Cthulhu: An Unspeakable Mod is a Half-Life Game Mod, based on the Cthulhu Mythos. You play as Ranulf Stafford. Ranulf is an occult investigator who has been having bad dreams recently. Dreams of an sunk island resurfacing, and men awakening an evil of propotions no man can comprehend.
So one evening he visits his old friend Sir Henry, only to find a letter from Henry himself, that says that he has gone to his church. Ranulf decides to search for him there, and that is when the journey starts; pulled into the madness that is the knowledge of the Great Olden Ones, and a cult planning to awaken the great Cthulhu. The only one able to stop them, is Ranulf.
Cthulhu: An Unspeakable Mod provides examples of the following tropes:
- Absurdly Spacious Sewer: The one below the City of Yith.
- Alien Geometries: The City of Yith is full of it.
- Apocalyptic Log: Many pages written by cultists, scientists and Henry are found in the mod.
- Artifact of Doom: You read the Necronomicon in the library. Immediately afterwards, enemies attack.
- Cassandra Truth: no one believes Ranulf when he returns from R'Lyeh after saving the world, and thus he is locked up in Arkham Asylum.
- Chest Burster: A man lying in a bed screams and then die. Then small spiders burst out of his body.
- Cosmic Horror Story
- Corrupt Church: The Black Church. Full of chanting cultists.
- Cult: The Esoteric Order of Dagon.
- Did You Just Romance Cthulhu?: Dr Whately gave Yog-sothoth his wife. The small spiders you have been fighting the whole time have been the offspring.
- Dreaming of Things to Come: Ranulf dreams of the Esoteric order awakening Cthulhu before the game starts.
- Driven to Suicide: Dr. Whately, who created the monsters in Dunwich, is found dead with a knife and a note explaining it.
- Eldritch Abomination: Cthulhu and Dagon.
- Eldritch Location:
- The island above R'lyeh.
- You also go Millions of years back in time to the City of Yith.
- Enemy Chatter: "The stars are almost right..."
- Evil Laugh: One of the cultists does one, After Ranulf has been locked in the asylum. They are now free to awake Cthulhu again.
- Exclusive Enemy Equipment:
- The Thompson is only gained by picking it up from a dead Mobster later on in the game.
- The cultists are carrying daggers that you can only get by killing them.
- Fish People: The Deep Ones.
- Game Mod
- Human Sacrifice: Ranulf witnesses a man dying being dropped from a cage into a well, filled with acid.
- Immune to Bullets: The scientists experiments that can only be killed by fire or magic. Also, Cthulhu.
- Invisible Monsters: the Spawn of Yog-sothoth.
- Jump Scare: Most of them in The Ghoul's Lair. The caves are small and narrow with sharp turns, so you might often end up in front of one of the Ghouls.
- Justified Tutorial: Since most people should already know about moving and firing in a gold source game, the hazard course simply consists of visiting Sir Henry. Then he explains how the powers of the spellbooks work.
- Kill It with Fire: Father Dagon, and some other enemies, are weak against fire.
- Laser Hallway: Ranulf wanders into one in Yith. Fortunately, there is a grid on the floor that he jumps through, surviving the trap.
- Life Drain: The Spellbook of the name Drain Life can do just that from human enemies.
- Loads and Loads of Loading: The maps are smaller than the usual, which means then leaving an area might load again and again. Thankfully, they are still only a few seconds long, as in most Half-Life mods.
- Lovecraft Country
- Molotov Cocktail: One of the useful weapons obtained.
- More Dakka: The Thompson gun gets a lot of ammo while visiting the lair of the Mob.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Every area in the game really. Innsmouth, Dunwich, Ghouls Lair, City of Yith, R'lyeh...
- New Work, Recycled Graphics: In many places. Most notably in R'lyeh, you encounter Shock Troopers from Opposing Force more or less unchanged. They're presumably supposed to be Cthulhu's star spawn. Cthulhu himself, meanwhile, uses a sized-up and modified Gargantua model.
- Occult Detective: Ranulf Stafford.
- Ominous Fog: Innsmouth is sweept in one.
- Organic Technology
- Our Ghouls Are Different: The way that leads into their lair might be in a graveyard, but just like the rest of Lovecraft, they are neither demons or undead.
- Paranormal Investigation
- Sanity Meter: Using the magic attacks costs the sanity of Ranulf. When it reaches zero it's game over, and it can only be refilled by defeating the bigger enemies in the mod.
- Spell Book: Weapons which Ranulf hold while casting the different spells.
- Spooky Silent Library
- Standard FPS Guns: And some not so standard.
- Starfish Aliens
- Stealth Pun: The icon that represents the sanity meter on the hud is a small picture of Howard Philips Lovecraft. You get HP for defeating bosses.
- Sword Cane: The first weapon is one, found in Sir Henrys Wisdom church.
- The Blank: The Night Gaunts. Though it is hard to see since it is so dark in the areas around the Church.
- The Mafia: The Finucciaro family.
- The Roaring '20s
- Town with a Dark Secret: Innsmouth.
