The Call of Cthulhu video game E3 trailer.

I ain’t loving it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mkOx1fH2G0

Mostly because I want something that’s a bit more pulp.  I think that it was Ken Hite who pointed out that a lot of Lovecraft’s original stories had people actually actively stopping stuff, be it via mystical powders or counter-magic or armed raids or — in one particular case — flamethowers (yes, your munchkin BURN THE MYTHOS WITH FIRE player-character is unquestionably canonical).  I know that it’s fun to be all trippy and in the Madness Zone with Mythos-themed games, but there’s something to be said for futilely denying the essential meaningless of Lovecraft’s cosmic horror universe via the indiscriminate use of a shotgun.

But maybe that’s just me.

4 thoughts on “The Call of Cthulhu video game E3 trailer.”

  1. After watching that trailer, I am confused. While it is undeniably a horror themed game, how does this have anything to do with the Cthulhu mythos ?

  2. You might like C. J. Carella’s (yeah, the guy who did GURPS: Voodoo) Warp Marine series.
    In it, hyperspace is a seriously lovecraftian thing, and the human species’ comparative advantage over other alien races is that they’re more able to deny the reality experienced traveling through “the warp”, and get on with indiscriminately using a shotgun when they emerge (or even being directly exposed to it).
    .
    I’m not very far into the series yet, so I can’t tell you what degree that comes to the fore, but it’s solidly established early on in the first book. It looks like it’s going to anchor the metaplot.

  3. Well, this is disappointing.

    I picked up the Call of Cthulhu rpg when it came out back in 1981 (yeah, that old) and I can tell you that part of its enduring popularity was the fact that player characters were encouraged to fight the servants of the Old Ones with just about any gun you could get your hands on.

    Stats were included for all types of revolvers and automatics, muskets, rifles and the ever-popular shotgun (came in 20 gauge, 12 gauge and sawed-off) to tommy guns, grenades, sticks o’dynamite on up to the 75 mm field gun. Sure, the eggheads could use their powders and spells, but if you didn’t have at least 1 party member with a gun, you wound up in deep pretty quick.

    If this game ignores firearms, it’s ignoring a big part of its potential market.

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