Info about Call of Cthulhu®:

Official game description:
  
Call of Cthulhu, the official videogame inspired by Chaosium's classic pen and paper RPG, brings you deep into a world of creeping madness and shrouded Old Gods within Lovecraft's iconic universe.  
1924\. Private Investigator Pierce is sent to look into the tragic death of the Hawkins family on the isolated Darkwater Island. Soon enough, Pierce is pulled into a terrifying world of conspiracies, cultists, and cosmic horrors.  
Nothing is as it seems. Sanity is an irregular bedfellow, all too often replaced by whisperings in the dark. Strange creatures, weird science, and sinister cults dominate the Cthulhu Mythos, intent on realizing their mad schemes to bring about the end of everything.  
Your mind will suffer - between sanity and psychosis, your senses will be disrupted until you question the reality of everything around you. Trust no one. Slinking shadows hide lurking figures… and all the while, the Great Dreamer prepares for his awakening.

Release date: Oct 29, 2018

Categories: Investigative Gameplay, Choice-based Narrative, Psychological Horror, Lovecraftian Horror, First-Person Perspective, Puzzle Solving, Stealth Gameplay, Dialogue-based Gameplay

Feature scans:
- Wiki: score 10; verdict: Needs Improvement; summary: The game suffers from significant technical issues, including bugs that disrupt gameplay and require external fixes. The overall gameplay experience is considered mediocre and not particularly challenging. Additionally, there is a notable dependency on walkthroughs to complete the game, indicating that players often need external guides to progress.
- Steam Deck: score 50; verdict: Tinkering Required; summary: The game experiences significant issues with frequent crashes and network connectivity problems on the Steam Deck. However, many users also report a positive experience with good performance and controller support. The graphical quality is noted to be dated by some users.

- Hardware Profile: No data
Feature extractions:
- Community Price: No data
- Playtime Metrics: No data
- Time-to-fun: No data
- Player Archetypes: No data


Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category.
Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews.
What players like:
- Engaging and intriguing story (weight 0.75): The game features a compelling and well-rated story with interesting plot twists and engaging narrative. The story is fun, intriguing, and can captivate many players.
- Immersive atmosphere (weight 0.5): The game offers a carefully crafted and immersive atmosphere that contributes to the overall experience. The atmosphere is well put-together, disturbing, and eerie, enhancing the horror elements.
- Enjoyable gameplay (weight 0.43): The game provides enjoyable gameplay mechanics and an overall entertaining experience. It includes diverse gameplay elements such as stealth, chase, puzzle-solving, and shooting.
- Fun and logical puzzles (weight 0.33): The game features puzzles that are fun to solve and not too complicated. The puzzles are logical, satisfying, and add to the investigative gameplay.
- Good adaptation and introduction (weight 0.28): The game is a solid adaptation of Lovecraft's universe and serves as a good introduction to his works. It is recommended for fans and accessible to those unfamiliar with Lovecraft.
- Multiple endings and replayability (weight 0.27): The game offers multiple endings based on player choices, which adds to its replayability. Different endings and choices make the game more engaging and interesting.
- Well-written and memorable characters (weight 0.17): The game includes well-written and memorable characters with meaningful dialogue. The characters are interesting, charismatic, and contribute to the story.
- Good voice acting (weight 0.15): The game features good voice acting that enhances the overall experience. The voice actors did an amazing job, contributing to the atmosphere and storytelling.
- Decent soundtrack (weight 0.12): The game features a decent soundtrack that enhances the atmosphere and overall experience. The music tracks are good and contribute to the game's tension and immersion.

Common complaints:
- Poor animations and graphics (weight 0.4): The game is criticized for its poor animations and outdated graphics. Character models and cutscenes are particularly noted for their low quality and awkwardness.
- Linear and monotonous experience (weight 0.32): The game is criticized for its linear gameplay and monotonous puzzles. Players find the overall experience boring and uninteresting due to its lack of non-linearity and weak puzzle design.
- Poorly designed stealth sections (weight 0.24): Stealth sections are described as confusing, tedious, and poorly designed. Players find them frustrating, unnecessary, and poorly implemented with inconsistent AI.
- Uninspired and repetitive gameplay (weight 0.24): The gameplay is described as limited, uninspired, and repetitive. Players find it tedious, boring, and lacking in variety and innovation. The RPG elements are also criticized for being poorly implemented.
- Slow pacing and underwhelming ending (weight 0.19): The game is criticized for its slow pacing, particularly at the start, and an underwhelming ending. Players find the overall pace to be either too slow or too hectic, leading to a lack of action.
- Rushed and underdeveloped narrative (weight 0.19): The narrative is criticized for feeling rushed and underdeveloped. Players find the storytelling poor and confusing, with the plot becoming predictable and losing cohesion in the second half.
- Meaningless choices (weight 0.13): The game's choices are criticized for being meaningless and having limited impact. Players feel that their decisions do not significantly affect the game, leading to unsatisfactory endings.
- Misleading genre classification (weight 0.13): The game is criticized for not being a true RPG or horror game. Players feel misled by the game's genre classification and find the RPG mechanics to be false and poorly implemented.
- Basic and unsatisfying combat (weight 0.11): The combat system is criticized for being very basic and unsatisfying. Players find the combat sections to be scripted, dispensable, and poorly rated.
- Short game length (weight 0.11): The game is criticized for being relatively short and leaving little impression. Players feel that the game's length does not justify its price.
- Automatic save system issues (weight 0.11): The game is criticized for its lack of manual save options and issues with the autosave system. Players find the automatic save system problematic and inconvenient.
- Not worth full price (weight 0.11): The game is criticized for not being worth its full price. Players recommend buying it at a discount instead.

Gameplay feedback:
- RPG and skill progression (weight 0.34): The game features RPG elements with a progression system, skill point allocation, and a skill tree that affects story outcomes.
- Investigative and narrative-driven gameplay (weight 0.31): The game focuses on investigation, dialogue, and interaction with clues and characters. It is a story-driven experience with a slow pace, emphasizing detective work and choices.
- Linear and choice-based narrative (weight 0.18): The game offers a linear narrative with choice-based gameplay, focusing on story and decisions.
- Exploration and interaction (weight 0.15): Gameplay involves exploring environments, interacting with objects, and engaging in dialogues.
- Detective and RPG hybrid (weight 0.12): The game combines detective gameplay with RPG elements, including investigations and character development.
- Dialogue and narrative choices (weight 0.12): Dialogue choices affect the story and gameplay, offering a non-linear narrative experience.
- Puzzle-solving mechanics (weight 0.11): The game includes puzzles as part of its gameplay, requiring players to solve them to advance.
- Stealth and survival elements (weight 0.09): The game includes stealth mechanics and survival horror elements in certain sections.
- Auto-save feature (weight 0.08): The game uses an auto-save or checkpoint system for saving progress, without manual saving.
- First-person perspective (weight 0.07): The game is played from a first-person perspective, enhancing immersion in the adventure.
- Non-combat focus (weight 0.07): The game is not centered around combat or shooting; it focuses on other gameplay mechanics.
- Limited gameplay mechanics (weight 0.06): The gameplay is somewhat limited, focusing primarily on story progression with minimal side activities.
- Moral choices and consequences (weight 0.06): Players face moral choices that have significant consequences on the story and gameplay.
- Interesting characters and mystery (weight 0.05): The game features intriguing characters and a compelling mystery to unravel.
- Achievements and perks system (weight 0.05): The game includes an achievements or perks system, adding additional goals and rewards.

Performance notes:
- Dated graphics quality (weight 0.19): The graphics quality is considered poor and dated by many players. This includes issues with graphical quality in cutscenes and general visual appearance.
- Compatibility issues with newer CPUs (weight 0.1): The game crashes frequently on newer CPUs, particularly Intel 10th generation processors or newer, indicating compatibility issues with modern hardware.
- Compatibility issues with Windows 11 (weight 0.08): The game has compatibility issues with the current version of Windows 11, leading to crashes and improper functioning.
- Optimization issues (weight 0.07): The game has optimization issues, with some players reporting poor optimization while others find it well-optimized. This indicates mixed experiences regarding performance.
- Visual and graphical bugs (weight 0.07): Players report visual stuttering and various graphical bugs, affecting the overall visual experience of the game.
- Requires technical adjustments (weight 0.07): The game requires changing monitor settings and adding environment variables to function properly on modern systems, indicating it needs technical adjustments to run smoothly.
- Stiff character modeling and motion (weight 0.06): Character modeling and motion are described as stiff, affecting the realism and immersion of the game.
- Frame rate and performance issues (weight 0.05): Players experience frame rate drops and low performance, affecting the gameplay experience.
- Infinite loading screen issues (weight 0.03): Some players report issues with infinite loading screens, preventing them from progressing in the game.
- Specific hardware crashes (weight 0.03): The game crashes on specific hardware configurations, indicating that certain setups may not be compatible with the game.
- Sound mastering issues (weight 0.03): There are reports of sound mastering issues, affecting the audio experience of the game.
- Bug at the start (weight 0.03): Players encounter a bug at the start of the game, which may hinder the initial gameplay experience.
- Game requires fixes (weight 0.03): The game requires fixes to play properly, indicating that it may not be fully functional without additional patches or updates.
- Mouse click bug (weight 0.02): There is a reported mouse click bug, which may affect the user interface and gameplay interactions.

Recommendations:
- Recommended for Lovecraft fans (weight 0.21): The game is highly recommended for fans of H.P. Lovecraft's work, the Cthulhu mythos, and Lovecraftian themes. It is seen as a good investment for those who enjoy psychological horror and the Lovecraftian universe.
- Worth buying on sale (weight 0.17): The game is considered worth buying, especially when it is on sale. Many players suggest waiting for a sale to purchase the game.
- Comparisons to other games (weight 0.14): The game is compared to other titles like 'The Sinking City' and Telltale adventure games. Some players recommend trying out 'Gloomwood' or playing 'The Sinking City' and 'Dark Corners of the Earth' instead.
- General recommendations (weight 0.12): The game is recommended by many players, especially to those who haven't played it yet. It is highly recommendable and worth considering if it is on sale.
- Recommended for mystery and RPG fans (weight 0.12): The game is suggested for fans of mystery, RPG, choices, and Lovecraftian themes. It is also recommended for those looking for an easy-to-pick-up mystery horror game and those who value detective work and horror elements.
- Mixed recommendations (weight 0.07): Some players recommend the game despite its flaws, suggesting it has some substance and is mostly fun. Others recommend it only if you know what you're getting into.
- Platform and settings suggestions (weight 0.06): Players suggest playing the game on different platforms like PS4 or using specific settings for Intel CPUs. Some recommend using a guide for 100% completion.
- Negative recommendations (weight 0.06): Some players do not recommend buying the game at all, even on sale. They suggest watching a let's play instead of purchasing the game.
- Additional suggestions (weight 0.06): Players suggest listening to specific tracks or audiobooks related to Lovecraft. Some also recommend experiencing both this game and 'The Shore'.

Other player notes:
No miscpoints

Emotions:
- Disappointment (weight 0.48): The game failed to meet expectations in various aspects such as story, gameplay mechanics, and graphics. Players found the RPG elements underdeveloped, the story predictable, and the horror elements lacking in tension and fear, leading to an overall underwhelming experience.
- Frustration (weight 0.38): Players experienced frequent game crashes, technical issues, and poorly designed mechanics. The lack of meaningful choices, frustrating stealth sections, and ineffective skills contributed to a sense of frustration.
- Enjoyment (weight 0.23): Players enjoyed the game's atmosphere, story, and gameplay mechanics. The engaging narrative, interesting plot, and multiple endings provided a satisfying experience.
- Satisfaction (weight 0.19): Players appreciated the game's atmosphere, story, and overall experience. The engaging gameplay, skill progression, and immersive elements contributed to a sense of satisfaction.
- Excitement (weight 0.09): The game's engaging narrative, characters, and immersive decision-making created a sense of excitement. Players were thrilled by the cosmic horror elements and the multiple endings.
- Engagement (weight 0.08): The game's atmosphere, story, and investigative gameplay kept players engaged. The RPG system, meaningful dialogue choices, and rewarding exploration contributed to a sense of engagement.
- Positive (weight 0.05): Players had a positive experience with the game's unique atmosphere, interesting characters, and engaging story. The game was recommended for Lovecraft fans and those looking for a fun and dark experience.
- Appreciation (weight 0.05): Players appreciated the game's atmosphere, story, and connection to Lovecraft's universe. The narrative, sound design, and detective work were highlighted as strong points.
- Negative (weight 0.02): Players mentioned stiff animations, ugly graphics, and confusing narrative as negative aspects. The game's potential impact on mental health and annoying puzzles were also noted.
- Entertainment (weight 0.02): The game's overall experience, including its story and puzzles, provided entertainment. The simple mechanics and engaging narrative kept players entertained.
- Boredom (weight 0.02): Players experienced boredom due to a slow start and monotonous gameplay. Dull stealth sequences and repetitive tasks contributed to this feeling.
- Mixed feelings (weight 0.02): Players had mixed feelings due to enjoying the first half of the game but being disappointed with the second half. The game had both positive and negative experiences.
- Anger (weight 0.02): Players expressed anger due to frequent game crashes and the game being unplayable. The frustration of not being able to play the game despite multiple attempts to fix it led to anger.
- Confusion (weight 0.01): Players found the plot unclear and did not understand the purpose or appeal of the game. The confusing narrative and lack of clear objectives contributed to this feeling.
- Fear (weight 0.01): The game's atmosphere and cosmic horror elements created a sense of fear. Players found certain chapters too scary, contributing to an overall feeling of fear.
- Love (weight 0.01): Players loved the game from start to finish, appreciating its overall experience and gameplay on console.
- Disappointment (weight 0.01): Players expressed a complete sense of disappointment with the game. The overall experience did not meet their expectations.
- Intrigue (weight 0.01): Players found the game's story intriguing and enjoyed the fun and engaging narrative.
- Immersion (weight 0.01): The game's well-chosen color palette and sound design created a sense of immersion. Players felt deeply engaged with the game's atmosphere and story.}