by a team of extremely talented artists across 6 continents and we've invested months of work to make sure that every page will look just as good as the last. We've crafted our own fonts, we make sure that every character has the same scars and tattoos on every page, and we will maintain this level of quality across the entire series.

#7. A Solid Story - Every person who's reviewed my book (each word is a link to a different review) has has had something positive to say about the story and how excited they are to see more of it. We have many unique characters and many different elements of our story to tell.

#6. Passion - Every person who's working on Liberty: Deception is passionate about it. Many of us are putting in upwards of 20 hours a week (or more) to create the best possible experience for our readers. You can see how that passion translates into every panel we create.

#5. Generosity (or "Supporting the Economy!") - By supporting the Liberty: Deception Kickstarter you're helping create jobs. No, really! This project regularly gives paying jobs (at fair rates) to a team of over 10 artists. The money from our Kickstarter goes directly into printing our book, so you're creating the vehicle through which we can succeed, which will allow us to create more content! It's sort of like the circle of life.

#4. You're Rooting For The Underdog - We are self-published, self-funded, and creator owned. In terms of simply trying to raise awareness for our comic book online or in a comic book shop we're competing with the Walking Dead, Batman, and the Avengers! Just like Rocky Balboa, all we're looking for is a fair shot!

#3. You've Spent Money on Sillier Things - Search your feelings, you know it to be true. Perhaps it's insurance for a starship in a video game, or a massive 40k army, foolishly expensive drinks at the bar (or the airport), or a blue ray copy of the Lord of the Rings movies you purchased knowing full-well that they'd release the extended editions a month or two later... Whatever the case this wouldn't be the strangest thing you've spent money on.

#2. It's Actually Pretty Good - Don't believe me? Check out the first 20 pages for free right now!

#1. You can "Pre Order" it NOW for less $$ and get more things - While you're probably thinking that you can buy it later for less money, you're incorrect. For $25 you're getting the physical book, signed and shipped to your door, plus a digital copy, your name will appear in our special thanks, and you'll also get to influence future elements of the story! By ordering our book at a later date you're losing out on bonus goodies and there's a stronger chance that our book won't be printed. For a bit more you can even make a cameo and be a part of the story you're bringing to life!
In short, thank you for taking the time to read this list and for thank you supporting my project.

Here's the link to the Kickstater page: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/randomencounter/liberty-deception-vol-1-a-sci-fi-comic-adventure

The Comic Book Creator’s Struggle

The Comic Book Creator’s Struggle

(The Road Less Taken)
[Written for the magazine Mir Fantastiki, copied here with permission]

Comic Page for Liberty: Deception.
Art by Raymund Bermudez & Joana Lafuente

Anyone thinking about creating a comic book should know that it is a difficult road. Many abandon the path after the first few paces, petrified after catching only a glimpse of what lies ahead. You will almost certainly not make money. You will almost certainly spend far too much of your own time and money. At every possible turn of the creation process you will battle against a hoard of invisible pitfalls, trials, and psychological struggles that will make Frodo’s adventures in the Lord of the Rings look like a holiday picnic. You will encounter problems you did not think could even exist! You will lose days, months, and probably years off your life (if you take yourself too seriously), like in the machine from the Princess Bride, learning about distribution chains, ISBN numbers,  grammar, file formats, fonts, and the differences between RGB vs CMYK. You will gain experience, learn to multi-class, become a jack of all trades, or you will undoubtedly give up.

Even Vulcans have bad days...

In the miraculous event that you are able to complete your first book, you will experience firsthand what H.P. Lovecraft meant when he spoke of depression, as you try to find individuals who might simply read your book. You will embrace rejection time and time again with a smile. You will likely spy on your critics, become close with the harsh criticisms that you’ll receive, and possibly grow from them. You must suppress your emotions using the ancient Vulcan rituals as the potential readers insist that five dollars US is too much to pay for your book, the sum of years of your life. However, above all else you must remember that you are only in this situation because you truly care about what you are creating.

Frodo knows a thing or two about struggles

The life of a comic book creator is one of passion and struggles. You are passionate about your story, but it takes time to create. The little victories each week will one day lead to a moment of personal triumph where you’ve fought the world, fought nature, and fought against your very psyche and won! No one is obligated to like your work, or even give it glance, and as a project of passion you have to be accepting of this and not take personal offense. There are many many mistakes to make as a comic book creator. I know because I’ve made most of them over the last decade. The creation of a comic book is a very slow and time consuming process and it is always important to remember that you should not expect fame, success, or money. Create something because you find it enjoyable.

Stabbity Bunny: A delightful
independent comic book series!

I am an American comic book writer/creator who has attended over 50 fan conventions, expos, and festivals. I was always intimidated by the amount of information needed to really understand the plots of the X-Men, The Green Lantern, or many other mainstream comic books, and as a result I’ve always been drawn to independent comics. I’ve supported and read dozens of books ranging from extremely low quality (in both art and story), to the most captivating of adventures and I found that I’m personally drawn to dynamic interior artwork, pretty cover art, and stories that seem genuinely interesting. I have a habit of taking notes on what I like about the things I read, and when you switch hats and suddenly become a “comic book creator” the first thing many people forget is to focus on creating something that they themselves would appreciate.

A panel from my first comic book

My first venture into comics sought to explain a comic book world I’d created in 18 pages or less. However, it didn’t really have that much of a story, and I honestly didn’t put too much effort into truly developing the world. The art was created by the first artist I bumped into, and the cover was as dull as an 18th century legal document. It took me almost a year to realize that I wouldn’t be selling the other 5000 copies I’d printed, and it took a few more years to realize that perhaps I’d created the very type of exposition-heavy comic that I myself didn’t enjoy.

The same character, now in my newest book.
Illustrated by Casey Bailey!

The lesson to be learned in this is the most important reminder a comic book creator, or a creative mind in any other field, can have: To create what you enjoy and to enjoy what you create. Otherwise you might as well be getting paid for your time.