Part of the allure of the Nintendo Switch is satisfying the fantasy of a mobile console capable of enjoying house console titles. many developers try to include it, this is part of the reason and we’ve seen various levels of success. However, another part in this struggle is it is meant to be or we get later experiences that may be described as a bonus, rather than a massive win. Even though Dragon Quest without query falls in the latter, Call of Cthulhu is a bit more of the former. Gameplay makes it the perfect sit in a seat while a show is playing at the background game, but is there enough to sell the experience Switch or does it fall short? Here is our Call of Cthulhu Review.
Call of Cthulhu is a game inspired by Lovecraft’s world and is based on the fairly well-known RPG. The experience follows a personal investigator called Pierce and covers his quest to solve the puzzle of the unfortunate departure of the Hawkins family. Once the bolts and nuts are out of the way, the story has a fair amount going on.
Like a lot of story-driven experiences, it’s really what you make of it. There are plenty of files to find, details to uncover, dialogue choices to make and it can be a world filled with thrilling twists and turns or a bunch of weird stuff that eventually reaches a conclusion. Ideally, you’ll explore the lore and see all the craziness that occurs, but the journey doesn’t quite pay off unless you’re really invested in the core narrative. It’s also held back by gameplay, which really acts as more of a buffer between story segments.
While not entirely accurate, some might view Call of Cthulhu as a walking simulator because there really isn’t much besides moving from choice and story detail to the next. There are times where you need to solve a puzzle or prove you’re stealthy, except these are rather limited. None of them are enough to sell the experience, especially when it’s largely what you make of it.
Someone rushing can overlook a bunch of details, limit their ability to truly explore everything that is going on and ultimately reach a conclusion in record speed, with it requiring someone moving from shiny thing to shiny thing to see most of what it has to offer. For some this might be enough, for others it falls short, with my biggest criticism being the Switch port itself.
