As a huge fan of Lovecraft's work and Chaosium's pen and paper RPG Call of Cthulhu, I've been waiting with much anticipation to see how Dark Corners of the Earth would unfold. I recently got some extended playtime with an early preview build (ours was an Xbox version; the game is also hitting PC), and even though the current incarnation is still pretty rough, I'm pleased to report that the potential for excellence is still within Headfirst's grasp.
The story revolves around an ex-cop named Jack Walters. Jack is a regular kind of guy who gets called out to investigate some shootings at a local nut-house occupied by an order of cultists. After a gun-fight with the local law enforcement, Jack discovers that the leader of the cult has been logging and tracking his daily life -- it seems as though Jack is of interest to the cult. What sinister plot could be afoot? Sadly, Jack never really finds any answers to these questions and as the first chapter in the game closes, we're treated to an interlude which tells us how six long years have passed since the incident at the cultists hideout, and how Jack went mad and was incarcerated in the local insane asylum suffering from delusional visions and acute amnesia.
Being at a loss to know what to make of the last six years of his life, Jack is now a shadow of his former self, but as of late, he's been starting to get some eerie feelings of dread as his memories from the past slowly begin to return. On a side note, Jack decides to take an investigational job from a client who claims a young lad he knows has mysteriously gone missing in the small port-town of Innsmouth. Innsmouth is a strange inbred little place -- Lovecraft's short story The Shadow over Innsmouth proves as much -- and is the setting for an unearthly sinister plot that will ultimately lead Jack to his twisted destiny.
Having Dagon over for tea and crumpets is always fun.
Unfortunately, our preview code provided a disjointed gameplay experience, so it's still difficult to know what the finished product will offer in terms of pacing and story delivery. Suffice it to say that Headfirst is well on track to capturing the essence of the horrors that lurk in the dark with some great sepia-toned texture work and interesting character models. The locals of Innsmouth all have a rather fish-like quality to their voices, appearance and motion -- something which is very much inline with Lovecraft's stories.
