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Bethesda Softworks, 2k Games and Headfirst Productions join forces to create Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the earth (for the Xbox and PC), which is a horror-themed action adventure based on the work of influential American horror writer H.P. Lovecraft being clearly ambitious, mixing first-person action, sneaking, and adventure elements with a creepy story filled with various surprises, mightily impressing you and freaking you out equally in turn.
You play as Jack Walters, a private investigator with a history of mental instability. Jack is trying to get his life and his career back on track, but just can't seem to remember a six-year period from his past. Soon after the opening of the game, a missing-persons case takes Jack's attention away from his own predicament. He finds himself in the quiet port of Innsmouth, a little-known shantytown with a rather standoffish populace. It's a dismal place on first impression, filled with rundown buildings and thuggish residents who gurgle veiled threats in response to Jack's inquiries. Before long, Jack begins to uncover a sinister secret lurking just beneath the surface. He asks one too many questions and soon finds himself fighting for his life against unspeakable horrors. The game does a great job of gradually magnifying the sense of danger and the scope of the mess that Jack has gotten himself into, and it also does pretty well at evoking the early-20th-century period in which the story takes place.
What the game lacks in high-fidelity graphics, it makes up for with surprising variety. Character animations are sometimes a little choppy, textures are noticeably grainy, and weapon models look plain, so you might catch Call of Cthulhu looking like a second-rate shooter from time to time. Much more often, though, you'll find a lot of great little touches in the environments, which are surprisingly expansive in spite of how much there is to see and do in them.
The noticeable repetition in Jack's and his enemies' dialogue is really the only knock against the otherwise-outstanding sound. As mentioned, Jack's narration isn't a perfect fit for the circumstances, but most of the speech throughout the game is delivered convincingly, and Jack's enemies sound especially good. Gunfire is piercingly loud, and various ambient effects help thicken the game's atmosphere. There's also some great music throughout Call of Cthulhu, which tends to cue up with whatever's happening onscreen very well.
Jack Walters' journey to the dark corners of the Earth should take like 10 or 12 hours, but could easily take more, depending on how long the tougher bits stump you. You then unlock a tougher difficulty mode, which heightens the challenge by making ammo scarcer and enemy encounters harder to survive. So there's some value in revisiting the adventure--but your first time playing through Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth is liable to leave a lasting impression no matter what.
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