Call of Cthulhu E3 2018 Preview

Call of Cthulhu is another game that I returned to while at E3 2018 to see once again behind closed doors. This second viewing of the game is centered around expanding upon the showcase I had last year. It's an interesting change-up as this acts like more of a streamlined version of last year's continuing the events we sort of ended at. To get things going I'll mention that this is set to launch in 2018 on Xbox One, Playstation 4 and PC platforms. It follows a man that's decided to tackle this interesting case about a mansion having been burned down. The presentation opens with this aspect as he's using detective skills to explore a room of where the incident appears to have started.

He's joined by an officer that is there to make sure he's not fooling around with the crime scene. There's an interesting level of detail here as you explore and look for clues. If you have additional knowledge or skills unlocked you're able to understand more and be successful in different ways while you conduct your work. After finishing up in the area we were shown a larger portion of the house. There are multiple rooms to explore and you may need to solve puzzles in order to access them. There are also choices in how you do things, how you react to various events and the dialogue you choose. This factors into that whole having things unlocked for new responses aspects I mentioned.
Call of Cthulhu Screenshot
This is a first person adventure largely driven by reconstructing scenes and investigation. There are dark elements at play and they get creepy from what I saw during the demo presentation. It's also a game that wants to mess with you, your mental state will deteriorate based on actions and it can become a grim world the further you play. I'm very interested to see how their insanity system really will work when the game releases as it's only been teased in what I've seen. They even had an intense cinematic that attempted to paint a better picture at the end of what they displayed behind those closed doors. It can get weird, I'll say that.

Visually I was impressed with the game, it looks better than last year and seems ever so creepy. This will be Xbox One X enhanced as well as PS4 Pro'd with HDR support. It's set to be a ten to twelve hour story with possibly eighteen or twenty hours based on your play style. It's a solo experience with a checkpoint system that sort of has you continuously going as death may be a part of your mind breaking down. Some points will straight up mention you've died however. What I saw was a beta build so this is looking very polished, I can't wait to hear the Call of Cthulhu when it does arrive.

Read our Call of Cthulhu E3 2017 Preview
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Gamerheadquarters Reviewer Jason Stettner