The Sinking City - The Ideas of H.P. Lovecraft

Myrthos

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A new video paying homage to the ideas behind H.P. Lovecraft's work, has been made by The Sinking City team.





More information.
 
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Yup, after the IMHO disappointing other Cthulhu game, this one might turn out to be good.

Frogwares has made some very good detective games in the past -- if they can keep their forte (piece together a chain of events via some mild, but involving detective gameplay), AND if they can create the oppressive atmosphere of Lovecraft's work, this could be a winner.

Mind you, I'm not that excited about any RPG mechanics in a Lovecraft game, I'm in for the mystery and atmosphere.
 
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It's certainly hard to expect less of this than what CoC turned out to be.
 
I'm not interested in anything first-person or reflex based Now run away for five minutes!! but especially not for Lovecraft.
 
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What was wrong with Call of Cthulhu? I'm just curious as I haven't played it yet myself.

My two cents on this:
The First Part: a potentially cool detective mystery game, boiled down to Lovecraft clichés (if you are not a Lovecraft nut, you might love it though - for me, it's just repeating that particular, age-old idea of his)

The Second Part: a totally out of place, scripted action-ridden part, which is supposed to add some deadly tension to the experience. Well, it is not tension, it is pure frustration. (if you are okay with scripted action sequences, you might like it though)

Personal slant: I find the RPG mechanics totally out of place. Your character build is mostly cosmetic, as the main story beats are pre-defined, and not related to your skills. (FYI: the pen'n'paper version of this game DOES WORK, because the DM actively forms the story around your skills)
However, you'll be able to create a totally wrong build, where certain clues will not be deciphered, thus certain background lore won't be explained in detail. If you are a Lovecraft newbie, you will be totally and utterly confused in such situations. If you are a Lovecraft nut, you'll know the drill anyway (see above: clichés), so this stat won't matter that much.

Bottom line: I genuinely enjoyed the first 2-3 hours, but afterwards the game design broke apart in spectacular fashion.
 
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@JDR13; - what duerer said :)

I enjoyed the atmosphere, but the "stats" were barely useful and the action/scripted seqeunces were not fun. I loved CoC: DCotE…so this was a huge letdown. I don't like adventru egames, which was how it starte dout, but it's Cthulhu, so I was OK with that but the action sequences…and the sanity 'mechanic'. All felt very weak. I've played a fair bit of CoC tabletop, and this was such a weak reflection of that.
 
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Thanks for the analysis. That's disappointing to hear, but I'm glad I didn't run out and buy it.

I'll probably still give it a try but not until it's heavily discounted.
 
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I guess I shouldn't be surprised that games like CoC still get funded and developed. Seems like a giant waste of resources to me.
 
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