History VideoGame / CallOfCthulhuTheOfficialVideoGame

The game was released on October 30, 2018 for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation4, UsefulNotes/XboxONE, and PC through UsefulNotes/{{Steam}}.

** The root of the trouble here is the same as in ''VideoGame/{{Siren}}''; both are possibly based on the same Japanese fable. [[spoiler:During an economic downturn, a strange creature (Leviathan) washed up on the shores of Darkwater, and the fishermen villagers ate its flesh, gaining knowledge of the Mythos and becoming pawns of Leviathan and Cthulhu.]] Fitting, considering the plot of ''VideoGame/{{Siren}}'' also somewhat resembles ''Literature/TheShadowOverInnsmouth''.

* AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent: There are three chapters in which Pierce sees through the eyes of different characters and you play through events as them. Namely [[spoiler: Marie Colden, Sarah Hawkins, and Cat Baker]].

** [[spoiler: James Fitzroy]] the head of the Cult of Cthulhu on Darkwater Island is planning on bringing about TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. He is actually just a pawn for the Leviathan, though, who serves as the game's [[TheManBehindTheMan true antagonist]]. Even then it is ultimately [[spoiler: Sarah Hawkins]] who is the one who will bring about the rise of the Great Old Ones.

** The first one is [[spoiler: "Perform the Counter-ritual" ending. Pierce is able to successfully stop Cthulhu from entering the world thus saving the day, but he has also lost his sainity as a result and is now in the asylum ran by Dr. Fuller]]
** The second one is [[spoiler: the "Farewell", ending. Pierce walks away from complying with the ritual which drives Sara Hawkins to kill herself. Pierce has saved the day and survived with his sanity still in tact, however the experience has caused him to become a depressed alcoholic]]
* BodyHorror: Happens to a few characters throughout the story [[spoiler: including Sarah's husband, who is now a full blown HumanoidAbomination]].
* BoozeBasedBuff: Drinking alcohol regularly might seem like a terrible idea given your current situation, but [[spoiler: it actually helps protect your sanity from the Mythos and helps you get the "least bad" ending.]]
* BrainwashedAndCrazy: [[spoiler: Most of the town of Darkwater Island]] are this rather than willing followers of Cthulhu.

** [[spoiler: Sarah Hawkins successfully banishes the Dimensional Shambler but the mental exhaustion makes her susceptible to Leviathan's brainwashing.]]
** [[spoiler: How best to summarize the Counter-Ritual ending. Mind you, Edward did save the world, it just wasn't necessary to do it that way.]]
* ButThouMust: A few, mostly pertaining to ensuring the player does at least a ''few'' things that affect Pierce's sanity. You have no choice but to [[spoiler: look upon The Shambler painting]] for instance, despite being very well informed at how bad an idea it is at that point, and while you get a choice the first time, [[spoiler: the second time the Leviathan comes offering Pierce truth all your dialogue choices are to take it. The final hallucinatory segment ramps this up, with several "choices" that happen no matter how much the player resists, to show the Leviathan's control over Pierce.]]

* CreepyChangingPainting: Encountered in Chapter 10, [[spoiler: where Pierce encounters a painting of a man looking at a cultist scene in the distance - and as Pierce moves out of frame, the figure's face has turned to reveal that it, too, was Pierce]].

* DarknessEqualsDeath: [[spoiler: In chapter 9, when Pierce is trapped by the Shambler in an alternate dimension of the hospital's first floor, running out of oil for the lamp results in the Shambler catching and killing Pierce.]]

** If all else fails in Darkwater Port, Pierce can get Cat to let him into the Hawkins warehouse by promising her a favor to be named later. [[spoiler: She never actually collects on it, though.]]

** Pierce can make one of these himself [[spoiler: and ends up destroying the world in the process.]]
* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: Possible in two of the endings. [[spoiler: One of them binds Cthulhu into Edward Pierce's body, which isn't remotely good for his mind and is possibly temporary. The second is simply not helping with the summoning ritual and ruining the cult's plan.]]

** May happen to multiple characters across the storyline depending on Edward's action. It is also the PlotTriggeringDeath's cause. [[spoiler: Except Sarah Hawkins is alive.]]
** [[spoiler: Indeed, the only way to stop Cthulhu if you have low Sanity and not enough occult knowledge is to do this to yourself.]]
** [[spoiler: Sarah Hawkins will choose this ending to break the connection between herself and the Leviathan.]]

** The entirety of Darkwater Island which is spooky and full of menace that is not entirely apparent at first glance. [[spoiler: Almost the entirety of the town's inhabitants are corrupted by the Leviathan's influence.]]
** The final chapter, [[spoiler: including a puzzle sequence where the reality seen at a distance is the ''actual'' reality, but closing in obscures the truth]].

** [[spoiler: The Shambler looks like an elongated and mutated human with no eyes or ears and two sets of teeth. It even makes Pierce take sanity damage just from looking at it. Along with that, the further away it is the more obscure it is until it looks more like a distortion of reality.]]
** The "strange whale" caught by the "Marvelous Catch" [[spoiler: is actually a Star Spawn dubbed the Leviathan by Fuller, which is first seen depicted in cave art left by the island's indigenous populace -- who were its first victims. Its butchered corpse is found in the penultimate level, and eating its flesh granted the people of Darkwater -- namely Fuller, Fitzroy, and Charles Hawkins -- unnatural abilities]].
* FaceHeelTurn: [[spoiler: Both Marie Colden and Sarah Hawkins are turned to the Cult of Cthulhu via brainwashing.]]

* {{Foreshadowing}}: The main families on the island are all headed by second generation sons who kept up the family businesses of their fathers as closely as possible. [[spoiler: This is because they're ''literally'' the same men, kept immortal by eating eldritch flesh.]] To go one further, in the very beginning in the game [[spoiler: before you have any reason to distrust him, you can find a picture of Fitzroy's "father" who looks a hell of a lot like him.]]

* GameplayAndStorySegregation: [[spoiler: It's possible to run out of bullets if you shot too many brainwashed Darkwater inhabitants during chapter 12, but Pierce will still use his gun during a couple of cutscenes and scripted interactions which happen a bit later (against an unnamed cultist then against Fuller in the abandoned whaling station, and during the end of the game, against Fitzroy if you choose the counter-ritual ending or against yourself if you choose the suicide ending).]]

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.
* HauntedHouse: The Hawkins Estate is a ruined crumbling building which has survived (barely) a fire but was in a horrid state even before. It's not inhabited by ghosts. [[spoiler: It's inhabited by something much-much worse.]]
* HoneyTrap: [[spoiler: Leviathan]] more-or-less allowed itself to be caught so it could trick the people of Darkwater into [[spoiler: eating its flesh to make them and their descendants receptacles of Cthulhu's will]]. By the time Pierce rolls into town, it's grown weary of its imprisonment and [[spoiler: being perpetually consumed; so much so that it tricks him to releasing it since its mission was pretty much done.]]

* ImAHumanitarian: A peculiar example of it. [[spoiler: The cultists ate a sentient being but it was an inhuman whale-like alien. The alien also wanted them to do it.]]

* LastSecondEndingChoice: Averted. Although you pick your ending in the final dialogue, which choices are available are dependent on how you've played the game thus far. [[spoiler: The "walk away" and "suicide" endings are dependent on your stats and are also mutually exclusive, while the "perform the counter-ritual" ending is only available if you saved Algernon earlier. In fact it's quite possible to end the game with only the "perform the ritual" ending available, which is the ''worst'' ending as it brings about TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt.]]
* MouthOfSauron: [[spoiler: The Leviathan is this, serving as a conduit between the Old Gods and modern-day humanity]].

** First is [[spoiler: "Perform the Ritual", in which Pierce decides YouCantFightFate and helps summon the Great Old One. This ending is the only one which is available regardless of how you played through the entire adventure]].
** Second is [[spoiler: "Perform the Counter-ritual", available only if Algernon survived the fight with the Shambler]], in which [[spoiler: Pierce decides to say ScrewDestiny and, with the help of Algernon, seals the Great Old One [[SealedInsideAPersonShapedCan inside Pierce]]]].
** Third is [[spoiler: "Sacrifice Oneself", in which Pierce decides that it's BetterToDieThanBeKilled and commits suicide to prevent the summoning of Cthulhu]].

* MyDeathIsJustTheBeginning: [[spoiler: The Leviathan allowed itself to be ''eaten'' in order to infect the townsfolk and their minds.]]

** Towards the end of the game, when [[spoiler: the townspeople are driven murderously insane by Leviathan's influence, they speak with the same phlegmy, fishy growl as the Deep One hybrid townspeople from ''Dark Corners of the Earth''.]]
* NotHisSled: It is a ''Call of Cthulhu'' game where you visit an isolated fishing village where the locals are creepy looking, have a dark secret, and everything is worn down. [[spoiler: There are no Deep Ones and the Cult of Cthulhu was founded by sailors who ate a Star Spawn.]] It's actually surprisingly different from ''Literature/TheShadowOverInnsmouth'' that was used heavily in ''VideoGame/CallOfCthulhuDarkCornersOfTheEarth''.
* NotQuiteTheRightThing: Fighting the Mythos by using the Mythos. [[spoiler: Performing the Counter-Ritual results in Cthulhu being sealed into Edward Pierce, making him completely insane. It also puts Edward under the cult's doctor's control. By this point, just walking away would ruin the cult's plan; however, it's only an option if Pierce is sane enough to realize that.]]

* OneHitPointWonder: There's no hit point meter. During the stealth sequence, [[spoiler: the Shambler's encounters, and chapter 11-12 shooting sequences]], being caught by the enemy immediately sends the player back to the latest checkpoint.

* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: In the game's finale, it's revealed that [[spoiler: James Fitzroy, Thomas Fuller, and Charles Hawkins were all members of the crew responsible for the "Miraculous Catch" that occurred a generation ago, having eaten the flesh of the Leviathan and succumbed to its will, gaining a form of immortality. Each one of them has pulled off a MyGrandsonMyself and is living as their own "son", which accounts for why Captain Fitzroy is the splitting image of his "father". Their supernatural immortality also seems to be how Fitzroy managed to regrow his leg]].
* RecurringBoss: [[spoiler: The Dimensional Shambler stalks Pierce in a stealth encounter in Chapter 6, and later Sarah and Algernon fight it in a more straightforward PuzzleBoss encounter in Chapter 10.]]
* RedHerring: [[spoiler: Charles Hawkins is originally set up as the mutated leader of the Cthulhu cult. While he was one of the original cultist and is a major threat, he's actually acting ''against'' the cult during the plot - obsessed with saving Sarah, who will end up being the true power behind the cult once possessed. Likewise, the Shambler is the eldritch antagonist of the first half of the story, but beyond being the catalyst that (ultimately) causes the fire, sets up the plot with Sanders and sparks the case that brings Pierce there in the first place, it itself has little to do with the Leviathan's machinations.]]
* ReligionOfEvil: The Cult of Cthulhu, naturally, is winning no friends in this game anymore than it has in other properties. [[spoiler: Notably, the cult is completely composed of humans this time around with no Deep Ones in sight. Well, mostly humans.]]

** You venture around Darkwater's port and warehouse 36 at first during chapter 2, when everything seems alright, then during chapter 11 [[spoiler: when playing as Cat, and when Darkwater starts going to hell]], then again during chapter 12 [[spoiler: when most of the locals have been brainwashed and are now hostile.]]
** You explore first the upper level of Riverside Institute during the day [[spoiler: as Mary Colden]] in chapter 8, then go back during the night in chapter 9.
** Chapter 3 entirely consists in exploring the surface part of the Hawkins mansion. The end of chapter 9 has a small sequence when Pierce goes through the same rooms again, while looking for [[spoiler: the R'lyeth Key amulet.]]

* SurprisinglyHappyEnding: One of the endings [[spoiler: allows Edward Pierce to avert the summoning of the Cthulhu without sacrificing his life or his sanity. Indeed, he does so simply by choosing not to engage with the Mythos. He's still mentally scarred from his experiences and possibly an alcoholic, but that's still ''way'' better than any of the alternatives.]]
* TownWithADarkSecret: Darkwater Island is a creepy isolated location despite being right next to Boston and perfect for becoming a major trading port. [[spoiler: Being cursed by an ancient eldritch god will do serious damage to your bottom line.]]
* TheVirus: [[spoiler: The town suffers this in the form of those having eaten Leviathan's meat being susceptible to his mind control.]]
* WinsByDoingAbsolutelyNothing: In the final confrontation, if your sanity is high enough, you can [[spoiler: tell Sarah you're not doing anything at all, and you even throw away your gun for good measure. Sarah, noting that she and the cult can't force you to perform the ritual, accepts defeat and commits suicide. The rest of the cult seems to be equally as accommodating, as Pierce is seen alive in his office in the post-credits scene brooding over one of Sarah's paintings depicting her death. This is the only ending that doesn't result in Pierce either dying or becoming an insane shell. If your sanity is too low, if you try this you'll instead blow your own brains out to prevent the ritual, being too far gone (and having seen too many horrors) to find simply not acting at all to be an acceptable solution.]]

** If you get the [[spoiler: "Perform the counter ritual ending, they don't show what happens to Drake after he performs the counter ritual.]]

** The root of the trouble here is the same as in ''VideoGame/{{Siren}}''; both are possibly based on the same Japanese fable. [[spoiler: During an economic downturn, a strange creature (Leviathan) washed up on the shores of Darkwater, and the fishermen villagers ate its flesh, gaining knowledge of the Mythos and becoming pawns of Leviathan and Cthulhu.]] Fitting, considering the plot of ''VideoGame/{{Siren}}'' also somewhat resembles ''Literature/TheShadowOverInnsmouth''.
** There's also more than a little reminiscent of ''Film/InTheMouthOfMadness''. An investigator being sent to an obscure, remote location that turns out to be home to [[spoiler: an artist whose works have an odd effect on people's minds and seem to be able to out and out influence reality.]]
** An obvious homage could be to ''VideoGame/CallOfCthulhuDarkCornersOfTheEarth'' where you similarly play a private detective investigating a creepy Lovecraftian town with a story based on ''Literature/TheShadowOverInnsmouth''. [[spoiler: This can end better for the protagonist.]]

* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: [[spoiler: Leviathan pulls this on Doctor Fuller and has Pierce kill him during a hallucination. {{Subverted}} in that he's revealed to have survived being shot in the Counter-Ritual ending and you don't have to shoot him in the first place.]]
* ZombieApocalypse: Darkwater Island suffers one of these in the final act [[spoiler: where all the islanders who ate of the Leviathan are possessed by his will and start attacking the uninfected.]]

''[[caption-width-right:350:"In his sunken house at R’lyeh dead [[EldritchAbomination Cthulhu]] waits dreaming..."]]''

* AdultFear:
** Not for Edward but for Sarah Hawkins' father, Stephen Webster. His daughter has always been mentally ill but in a controllable harmless way (or so he thinks). Then she dies in a fire with her husband and his grandson. The police and locals believe she may have done it in a fit of melancholy.
** That your loved ones might be abused in a medical facility and you can't possibly confirm or check on them. This happens to numerous patients under Doctor Fuller's care.

* RealityEnsues: Pierce is a detective, not a fighter. At various points any attempt he makes to fight usually ends badly (granted, his opponents are usually superhuman in nature), and he spends most of the time hiding, fleeing, or avoiding being detected as much as possible. Early in the game you can pick a couple fights with the locals, whether you win or lose these is purely determined by your Strength stat.

* DarknessEqualsDeath: [[spoiler: In chapter 9, when Pierce is trapped by the Shambler in an alternate dimension of the hospital's first floor, running out of oil for the lap results in the Shambler catching and killing Pierce.]]

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: In a subtle {{Aversion}} of NoPeriodsPeriod, Cat Baker hints she's suffering from menstrual cramps while mocking Pierce for his "bellyache" after being kicked in the balls.

* GameplayRoulette: Most of the game is an adventure game focusing on environmental exploration, dialogue, and puzzles. There's also a couple stealth sections and a PuzzleBoss encounter in the middle of the game, and a rudimentary first-person shooter section near the end which is designed to be disturbing rather than cathartic.