Something went wrong. Try again later
    Follow

    Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth

    Game » consists of 3 releases. Released Oct 24, 2005

    As private investigator Jack Walters, you must investigate mysterious disappearances in the town of Innsmouth. This investigation takes you deep into the dark and unsettling world of H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos.

    Worth a play despite the bugs? Are the bugs avoidable/fixed?

    Avatar image for adequatelyprepared
    AdequatelyPrepared

    2522

    Forum Posts

    0

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 0

    Hey all, for some reason or another, Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth has caught my attentions recently and everything I see of it is quite interesting to me, and it is readily available on Steam for $10. However, I have heard many things about the bugs that render the game unplayable/unbeatable on the PC version, and I just want to know how possible it is to avoid these, or if there are fixes out on the 'net, and how reliable those are. Thanks in advance.

    Avatar image for mscanyon
    MSCanyon

    8

    Forum Posts

    0

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 0

    Its been maybe a year since I've played, but I don't recall any major bugs during my playtime. In fact I only found out later that the game was once notoriously buggy. You should be fine.

    Avatar image for impartialgecko
    impartialgecko

    1964

    Forum Posts

    27

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 15

    User Lists: 2

    Greg Kasavin called from 2006 and said yes.

    Avatar image for CoinMatze
    CoinMatze

    661

    Forum Posts

    150

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 2

    User Lists: 9

    #5  Edited By CoinMatze

    @adequatelyprepared: I played through the game not too long ago. There were two bugs that made it quite frustrating though. There's a section where you have to shoot at lights in the distance. On modern systems they're invisible. With enough persistance and luck you can get through that one. The second bug messed up the very last moments of the game. It's a time sensitive sequence that was impossible to finish on my PC. I had to look up the ending on Youtube.

    There's a patchtool with fixes for both. Didn't do anything for me. Apparently you need a cracked main executable for it to work.

    I enjoyed the game despite of those problems.

    Avatar image for cornbredx
    cornbredx

    7484

    Forum Posts

    2699

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 15

    I play this from time to time, but I have never finished it so take what I say with a grain of salt. I've never experienced a bug in this game- it has always played (surprisingly) fine.

    Other replies here suggest any bugs have patches that may or may not work and it's possible the bugs are later in the game then I ever got.

    I should mention I never stopped playing because I didn't enjoy the game. It's actually (still) really good. A little annoying sometimes, but good none the less.

    This is one of those games I just stop playing to play something else and then forget to go back to it. It's happened to me several times since it's release. That happened to me with EQ2 also, strangely enough. Although I guess with MMOs that makes more sense.

    Avatar image for kylebsure
    KyleBsure

    113

    Forum Posts

    0

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 0

    #7  Edited By KyleBsure

    From what I remember this one doesn't make a great first impression. But if you're into the Lovecraft lore you'll probably be able to look past its flaws and have a decent time with it.

    Otherwise I'd suggest just watching a walkthrough on youtube and then checking out DAGON.

    Loading Video...

    They both seem to be based partly on The Shadow Over Innsmouth.

    Avatar image for beachthunder
    BeachThunder

    15269

    Forum Posts

    318676

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 30

    Absolutely...but just keep the glitches in mind. Don't be afraid to download someone else's save file (I ended up having to do that), you'll obviously lose your personal progress, but ultimately, it doesn't matter.

    Avatar image for baal_sagoth
    Baal_Sagoth

    1644

    Forum Posts

    80

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 10

    #9  Edited By Baal_Sagoth

    I played the initial PC retail release. I definitely encountered the ending bug @coinmatze talked about and resorted to hex-editing the movement speed that made a sequence either insanely hard or impossible (the fix linked here probably spares you that shit); I never managed to finish fairly during an arduous 60-90 minute attempt. Other than that the game presents an interesting hybrid of gameplay styles and all of them are pretty clunky but serviceable depending on your tolerance level.

    The plot fluctuates between faithful Lovecraft and B-movie, splatter movie-Lovecraft but is entertaining throughout. The Innsmouth beginning "act" is straight out of the stories and a favorite gaming segment of mine. The prologue will immediately give you an idea of the whacky SciFi elements and expanded universe nonsense at play as well. The game has that oldschool,'almost zero hand holding' policy at times which works relatively well but drove me insane to the point of consulting a walkthrough once (Marsh refinery).

    If the Lovecraft theme interests you I'd say it's absolutely worth it, bugs and all. It's a solid horror game otherwise but I'm not sure it'll hold up that well. Unique and interesting Lovecraft adaptation though!

    Avatar image for tobbrobb
    TobbRobb

    6616

    Forum Posts

    49

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 13

    #10  Edited By TobbRobb

    I never got further than 2 hours in because it would blue screen my pc at the exact same point every time. It was actually game breaking. All the fixes i tried only managed to make it merely crash and not fuck my pc up.

    Avatar image for oraknabo
    oraknabo

    1744

    Forum Posts

    12

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 6

    #11  Edited By oraknabo

    This game is 100% worth playing. Coincidentally, I just wrote something about it this weekend when I made a list of games that were nearly unplayable on release, but are still worth taking a look at, especially when unofficial paches are available. I won't attach the full list here becuse it's pretty long, but I'll link it here:

    Flawed Masterpieces

    The majority of the major bugs have been fixed on the Steam version. I've played all the way through a number of times and the only game-breaking bug I get anymore is one at the end when you're on the ship and you can't see the targets on the island. I ended up downloading someone else's save to get me past this, but 99% of the rest is fine.

    Avatar image for darkstorn
    darkstorn

    481

    Forum Posts

    0

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 0

    Steam version fixes a ton of the issues. Game starts slow but after a couple hours you'll need to see it through to the end. Great game :)

    This edit will also create new pages on Giant Bomb for:

    Beware, you are proposing to add brand new pages to the wiki along with your edits. Make sure this is what you intended. This will likely increase the time it takes for your changes to go live.

    Comment and Save

    Until you earn 1000 points all your submissions need to be vetted by other Giant Bomb users. This process takes no more than a few hours and we'll send you an email once approved.