If a newcomer to the Cthulhu myth asks the "investigator" veteran, what is the charm of the Cthulhu myth? The answer is likely to be the ambiguous standard answer – the fear of being "unnamable".
It's not that the fans are making a fool of themselves, the author of the Cthulhu myth, Lovecraft (h.p. Lovecraft) is the most commonly used narrative technique, which is to use human fear of the unknown, through a large number of metaphors to create a repressive environmental atmosphere, to stimulate the reader's imagination to achieve a "sense of fear".
That is, an "invisible fear."
In the entire big game circle, the spiritual core of this "Rock's Horror" (Note (1)) has always been the best, often considered to be the trpg "The Call of Cthulhu" in the field of board games. In terms of video games, although there are "Song of Saya" and "Dark Dungeon" that refer to Cthulhu's world view setting, and there are visual and narrative techniques that use Cthulhu-style "Bloodborne Curse", but works that face the theme of Cthulhu mythology have always been in a state of absence.
Note 1 to entry: The author of the Cthulhu Mythos series of novels is Lovecraft, so the unique sense of horror created by the Cthulhu Mythos is often referred to as "Rocky Horror".
The above sentence has become history, and the video game of the same name as the Cthulhu Mythosk novel short story "The Call of Cthulhu", a topic work that was originally scheduled to be postponed to 2019, finally jumped back to this year's Halloween eve.
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The protagonist of the game, Edward Pierce, is a private investigator who takes the new case to Blackwater Island to investigate the death of a female painter.
This protagonist background is very similar to the description of the identity of the "investigator" player in the "Call of Cthulhu" of the board game, in fact, the entire game plot is also based on the board game's "The Call of Cthulhu".
In the board game, the host will describe the scene seen by the "investigator" through ambiguous language, use "metaphor" to stimulate the imagination of the player, and use the "unknown" to create a sense of depression; but the more intuitive video picture than the oral description is contrary to this expression. Using sound and visual effects to show "invisible fear" is like designing "colorful black", which is somewhat contradictory.
But if you want players to experience the original "Rocky Horror", this is a must.
The Call of Cthulhu game trailer
It is necessary for everyone to see these (indescribable) creatures with their own eyes, while preserving their mystery and mystery.
Yoann Drulhe, who is in charge of animation production, thinks there are many ways to achieve this. For example, before the finale, only some of the physical features of these creatures are presented through the adjustment of light and shadow effects; or they are placed outside the game screen and when the player wants to see the whole picture, they disappear.
Yoann says most of these techniques are inspired by a variety of horror movies, such as watching an alien movie again when he thinks about how to present scenes of empty ghosts.
The protagonist of the game gradually falls into madness as the progress of the game progresses, and when he is fluctuating between reality and fantasy, he will refer to "Forbidden Island" and "Otherworldly Floating Life" with similar plots.
A dream scene from Forbidden Island
But after all, "Rock's Horror" is a relatively unique way of expression, whether it is a picture performance or a narrative method, through the portrayal of a gloomy and oppressive environment, and gradually instilling fear through uneasiness and helplessness, which is the most fascinating place of the Cthulhu style.
The production team actually understands this:
We avoided as much of the eerie and creepy sound effects and startling techniques that often appear in horror movies. What we want is an atmosphere of oppression.
Sound effects engineer Swann's creative strategy based on this concept is quite suitable for it:
We want to use sound effects to scare you out of your bones. One of the key ways to achieve this goal is to present things in their truest form, because you will feel safe as they are. If we add some nervous sound effects to some of the clips, you'll be frightened!
Swann further explained that any sound effects heard by players in the game come from what they see, but after they mix and match these sounds with music, sometimes it is difficult for players to tell whether what they just heard is ambient sound, music, or hallucinations.
We want players to be able to ask themselves while playing: Did I really hear that voice just now?
For this reason, Swann used the sound effects of the Hawkins Mansion scene as an example, in which the sound of thunder, creaking wood and rain are natural sounds, and the other sound effects are used to scare people.
Video link >>. https://v.qq.com/x/page/z0774oqflue.html
The efforts of the production team are not denied, but after the game was launched yesterday, the reviews received were not all praise.
At present, the feedback given by the first echelon players on the Steam platform is "mostly positive", and more than 70% of the players have given positive reviews.
Most of the reasons for the bad reviews are focused on the picture, and according to our experience of live broadcast yesterday afternoon, its picture performance is indeed quite different from the imagination. (We will pick some new game live broadcast introduction from time to time, and the Douyu live broadcast room of the Yu Research Institute: 5471990)
Character modeling is the short board of the short board
This gap is actually caused by many aspects. First, the emotional gap, "The Call of Cthulhu", as a work with its own "sense of orthodoxy" in the name, caused a considerable shock in the circle of relevant fans when it was just released, but in the process of constantly jumping tickets, the influence of the year was also constantly losing, and the players who still insisted on waiting for it naturally had high expectations for it.
Then there is the gap between the exquisite promotional pictures, the promotional images of "The Call of Cthulhu" are not only very Cthulhu charm, but also the performance of light and shadow details is full of expectations, but they have not been able to bring this perfection to the actual game.
"The Call of Cthulhu" promotional image
Finally, there is the price gap, the price of 144rmb (steam) is indeed worth making the buyer have higher requirements for him.
In addition to the graphics, there are also complaints about the game content such as the character ability branching system and the small number of explorable locations, but most players in the evaluation still affirm the game's oppressive and gloomy atmosphere shaping, and the persistence of the spirit of "Rock's Horror" can also be seen in the eyes.
"The Call of Cthulhu" is now available on the three platforms of ps4, xbox, pc (steam), is a first-person exploration puzzle game without combat elements, please purchase as appropriate.