History VideoGame / CallOfCthulhuDarkCornersOfTheEarth

Players take on the role of Jack Walters, a police detective with a reputation for seemingly impossible insight into difficult cases, in 1920's Massachusetts. At the start of the game, the Boston Police Department has arrived at an old manor at the edge of the city to investigate alleged crimes of a resident cult called the Brotherhood of Yith. The cult is armed with rifles, and refuses to allow the police into the manor. They demand that Jack Walters be sent in to speak with them.

Sadly the game's engine has not aged well. There are a lot of compatibility issues which were only compounded by the studio going bankrupt shortly after release meaning there's no official bug fix patches, though a couple of dedicated fans have tried their hands at some. Still ''Dark Corners of the Earth'' is considered by some critics to be an excellent, if not ''the best'', SurvivalHorror video game at the time of release.

''Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth'' is a horror/adventure video game based on the Franchise/CthulhuMythos, specifically ''Literature/TheShadowOverInnsmouth'' and ''Literature/TheShadowOutOfTime''. It is the last title developed by the now-defunct Headfirst Productions, and was published by Bethesda Softworks in the year 2005.

* KillEmAll: [[spoiler:The only non-historical named characters to survive the events of the game are Agent Mackey, Jacob Marsh (who is only arrested), and Dr. Eric Hardstrom (the doctor of the asylum). Everyone else, including Jack himself, dies horribly at some point.]] Attempting to kill or letting [[spoiler:Hoover]] die triggers a NonstandardGameOver.

** The Yithian Lightning Gun. It has unlimited range, the highest damage of any gun in the game, unlimited ammo, and the ability to charge. The only downsides are the lack of iron sights and relatively slow firing rate, which can be compensated for with some practice, and finally (and obviously), it's obtained ridiculously late in the game.

* NoticeThis: Irritatingly averted; none of the items you can interact with are highlighted in any way, which combined with the [[RealIsBrown dark, murky graphics]] makes for many a GuideDangIt moment.

* VagueHitPoints: The screen turns grey (along with reduced movement) if the player takes damage, having color restored as they gradually regenerate health. The health screen shows which wounds are untreated, along with a heartbeat electrocardiograph. Additionally, the game's sanity meter is also left vague showing distorted view as it lowers.

* ContinuityLockout: Those unfamiliar with Lovecraft's work will probably find the reveal that [[spoiler:Jack is part Yith and has the body-swapping ability to go with it]] somewhat confusing.

* GameBreakingBug: The infamous [[http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1716005 cannon scope]] bug which renders targets on the reef invisible, thus making the game impossible to complete without a guide on how to blindly shoot all the targets. Made worse by the fact that the bug wasn't oficially patched, and it took months to release a fan patch that fixes the problem.

* HumanMomNonHumanDad:
** {{Inverted}}. Ramona's father is human and her mother is a Deep One... [[{{Squick}} don't think too much about it]]!
** Played straight by [[spoiler:Jack. His father's consciousness was taken over by a Yith while his mother was normal. Ultimately, he is neither human nor Yith.]]

* UnwinnableByMistake:
** The final timed escaped sequence is almost impossible to complete on the PC version without using a trainer, as a programming oversight results in your movement speed being slower on the PC version. This is actually a bug related to the screen resolution you are using. The higher your resolution is set to, the slower Jack moves. If you have a large monitor and try putting the game to something like 1400x900 so the screen is not stretched and blurry, you will move about as fast as chilled honey. This is fixable though, if you choose something like 800x600. The bug is claimed to be fixed in the UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} version, although some users [[http://steamcommunity.com/app/22340/discussions/0/620703493318662270/ experienced the issue]].
** A rather infamous glitch exists in the PC version where during the [[spoiler: attack on the Coast Guard cutter]], some mages that you have to shoot with a cannon and the reef they stand are invisible. (They do generate, but the game doesn't render that far out.) There is no real indication as to why this occurs and it only occurs on some copies of the PC game. Unfortunately, the only way around it is to download the save game file of a person who does not have this glitch, or use a trainer program. The bug does exist in the Steam version.

* InfantImmortality: [[spoiler: Averted. Poor little Ramona...]]

* AllThereInTheManual: You will have a much easier time understanding the plot, if you've read Creator/HPLovecraft's "Literature/TheShadowOverInnsmouth" and "Literature/TheShadowOutOfTime". Then again, the sense of waking horror and discovery is far stronger for those who are less Lovecraft savvy. It works well on both levels.

* RealIsBrown: Most of the game's world has a dark, depressing murky brown texture to it, sometimes accompanied by a sickly green tint.

** Also, Hoover does this to one of his agents who had encountered the shoggoth and been half-melted by its acid.

Not to be confused with the tabletop game ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu''. Now available for 9.99 USD on UsefulNotes/{{Steam}}, and 5 USD on Website/{{GOGDotCom}} so no need to KeepCirculatingTheTapes.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/call-of-cthulhu.jpg]]

* AttackOfTheMonsterAppendage: During your first trip in the sewers you can get a quick glance of the [[spoiler: Shoggoth's tentacles]] coming out of a well. [[spoiler: You'll get to see him more closely later in the Refinery level.]]

%% * ClimaxBoss: Dagon

* BigBadDuumvirate: Dagon and Hydra, who are the father and mother, respectively, of the Deep One race and their gods/monarchs.
The Flying Polyps could also be considered this, as well.

* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: Almost literally. [[spoiler:Knocking out Dagon with the main gun of a United States Coast Guard cutter, and electrocuting Hydra with a Yithian Lightning Cannon.]]

* ImmuneToBullets: The Bosses, as well as one of the Beloved of Cthulhu that appears briefly at the beginning of "The Esoteric Order Of Dagon". It can be killed with a conveniently placed [[KillItWithFire flamethrower]], while the bosses (such as Dagon and Hydra) usually require some unique level specific thing (like a ship's main gun or [[spoiler: the Yithian Lightning Gun]]).