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Trope was cut/disambiguated due to cleanup
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* CoolGuns: Mauser C96, Webley, Lee-Enfield, Lewis Gun.
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Disambiguated. Franchises aren't tropes.
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* Franchise/CthulhuMythos: Well...
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* DaylightHorror: Considering how the setting is lit, it seems that most of the outside levels happen during day.
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Knife Nut is now a disambiguation.
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* KnifeNut: There are two knifes among the four mêlée weapons: the Bayonet and the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trench_knife Trench Knife]].
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* VideoGameCaringPotential: You are not required to keep your whole starting team alive (as some party member cease to be part of a HeroMustSurvive mission objective while the plot goes on), but it's still heartwarming to keep them and make them progress further. There's actually a Steam achievement for finishing the campaign without losing any of the main investigators.
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* VideoGameCaringPotential: You are not required to keep your whole starting team alive (as some party member members cease to be part of a HeroMustSurvive mission objective while the plot goes on), but it's still heartwarming to keep them and make them progress further. There's actually a Steam achievement for finishing the campaign without losing any of the main investigators.
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Moved to Trivia
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* KeepCirculatingtheTapes: Due to Red Wasps going under, the game is no longer for sale legally outside of key-selling sites for the steam version.
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* KeepCirculatingtheTapes: Due to Red Wasps going under, the game is no longer for sale legally outside of key-selling sites for the steam version.
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''Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land'' is a TurnBasedTactics IndieGame with RPGElements, released on January 30th, 2012 for the [[UsefulNotes/IOSGames iOS]] and [[AndroidGames Android]], and then on UsefulNotes/MicrosoftWindows [[UsefulNotes/IBMPersonalComputer PCs]] on May 5th, 2012. The game has been developed and published by Red Wasp Design with the collaboration of Creator/{{Chaosium}}, hence it is part of the ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'' license.
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''Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land'' is a TurnBasedTactics IndieGame with RPGElements, released on January 30th, 2012 for the [[UsefulNotes/IOSGames iOS]] and [[AndroidGames [[UsefulNotes/AndroidGames Android]], and then on UsefulNotes/MicrosoftWindows [[UsefulNotes/IBMPersonalComputer PCs]] on May 5th, 2012. The game has been developed and published by Red Wasp Design with the collaboration of Creator/{{Chaosium}}, hence it is part of the ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'' license.
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''Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land'' is a TurnBasedTactics IndieGame with RPGElements, released on January 30th, 2012 for the [[IOSGames iOS]] and [[AndroidGames Android]], and then on UsefulNotes/MicrosoftWindows [[UsefulNotes/IBMPersonalComputer PCs]] on May 5th, 2012. The game has been developed and published by Red Wasp Design with the collaboration of Creator/{{Chaosium}}, hence it is part of the ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'' license.
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''Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land'' is a TurnBasedTactics IndieGame with RPGElements, released on January 30th, 2012 for the [[IOSGames [[UsefulNotes/IOSGames iOS]] and [[AndroidGames Android]], and then on UsefulNotes/MicrosoftWindows [[UsefulNotes/IBMPersonalComputer PCs]] on May 5th, 2012. The game has been developed and published by Red Wasp Design with the collaboration of Creator/{{Chaosium}}, hence it is part of the ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'' license.
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'''Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land''' is a TurnBasedTactics IndieGame with RPGElements, released on January 30th, 2012 for the [[IOSGames iOS]] and [[AndroidGames Android]], and then on UsefulNotes/MicrosoftWindows [[UsefulNotes/IBMPersonalComputer PCs]] on May 5th, 2012. The game has been developed and published by Red Wasp Design with the collaboration of Creator/{{Chaosium}}, hence it is part of the ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'' license.
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'''Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land''' is a TurnBasedTactics IndieGame with RPGElements, released in 2012 for the [[IOSGames iOS]], UsefulNotes/MicrosoftWindows, and Android operative systems. The game has been developed and published by Red Wasp Design with the collaboration of Creator/{{Chaosium}}, hence it is part of the ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'' license.
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'''Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land''' is a TurnBasedTactics IndieGame with RPGElements, released in on January 30th, 2012 for the [[IOSGames iOS]], UsefulNotes/MicrosoftWindows, iOS]] and Android operative systems.[[AndroidGames Android]], and then on UsefulNotes/MicrosoftWindows [[UsefulNotes/IBMPersonalComputer PCs]] on May 5th, 2012. The game has been developed and published by Red Wasp Design with the collaboration of Creator/{{Chaosium}}, hence it is part of the ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'' license.
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----
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'''Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land''' is a TurnBasedTactics IndieGame with RPGElements, released in 2012 for the [[IOSGames iOS]], MicrosoftWindows, and Android operative systems. The game has been developed and published by Red Wasp Design with the collaboration of Creator/{{Chaosium}}, hence it is part of the ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'' license.
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'''Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land''' is a TurnBasedTactics IndieGame with RPGElements, released in 2012 for the [[IOSGames iOS]], MicrosoftWindows, UsefulNotes/MicrosoftWindows, and Android operative systems. The game has been developed and published by Red Wasp Design with the collaboration of Creator/{{Chaosium}}, hence it is part of the ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'' license.
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'''Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land''' is a TurnBasedTactics IndieGame with RPGElements, released in 2012 for the [[IOSGames iOS]], MicrosoftWindows, and Android operative systems. The game has been developed and published by Red Wasp Design with the collaboration of Chaosium, hence it is part of the ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'' license.
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'''Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land''' is a TurnBasedTactics IndieGame with RPGElements, released in 2012 for the [[IOSGames iOS]], MicrosoftWindows, and Android operative systems. The game has been developed and published by Red Wasp Design with the collaboration of Chaosium, of Creator/{{Chaosium}}, hence it is part of the ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'' license.
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The starting party members (this team is complete when level 4 begins) are the following:
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The starting party members (this [[note]] this team is complete when level 4 begins) begins[[/note]] are the following:
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** Gold, the therapist of the party, have been Sigmund Freud student.
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** Gold, the therapist of the party, have been was a student of Sigmund Freud student.Freud.
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-->"When we started out, we were aiming for something in the style of ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' or ''[[VideoGame/NintendoWars Advance Wars]]'', but it's evolved into something more like ''VideoGame/XCom'' as we've gone on. The closest parallel is probably with an old PC game called ''Incubation'', which was more storyline-based than ''X-Com''."
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-->"When we started out, we were aiming for something in the style of ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' ''VideoGame/FireEmblem'' or ''[[VideoGame/NintendoWars Advance Wars]]'', but it's evolved into something more like ''VideoGame/XCom'' as we've gone on. The closest parallel is probably with an old PC game called ''Incubation'', which was more storyline-based than ''X-Com''."
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[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/call_of_cthulhu_the_wasted_land_4.jpg]]
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(https://lovecraftzine.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/call-of-cthulhu-the-wasted-land.jpg)
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needs image
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(https://lovecraftzine.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/call-of-cthulhu-the-wasted-land.jpg)
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Changed all instances of \'malus\' to \'penalty\'.
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* ShedArmorGainSpeed: The heavier the armour piece is, the more it gives a malus to the amount of action points (to the speed of attack and moving). Not suffering from any malus at all would require to wear the lightest helmet (a leather piece looking like an old aviator headgear from the beginning of the 20th century) and no chestpiece at all. It is only possible to remove armour in the merchant screen between levels, though.
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* ShedArmorGainSpeed: The heavier the armour piece is, the more it gives a malus penalty to the amount of action points (to the speed of attack and moving). Not suffering from any malus penalty at all would require to wear the lightest helmet (a leather piece looking like an old aviator headgear from the beginning of the 20th century) and no chestpiece at all. It is only possible to remove armour in the merchant screen between levels, though.
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The game is turned-based, with an action points system (each characters has his own action points amount which drained by each action; moving spends less points than fighting; when it is too low, he can't do anything until the next turn). The map is divided in squares (each character fits in one square). Among the RPG elements, each characters has a sanity meter, which is slowly drained when meeting monsters or casting spells; running out of SAN has interesting effects (although it can be regain onf the field).
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The game is turned-based, with an action points system (each characters character has his own action points amount which is drained by each action; moving spends less points than fighting; when it is too low, he can't do anything until the next turn). The map is divided in squares (each character fits in one square). Among the RPG elements, each characters has a sanity meter, which is slowly drained when meeting monsters or casting spells; running out of SAN has interesting effects (although it can be regain onf the field).
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* BottomlessMagazines: Each firearm has unlimited ammunitions with no magazines at all.
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* BottomlessMagazines: Each firearm has unlimited ammunitions ammunition with no magazines at all.
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* DarkWorld: Hill's nightmares sequences seems to be set in a dark world variant of the front.
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* DarkWorld: Hill's nightmares sequences seems seem to be set in a dark world variant of the front.
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* EasyCommunication: When you request an artillery strike with an homing pigeon, the area in bombed in the very same turn that the one in which you requested the strike, which means that the pigeon reached British lines in a few seconds (the bird actually requires to wait four turns to come back). It is justified, as having to anticipate the enemies' moves in order to request a strike which is deliver one or two turns later would make the artillery nearly useless.
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* EasyCommunication: When you request an artillery strike with an homing pigeon, the area in is bombed in the very same turn that the one in which you requested the strike, which means that the pigeon reached British lines in a few seconds (the bird actually requires to wait four turns to come back). It is justified, as having to anticipate the enemies' moves in order to request a strike which is deliver one or two turns later would make the artillery nearly useless.
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* InstantWinCondition: The campaign is instantly won we you deal the final blow to the final boss. Even if your units are badly wounded, manic, or paralized, while other monsters are still around you and would probably kill your whole team in the next turn.
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* InstantWinCondition: The campaign is instantly won we when you deal the final blow to the final boss. Even if your units are badly wounded, manic, or paralized, paralyzed, while other monsters are still around you and would probably kill your whole team in the next turn.
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** Why does Hill start the campaign equiped with a Mauser C96 instead of the standard officer's Webley revolver? Not just for balance reasons (the Webley been ingame more powerful and less action points consuming than the Mauser C96), as a number of British officers personnally owned Mauser C96 bought before the war and used them in the conflict.
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** Why does Hill start the campaign equiped equipped with a Mauser C96 instead of the standard officer's Webley revolver? Not just for balance reasons (the Webley been ingame more powerful and less action points consuming than the Mauser C96), as a number of British officers personnally owned Mauser C96 bought before the war and used them in the conflict.
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* WeirdHistoricalWar: The Great War mixed with Cthulhu Mythos.
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** Averted in ''Kaul's Diary'', in which you only manage Kaul's stats and inventory, the other player-controlled unit being expendable.
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** Averted in ''Kaul's Diary'', in which you only manage Kaul's [[BigBad Kaul's]] stats and inventory, the other player-controlled unit [[WeHaveReserves being expendable.]] Considering this is precisely how Kaul operates when he's commanding the AI in the main game, this isn't surprising.
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** Callously expending those under you, which is the intended and canonical strategy [[BigBad Kaul]] uses.
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* NoCampaignForTheWicked[=/=]NoCanonForTheWicked: Both are averted. The German cultists are playable in ''Kaul's Diary'', which events are canonical since it's a prequel.
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* NoCampaignForTheWicked[=/=]NoCanonForTheWicked: Both are averted. The German cultists are playable in ''Kaul's Diary'', which Diary''. Its events are canonical since it's a prequel.
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* PublicDomainSoundtrack: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nARiGDW9X0M The trailer]] begins with the chorus of "It's A Long Way To Tipperary", a song from this era which was very famous in British ranks. The main menu's theme is a loop of this chorus; both version are accompanied by some subtle creepy sound effects in background. [[spoiler: The ending credits are also set to this chorus, but without the creepy sound effects.]]
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* PublicDomainSoundtrack: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nARiGDW9X0M The trailer]] trailer begins with the chorus of "It's A Long Way To Tipperary", a song from this era which was very famous in British ranks. The main menu's theme is a loop of this chorus; both version are accompanied by some subtle creepy sound effects in background. [[spoiler: The ending credits are also set to this chorus, but without the creepy sound effects.]]
* SlapOnTheWristNuke: Artillery strikes. They deal enough damages to kill unarmored enemies in one hit, but the area of damage is quite tiny (a couple of squares around the target), and the enemies are able to ''dodge the shell's blast'' despite the animation actually shoqing the shells falling right next to the target.
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* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: The trailer shows the Dark Youngs, (which only appears in the middle of the campaign), magic as a weapon, and [[spoiler: the human-Star Spawn hybrids]].
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* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: The trailer shows the Leng Spiders, the Dark Youngs, Youngs (which only appears in the middle of the campaign), magic as a weapon, and [[spoiler: the human-Star Spawn hybrids]].
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Removed Omnidisciplinary Scientist, which is already in the Characters page.
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* OmnidisciplinaryScientist: Brightmeer is stated to specialist in chemistry, biology, psychiatry, and Cthulhu Mythos.
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* Foreshadowing: Some mission dialogs are clues about later gameplay
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* Foreshadowing: {{Foreshadowing}}: Some mission dialogs are clues about later gameplay
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Here is a link to [[http://redwaspdesign.wordpress.com/call-of-cthulhu/ the official website of the game]], which also include World War One and Lovecraft-themed articles, articles about the game's creation, some tactical advices, and a plyathrough of the initial campaign.
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Here is a link to [[http://redwaspdesign.wordpress.com/call-of-cthulhu/ the official website of the game]], which also include World War One and Lovecraft-themed articles, articles about the game's creation, some tactical advices, and a plyathrough walkthrough of the initial campaign.
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'''Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land''' is a TurnBasedTactics IndieGame with RPGElements, released in 2012 for the [[IOSGames iOS]], MicrosoftWindows, and Android operative systems. The game has been developed and published by Red Wasp Design with the collaboration of Chaosium, hence it is part of the ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'' license.
The game is set in 1915 during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, on the Western Front. It follows a squad of six British soldiers and investigators sent behind German lines by the [=MI-47=], a shadowy British Intelligence agency, in order to put an end to a German plan involving dark magics to turn the tide of the war. Soon after the beginning of the mission, they begin to encounter undead abominations and unspeakable monsters...
The starting party members (this team is complete when level 4 begins) are the following:
* Captain Hill: A British officer
* Sid "Sapper" Brown: A British soldier serving under Captain Hill
* Professor Brightmeer: An American scientist and occultist
* Carlton Green: Brightmeer's bodyguard
* Emma Gold: Psychiatrist formed by Sigmund Freud
* A generic randomly named British soldier
Some eventually lose their HeroMustSurvive status the further you go in the campaign. They can be replaced by other generic British soldiers hired between levels.
The game is turned-based, with an action points system (each characters has his own action points amount which drained by each action; moving spends less points than fighting; when it is too low, he can't do anything until the next turn). The map is divided in squares (each character fits in one square). Among the RPG elements, each characters has a sanity meter, which is slowly drained when meeting monsters or casting spells; running out of SAN has interesting effects (although it can be regain onf the field).
In the end of 2012, ''Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land'' received a DLC ExpansionPack named ''Kaul's Diary'', which is a prequel of the game during which you play as Kaul and his German cultists.
Here is a link to [[http://redwaspdesign.wordpress.com/call-of-cthulhu/ the official website of the game]], which also include World War One and Lovecraft-themed articles, articles about the game's creation, some tactical advices, and a plyathrough of the initial campaign.
For more tropes about the settings, see also Franchise/CthulhuMythos, ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'', and UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. [[JustForFun/IThoughtThatWas The game is not supposed to be]] a CrossOver between Cthulhu Mythos and Creator/TSEliot's ''Literature/TheWasteLand''.
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!!''Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land'' provides examples of the following tropes:
* AllPsychologyIsFreudian:
** Gold, the therapist of the party, have been Sigmund Freud student.
** Regaining Sanity requires a skill named "Psychoanalysis", which requires to use either ''Interpretation of Dreams'' or ''Studies in Hysteria'', two books written by Freud.
* AnyoneCanDie: Starting party members lose their HeroMustSurvive status while the plot progresses, although it is actually possible to finish the campaign without losing any of them.
* ArbitraryHeadcountLimit : No more than six party members.
* ArbitraryGunPower: For some reason, shooting with the Mauser C96 requires more Action Points than with the Webley, despite them being respectively a semi-automatic pistol and a revolver.
* ArtificialStupidity: Enemies are usually hurt by mustard gas filled area, but it doesn't prevent the AI to send them through those areas (they even can kill themselves this way). Placing your soldiers in order to lure enemies through gas filled areas is actually a valid strategy.
* BayonetYa: Subverted. The weapon is described as such but is used by hand and not on the tip of a rifle. It is the weakest mêlée weapon of the game.
* BottomlessMagazines: Each firearm has unlimited ammunitions with no magazines at all.
* BreakingTheFourthWall: Each time the mission involves a timed objective, the dialogs (in-character) will refer to this as "x turns" instead of using more usual time units.
* CarryABigStick: The Trench Club, a mêlée weapon which is basically an improvised modern version of a spiked mace. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trench_raiding_club Such weapon really existed during the era]].
* ChoiceOfTwoWeapons: Each character can carry two weapons in the same time, in any combination of firearms, mêlée weapons, offensive spells, or [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_pigeon homing pigeons]].
* CoolGuns: Mauser C96, Webley, Lee-Enfield, Lewis Gun.
* CosmeticAward: The Steam version of the game includes a whole load of achievements, including a series of achievements for finishing each mission (one achievement for each mission), another series for finishing each mission with a minimum score, one for finishing the whole campaign in the hard difficulty mode, one for finishing the campaign without losing any Investigator, etc, one for killing 25 Reanimates, etc.
* Franchise/CthulhuMythos: Well...
* DarkWorld: Hill's nightmares sequences seems to be set in a dark world variant of the front.
* DaylightHorror: Considering how the setting is lit, it seems that most of the outside levels happen during day.
* DeathFromAbove: You can send a homing pigeon to request an artillery strike on a portion of the field. The strike is instantly triggered but you must wait four turns[[note]]three if you bought the elite pigeon[[/note]] for the pigeon to come back and be able to request another.
* {{Dieselpunk}}: Kaul's machines have this kind of look.
* EasyCommunication: When you request an artillery strike with an homing pigeon, the area in bombed in the very same turn that the one in which you requested the strike, which means that the pigeon reached British lines in a few seconds (the bird actually requires to wait four turns to come back). It is justified, as having to anticipate the enemies' moves in order to request a strike which is deliver one or two turns later would make the artillery nearly useless.
* EvilIsVisceral: The landscape of the two last levels is basically World War One classic SceneryGorn mixed with organic growths and tentacles invading the soil.
* EvilOnlyHasToWinOnce: In the ending:
--> [[spoiler: Those who stand against the dark mirror of evil are trapped in an eternal conflict. Because, for the cultists, they only have to succeed once. But for the defenders of humanity, we have to prevail every single time.]]
* ExtraTurn: The Vitality Dose items boost the action points of the unit who benefit from them, individually granting him the equivalent of a free turn. Also, suffering from mania after losing too much Sanity has a similar effect.
* Foreshadowing: Some mission dialogs are clues about later gameplay
** After meeting Kaul and escaping his trap in the catacombs beneath a church, Brightmeer says that the enemy's plan is now running and that "the clock is ticking" (paraphrased). The next level is a TimedMission, though the InUniverse justification is different (the team just emerged from the ground in the middle of a town about to be bombed by the British army).
** Gold uses the same phrase late in the campaign, also before starting a TimedMission.
** Before the end of the mission which is followed by his second nightmare level, Hill states that he would need some psychoanalysis at this point. Using the related skill on him gives him an appreciable boost in his Sanity cap, which makes the next level easier.
* FriendlyFireProof: Party members are unable to attack each other, as using any aid item on a party member is technically the same action as attacking an enemy (right click on the target). Also, they can shoot through their comrades without being injured and can't be hurt by your artillery strikes.
* FromBadToWorse: After being trapped by Kaul in catacombs filled with gas and monsters, the Investigators manage to escape through a secret door... and emerge in the middle of a ruined city occupied by cultists and lovecraftian monsters. Oh, and the place is about to be bombed by the British artillery.
* GeoEffects: Bomb craters and trenches offer cover, muddy ground slows down moving units.
* GhostTown: Some levels are set in half destroyed deserted towns.
* GratuitousGerman: "''Docktor'' (sic) Kaul". The proper spelling would be "Doktor".
* HelmetsAreHardlyHeroic: Among the playable characters, only the randomly created British soldier is shown with an helmet in his ingame representation. Brown, Green, and Gold are all bareheaded, Hill wears a British army officer cap, and Brightmeer wears a turban. In term of gameplay, though, any of them can equip any headgear in their inventory.
* HeroicBSOD[=/=]HeroicRROD: Respectively consequences of paralysis and mania. See SanityMeter below.
** Healing a manic party member's Sanity avoid the HeroicRROD.
* HeroMustSurvive: Part of the objectives in each mission. The further you get into the campaign, the less starting party members are required to survive (until the last ones, in which the five named characters must survive). The accepted loss can be filled with new British soldiers hired between missions.
* HealThyself: Subverted. Healing items (First Aid Kits and healing spells) can only be used to heal[=/=]reanimate another party member.
** There is a more straight occurrence of the trope. Standing on the squares next to a Medical Station automatically heals the wounded party member after each turn.
* HoldTheLine: Mission objectives occasionally require to survive for a number of turns against waves of Germans or Mythos monsters. A variant requires to protect either Brightmeer or Gold (or both) while they are examining something.
* ImprovisedArmour: The Tank Helmet, which include scale mails hanging in front of the face for more protection. [[http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30015952 Such headgears really existed]].
* InformedEquipment: Helmets, gasmasks, and body armours aren't shown ingame on the characters. It can be confusing at the beginning of the game, as Captain Hill, Sid "Sapper" Brown and the generic British soldier (two of the playable characters you begin the game with) both starts the campaign while equiped with a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brodie_helmet Brodie helmet]], but Sid Brown's ingame unit is always bareheaded, Captain Hill wears an officer cap, while the generic British soldier is always shown with such a headgear. And the whole team isn't shown wearing gasmaks. The {{Heavily Armored Mook}}s have gasmasks as part of their appearance and inventory, but Cultists doesn't seem to have one, even when it is part of their inventory.
* InstantExpert: Downplayed with spells. There efficiency is linked to the Cthulhu Mythos skill and the Power stat, but casting them only requires to have them in an inventory slot, and they can be swapped between characters like the other items.
* InstantWinCondition: The campaign is instantly won we you deal the final blow to the final boss. Even if your units are badly wounded, manic, or paralized, while other monsters are still around you and would probably kill your whole team in the next turn.
* InterfaceSpoiler: A pretty minor one. In the mission objectives screen, the games displays the current objective and the one which has been completed before (in gray letters). The spoiler is that the objective goes with a mention like "1/3" (depending on where you are in the mission and the number of different objectives in the game).
** [[spoiler: It spoils that there would be another boss fight after Kaul's death, has killing him was the 1/3 of the final mission.]]
* KnifeNut: There are two knifes among the four mêlée weapons: the Bayonet and the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trench_knife Trench Knife]].
* LoadingScreen: They show a Cthulhu-like drawing with some text. If the loading screen introduces to a new mission you just unlocked in the campaign, it gives the mission's name and an excerpt of Hill's diary. If you just restarted the mission or loaded a saved game, it will just be a random line like "still struggling against the insanity", followed by a random Creator/HPLovecraft quote.
* LoopholeAbuse:
** Swapping items between two Investigators is a free action (of course, they need to stand on contiguous tiles). With enough careful micromanagement, you can move this way your full team through mustard gas clouds with only two gasmasks, as wearing-removing it is a free action two and standing in gas unprotected only inflicts damages when moving or at the end of a turn.
** The game allows to swap item with a dying Investigator. So, it isn't an issue if the only guy carrying First Aid Kits is lying in a pool of his own blood, as he can be revived by another party member after giving him the medical stuff.
** Whether those examples are actual {{Loophole Abuse}}s in spirit is debatable, as both appear on the game official website on a page dedicated to strategies and tactics.
* LovecraftLite: Shoot and kill Flying Polyps and Dark Youngs with World War One era weaponry, hack them to pieces with shovels or bayonets, and eventually [[spoiler: blast a Star-Spawn (basically a smaller Cthulhu) with rifles designed for elephant hunting.]]
** [[spoiler: With enough luck (having your LightningBruiser in manic state while the final boss is close enough and already damaged), it is possible to kill the Star-Spawn with ''mêlée attacks''.]]
* MadeOfIron: Any unprotected units (enemies and squad members) can move through mustard gas clouds without suffering more than losing easily regained hit points. In Real Life, it would have inflicted very severe burns (and not fully curable) to the skin, the eyes, and the lungs.
* MuckingInTheMud: There are occasional muddy patches on the ground. Crossing them requires more action points than walking on solid ground, simulating slower movement.
* NoCampaignForTheWicked[=/=]NoCanonForTheWicked: Both are averted. The German cultists are playable in ''Kaul's Diary'', which events are canonical since it's a prequel.
* NonEntityGeneral: Averted.
** There are clues that Hill is supposed to be the player. Loading screens when starting a level for the first time are quotes from his diary. There is a special short level which takes place in a nightmare he is currently making. Hill is forcibly selected at the beginning of a new turn.
** In ''Kaul's Diary'', the player is Kaul.
* NothingIsScarier: "Wait for it..." variant. There's a mission which requires to cross a deserted and half destroyed village, while a British artillery strike on the area is imminent. There are occasional cultists and monsters which appear in the area through scripted events, but not much. Making your team slowly progress in the ruins in order to reach the other side before using a specific number of turns, without knowing when the next {{Eldritch Abomination}}'s ambush will pop and if you'll have enough time left then is quite stressful.
* NoticeThis: Mission objectives usually requires to move the team (or a specific member) to a specific area of the current level, indicated by a red square on the ground.
* OmnidisciplinaryScientist: Brightmeer is stated to specialist in chemistry, biology, psychiatry, and Cthulhu Mythos.
* OneHitPolykill: Can happen with the Lancaster (the most powerful handgun), which bullets hit several targets if they are standing in a row.
* {{Prequel}}: The ''Kaul's Diary'' DLC campaign.
* PublicDomainCharacter: The World War One arc of ''Herbert West, Reanimator'' plays an important role in the game's backstory, including explicit mentions of the character.
* PublicDomainSoundtrack: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nARiGDW9X0M The trailer]] begins with the chorus of "It's A Long Way To Tipperary", a song from this era which was very famous in British ranks. The main menu's theme is a loop of this chorus; both version are accompanied by some subtle creepy sound effects in background. [[spoiler: The ending credits are also set to this chorus, but without the creepy sound effects.]]
** The game's official soundtrack included a cover of the full song.
* RecurringLocation: The identical area in which both Hill's nightmares happen.
* RemixedLevel: The town of Saint Chernay is one level in both the original campaign and ''Kaul's Diary''. In the latter, it is actually the setting of the first mission, which this time requires to clean it from Britisn presence.
* RPGElements: The game is inspired by the ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'' rules. Each playable character has several stats (hitpoints, strength, dexterity, intelligence, willpower, etc) and various skills. When completing each level, you gain an amount of experience points stored in a pool common for the whole team. Stats and skills can be freely upgraded by spending experience points. Also, using weapons during actual missions sometimes increase the skill related to the relevant weapon by one point.
* SanityMeter: Each character has is own meter, which is drained when casting spells or facing lovecraftian abominations. When it reaches 0, the characters either suffers from paralysis (can't do anything at all during one turn) or mania (receives a huge action points boosts, but collapses at the end of the turn and must be healed). Sanity is refilled after the end of paralysis[=/=]mania, with the use of the Psychoanalysis skill on the field, or at the end of a mission.
* SaveScumming: The game is automatically saved when leaving the game, at the opening of a level, after completion of any mission objective, and after the end of the AI turns. It is impossible to manually save the game and go back to a previous turn, but reloading several times from the beginning of the turn allows to force chance and hope that, this time, the RandomNumberGod will allow your attack to hit this monster.
* SceneryGorn: Trenches, no-man-land filled with bomb craters, ruined towns... It is a game set in World War One Western Front, so this trope is definitively expected.
** [[spoiler: The end of the game is set in an even more nightmarish version of the battlefield, not only with trenches, barbed wires, gas clouds, and craters, but the area seems somewhat bathed in a subtle unnatural light, craters harbours clean skeletons stripped to the bones lying in reddish water, and the grounds seems partly organic at some places.]]
* ShedArmorGainSpeed: The heavier the armour piece is, the more it gives a malus to the amount of action points (to the speed of attack and moving). Not suffering from any malus at all would require to wear the lightest helmet (a leather piece looking like an old aviator headgear from the beginning of the 20th century) and no chestpiece at all. It is only possible to remove armour in the merchant screen between levels, though.
* ShortRangeShotgun: Played totally straight. Shotguns are devastating at mêlée fighting range but lose most of their damage and accuracy if shot from further than this.
* ShovelStrike: The Sharp Shovel is the strongest mêlée weapon of the game.
* ShoutOut: The third mission ("A Handful of Dust") take its title from a line of ''Literature/TheWasteLand''.
* ShownTheirWork:
** [[AluminumChristmasTrees Some seemingly weird and unrealistic inventory items of the game]] (Elephant Guns, Trench Clubs, Tank Helmets, Sharp Shovels as weapons) are actually TruthInTelevision.
** Why does Hill start the campaign equiped with a Mauser C96 instead of the standard officer's Webley revolver? Not just for balance reasons (the Webley been ingame more powerful and less action points consuming than the Mauser C96), as a number of British officers personnally owned Mauser C96 bought before the war and used them in the conflict.
** [[http://redwaspdesign.wordpress.com/2012/01/25/lovecraft-cthulhu-the-great-war/ The official website of the game]] shows the developers put great effort in documentation about the era.
** On the other hand, some levels include mustard gas as a gameplay element. The game is set in 1915, gas were already used but the infamous mustard gas was first used in 1917.
* SkillScoresAndPerks: Skill scores, with a skill cap of 99, [[PointBuildSystem through points earned at the completion of each level]]. Fighting skills also level a bit when used.
* SpiritualSequel: According to a developer:
-->"When we started out, we were aiming for something in the style of ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' or ''[[VideoGame/NintendoWars Advance Wars]]'', but it's evolved into something more like ''VideoGame/XCom'' as we've gone on. The closest parallel is probably with an old PC game called ''Incubation'', which was more storyline-based than ''X-Com''."
* TakeCover: Standing in trenches and bomb craters provides some protection against attacks. [[spoiler: In the last mission, the deep summoning circle has the same effect to the creatures emerging from it.]]
* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: The Elephant Gun, most powerful rifle of the game. It is a weapon intended for elephant hunting...
* TimedMission:
** One level gives the player 35 turns to make Hill and Brown reach the exit of a German-occupied town, as a British bombing is about to begin.
** The penultimate requires to cross a scorched and surreal no man's land and reach the exit in 25 turns, as [[spoiler: Kaul is about to summon an abomination which would serve as a "general" for his monstruous army.]]
* TomeOfEldritchLore:
** In the inventory, spells are represented with a book (the spell being represented by an occult symbol drawn next to the book). When an offensive spell is equiped, we see the party member wielding a book in his right hand.
** There is an implicit allusion to the Necronomicon in a dialog near the end of the campaign.
* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: The trailer shows the Dark Youngs, (which only appears in the middle of the campaign), magic as a weapon, and [[spoiler: the human-Star Spawn hybrids]].
* TurnBasedTactics: With an Action Points system.
* VideoGameCaringPotential: You are not required to keep your whole starting team alive (as some party member cease to be part of a HeroMustSurvive mission objective while the plot goes on), but it's still heartwarming to keep them and make them progress further. There's actually a Steam achievement for finishing the campaign without losing any of the main investigators.
** Averted in ''Kaul's Diary'', in which you only manage Kaul's stats and inventory, the other player-controlled unit being expendable.
* VideogameCrueltyPotential: Luring enemies through mustard gas clouds, hacking them with shovels or mauling them with spiked clubs.
* WarIsHell
* UsefulNotes/WorldWarI: The setting of the game.
* YouCantThwartStageOne: No matter how good and fast you succeed in reaching [[spoiler: Kaul's summoning circle]] during the last mission, he'll still succeed to [[spoiler: summon a Star Spawn of Cthulhu, which is the final boss of the game, at the exact moment Brightmeer reaches the circle in order to stop the summoning. Even if you killed Kaul several turns before.]]
----
The game is set in 1915 during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, on the Western Front. It follows a squad of six British soldiers and investigators sent behind German lines by the [=MI-47=], a shadowy British Intelligence agency, in order to put an end to a German plan involving dark magics to turn the tide of the war. Soon after the beginning of the mission, they begin to encounter undead abominations and unspeakable monsters...
The starting party members (this team is complete when level 4 begins) are the following:
* Captain Hill: A British officer
* Sid "Sapper" Brown: A British soldier serving under Captain Hill
* Professor Brightmeer: An American scientist and occultist
* Carlton Green: Brightmeer's bodyguard
* Emma Gold: Psychiatrist formed by Sigmund Freud
* A generic randomly named British soldier
Some eventually lose their HeroMustSurvive status the further you go in the campaign. They can be replaced by other generic British soldiers hired between levels.
The game is turned-based, with an action points system (each characters has his own action points amount which drained by each action; moving spends less points than fighting; when it is too low, he can't do anything until the next turn). The map is divided in squares (each character fits in one square). Among the RPG elements, each characters has a sanity meter, which is slowly drained when meeting monsters or casting spells; running out of SAN has interesting effects (although it can be regain onf the field).
In the end of 2012, ''Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land'' received a DLC ExpansionPack named ''Kaul's Diary'', which is a prequel of the game during which you play as Kaul and his German cultists.
Here is a link to [[http://redwaspdesign.wordpress.com/call-of-cthulhu/ the official website of the game]], which also include World War One and Lovecraft-themed articles, articles about the game's creation, some tactical advices, and a plyathrough of the initial campaign.
For more tropes about the settings, see also Franchise/CthulhuMythos, ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'', and UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. [[JustForFun/IThoughtThatWas The game is not supposed to be]] a CrossOver between Cthulhu Mythos and Creator/TSEliot's ''Literature/TheWasteLand''.
----
!!''Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land'' provides examples of the following tropes:
* AllPsychologyIsFreudian:
** Gold, the therapist of the party, have been Sigmund Freud student.
** Regaining Sanity requires a skill named "Psychoanalysis", which requires to use either ''Interpretation of Dreams'' or ''Studies in Hysteria'', two books written by Freud.
* AnyoneCanDie: Starting party members lose their HeroMustSurvive status while the plot progresses, although it is actually possible to finish the campaign without losing any of them.
* ArbitraryHeadcountLimit : No more than six party members.
* ArbitraryGunPower: For some reason, shooting with the Mauser C96 requires more Action Points than with the Webley, despite them being respectively a semi-automatic pistol and a revolver.
* ArtificialStupidity: Enemies are usually hurt by mustard gas filled area, but it doesn't prevent the AI to send them through those areas (they even can kill themselves this way). Placing your soldiers in order to lure enemies through gas filled areas is actually a valid strategy.
* BayonetYa: Subverted. The weapon is described as such but is used by hand and not on the tip of a rifle. It is the weakest mêlée weapon of the game.
* BottomlessMagazines: Each firearm has unlimited ammunitions with no magazines at all.
* BreakingTheFourthWall: Each time the mission involves a timed objective, the dialogs (in-character) will refer to this as "x turns" instead of using more usual time units.
* CarryABigStick: The Trench Club, a mêlée weapon which is basically an improvised modern version of a spiked mace. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trench_raiding_club Such weapon really existed during the era]].
* ChoiceOfTwoWeapons: Each character can carry two weapons in the same time, in any combination of firearms, mêlée weapons, offensive spells, or [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_pigeon homing pigeons]].
* CoolGuns: Mauser C96, Webley, Lee-Enfield, Lewis Gun.
* CosmeticAward: The Steam version of the game includes a whole load of achievements, including a series of achievements for finishing each mission (one achievement for each mission), another series for finishing each mission with a minimum score, one for finishing the whole campaign in the hard difficulty mode, one for finishing the campaign without losing any Investigator, etc, one for killing 25 Reanimates, etc.
* Franchise/CthulhuMythos: Well...
* DarkWorld: Hill's nightmares sequences seems to be set in a dark world variant of the front.
* DaylightHorror: Considering how the setting is lit, it seems that most of the outside levels happen during day.
* DeathFromAbove: You can send a homing pigeon to request an artillery strike on a portion of the field. The strike is instantly triggered but you must wait four turns[[note]]three if you bought the elite pigeon[[/note]] for the pigeon to come back and be able to request another.
* {{Dieselpunk}}: Kaul's machines have this kind of look.
* EasyCommunication: When you request an artillery strike with an homing pigeon, the area in bombed in the very same turn that the one in which you requested the strike, which means that the pigeon reached British lines in a few seconds (the bird actually requires to wait four turns to come back). It is justified, as having to anticipate the enemies' moves in order to request a strike which is deliver one or two turns later would make the artillery nearly useless.
* EvilIsVisceral: The landscape of the two last levels is basically World War One classic SceneryGorn mixed with organic growths and tentacles invading the soil.
* EvilOnlyHasToWinOnce: In the ending:
--> [[spoiler: Those who stand against the dark mirror of evil are trapped in an eternal conflict. Because, for the cultists, they only have to succeed once. But for the defenders of humanity, we have to prevail every single time.]]
* ExtraTurn: The Vitality Dose items boost the action points of the unit who benefit from them, individually granting him the equivalent of a free turn. Also, suffering from mania after losing too much Sanity has a similar effect.
* Foreshadowing: Some mission dialogs are clues about later gameplay
** After meeting Kaul and escaping his trap in the catacombs beneath a church, Brightmeer says that the enemy's plan is now running and that "the clock is ticking" (paraphrased). The next level is a TimedMission, though the InUniverse justification is different (the team just emerged from the ground in the middle of a town about to be bombed by the British army).
** Gold uses the same phrase late in the campaign, also before starting a TimedMission.
** Before the end of the mission which is followed by his second nightmare level, Hill states that he would need some psychoanalysis at this point. Using the related skill on him gives him an appreciable boost in his Sanity cap, which makes the next level easier.
* FriendlyFireProof: Party members are unable to attack each other, as using any aid item on a party member is technically the same action as attacking an enemy (right click on the target). Also, they can shoot through their comrades without being injured and can't be hurt by your artillery strikes.
* FromBadToWorse: After being trapped by Kaul in catacombs filled with gas and monsters, the Investigators manage to escape through a secret door... and emerge in the middle of a ruined city occupied by cultists and lovecraftian monsters. Oh, and the place is about to be bombed by the British artillery.
* GeoEffects: Bomb craters and trenches offer cover, muddy ground slows down moving units.
* GhostTown: Some levels are set in half destroyed deserted towns.
* GratuitousGerman: "''Docktor'' (sic) Kaul". The proper spelling would be "Doktor".
* HelmetsAreHardlyHeroic: Among the playable characters, only the randomly created British soldier is shown with an helmet in his ingame representation. Brown, Green, and Gold are all bareheaded, Hill wears a British army officer cap, and Brightmeer wears a turban. In term of gameplay, though, any of them can equip any headgear in their inventory.
* HeroicBSOD[=/=]HeroicRROD: Respectively consequences of paralysis and mania. See SanityMeter below.
** Healing a manic party member's Sanity avoid the HeroicRROD.
* HeroMustSurvive: Part of the objectives in each mission. The further you get into the campaign, the less starting party members are required to survive (until the last ones, in which the five named characters must survive). The accepted loss can be filled with new British soldiers hired between missions.
* HealThyself: Subverted. Healing items (First Aid Kits and healing spells) can only be used to heal[=/=]reanimate another party member.
** There is a more straight occurrence of the trope. Standing on the squares next to a Medical Station automatically heals the wounded party member after each turn.
* HoldTheLine: Mission objectives occasionally require to survive for a number of turns against waves of Germans or Mythos monsters. A variant requires to protect either Brightmeer or Gold (or both) while they are examining something.
* ImprovisedArmour: The Tank Helmet, which include scale mails hanging in front of the face for more protection. [[http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30015952 Such headgears really existed]].
* InformedEquipment: Helmets, gasmasks, and body armours aren't shown ingame on the characters. It can be confusing at the beginning of the game, as Captain Hill, Sid "Sapper" Brown and the generic British soldier (two of the playable characters you begin the game with) both starts the campaign while equiped with a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brodie_helmet Brodie helmet]], but Sid Brown's ingame unit is always bareheaded, Captain Hill wears an officer cap, while the generic British soldier is always shown with such a headgear. And the whole team isn't shown wearing gasmaks. The {{Heavily Armored Mook}}s have gasmasks as part of their appearance and inventory, but Cultists doesn't seem to have one, even when it is part of their inventory.
* InstantExpert: Downplayed with spells. There efficiency is linked to the Cthulhu Mythos skill and the Power stat, but casting them only requires to have them in an inventory slot, and they can be swapped between characters like the other items.
* InstantWinCondition: The campaign is instantly won we you deal the final blow to the final boss. Even if your units are badly wounded, manic, or paralized, while other monsters are still around you and would probably kill your whole team in the next turn.
* InterfaceSpoiler: A pretty minor one. In the mission objectives screen, the games displays the current objective and the one which has been completed before (in gray letters). The spoiler is that the objective goes with a mention like "1/3" (depending on where you are in the mission and the number of different objectives in the game).
** [[spoiler: It spoils that there would be another boss fight after Kaul's death, has killing him was the 1/3 of the final mission.]]
* KnifeNut: There are two knifes among the four mêlée weapons: the Bayonet and the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trench_knife Trench Knife]].
* LoadingScreen: They show a Cthulhu-like drawing with some text. If the loading screen introduces to a new mission you just unlocked in the campaign, it gives the mission's name and an excerpt of Hill's diary. If you just restarted the mission or loaded a saved game, it will just be a random line like "still struggling against the insanity", followed by a random Creator/HPLovecraft quote.
* LoopholeAbuse:
** Swapping items between two Investigators is a free action (of course, they need to stand on contiguous tiles). With enough careful micromanagement, you can move this way your full team through mustard gas clouds with only two gasmasks, as wearing-removing it is a free action two and standing in gas unprotected only inflicts damages when moving or at the end of a turn.
** The game allows to swap item with a dying Investigator. So, it isn't an issue if the only guy carrying First Aid Kits is lying in a pool of his own blood, as he can be revived by another party member after giving him the medical stuff.
** Whether those examples are actual {{Loophole Abuse}}s in spirit is debatable, as both appear on the game official website on a page dedicated to strategies and tactics.
* LovecraftLite: Shoot and kill Flying Polyps and Dark Youngs with World War One era weaponry, hack them to pieces with shovels or bayonets, and eventually [[spoiler: blast a Star-Spawn (basically a smaller Cthulhu) with rifles designed for elephant hunting.]]
** [[spoiler: With enough luck (having your LightningBruiser in manic state while the final boss is close enough and already damaged), it is possible to kill the Star-Spawn with ''mêlée attacks''.]]
* MadeOfIron: Any unprotected units (enemies and squad members) can move through mustard gas clouds without suffering more than losing easily regained hit points. In Real Life, it would have inflicted very severe burns (and not fully curable) to the skin, the eyes, and the lungs.
* MuckingInTheMud: There are occasional muddy patches on the ground. Crossing them requires more action points than walking on solid ground, simulating slower movement.
* NoCampaignForTheWicked[=/=]NoCanonForTheWicked: Both are averted. The German cultists are playable in ''Kaul's Diary'', which events are canonical since it's a prequel.
* NonEntityGeneral: Averted.
** There are clues that Hill is supposed to be the player. Loading screens when starting a level for the first time are quotes from his diary. There is a special short level which takes place in a nightmare he is currently making. Hill is forcibly selected at the beginning of a new turn.
** In ''Kaul's Diary'', the player is Kaul.
* NothingIsScarier: "Wait for it..." variant. There's a mission which requires to cross a deserted and half destroyed village, while a British artillery strike on the area is imminent. There are occasional cultists and monsters which appear in the area through scripted events, but not much. Making your team slowly progress in the ruins in order to reach the other side before using a specific number of turns, without knowing when the next {{Eldritch Abomination}}'s ambush will pop and if you'll have enough time left then is quite stressful.
* NoticeThis: Mission objectives usually requires to move the team (or a specific member) to a specific area of the current level, indicated by a red square on the ground.
* OmnidisciplinaryScientist: Brightmeer is stated to specialist in chemistry, biology, psychiatry, and Cthulhu Mythos.
* OneHitPolykill: Can happen with the Lancaster (the most powerful handgun), which bullets hit several targets if they are standing in a row.
* {{Prequel}}: The ''Kaul's Diary'' DLC campaign.
* PublicDomainCharacter: The World War One arc of ''Herbert West, Reanimator'' plays an important role in the game's backstory, including explicit mentions of the character.
* PublicDomainSoundtrack: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nARiGDW9X0M The trailer]] begins with the chorus of "It's A Long Way To Tipperary", a song from this era which was very famous in British ranks. The main menu's theme is a loop of this chorus; both version are accompanied by some subtle creepy sound effects in background. [[spoiler: The ending credits are also set to this chorus, but without the creepy sound effects.]]
** The game's official soundtrack included a cover of the full song.
* RecurringLocation: The identical area in which both Hill's nightmares happen.
* RemixedLevel: The town of Saint Chernay is one level in both the original campaign and ''Kaul's Diary''. In the latter, it is actually the setting of the first mission, which this time requires to clean it from Britisn presence.
* RPGElements: The game is inspired by the ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'' rules. Each playable character has several stats (hitpoints, strength, dexterity, intelligence, willpower, etc) and various skills. When completing each level, you gain an amount of experience points stored in a pool common for the whole team. Stats and skills can be freely upgraded by spending experience points. Also, using weapons during actual missions sometimes increase the skill related to the relevant weapon by one point.
* SanityMeter: Each character has is own meter, which is drained when casting spells or facing lovecraftian abominations. When it reaches 0, the characters either suffers from paralysis (can't do anything at all during one turn) or mania (receives a huge action points boosts, but collapses at the end of the turn and must be healed). Sanity is refilled after the end of paralysis[=/=]mania, with the use of the Psychoanalysis skill on the field, or at the end of a mission.
* SaveScumming: The game is automatically saved when leaving the game, at the opening of a level, after completion of any mission objective, and after the end of the AI turns. It is impossible to manually save the game and go back to a previous turn, but reloading several times from the beginning of the turn allows to force chance and hope that, this time, the RandomNumberGod will allow your attack to hit this monster.
* SceneryGorn: Trenches, no-man-land filled with bomb craters, ruined towns... It is a game set in World War One Western Front, so this trope is definitively expected.
** [[spoiler: The end of the game is set in an even more nightmarish version of the battlefield, not only with trenches, barbed wires, gas clouds, and craters, but the area seems somewhat bathed in a subtle unnatural light, craters harbours clean skeletons stripped to the bones lying in reddish water, and the grounds seems partly organic at some places.]]
* ShedArmorGainSpeed: The heavier the armour piece is, the more it gives a malus to the amount of action points (to the speed of attack and moving). Not suffering from any malus at all would require to wear the lightest helmet (a leather piece looking like an old aviator headgear from the beginning of the 20th century) and no chestpiece at all. It is only possible to remove armour in the merchant screen between levels, though.
* ShortRangeShotgun: Played totally straight. Shotguns are devastating at mêlée fighting range but lose most of their damage and accuracy if shot from further than this.
* ShovelStrike: The Sharp Shovel is the strongest mêlée weapon of the game.
* ShoutOut: The third mission ("A Handful of Dust") take its title from a line of ''Literature/TheWasteLand''.
* ShownTheirWork:
** [[AluminumChristmasTrees Some seemingly weird and unrealistic inventory items of the game]] (Elephant Guns, Trench Clubs, Tank Helmets, Sharp Shovels as weapons) are actually TruthInTelevision.
** Why does Hill start the campaign equiped with a Mauser C96 instead of the standard officer's Webley revolver? Not just for balance reasons (the Webley been ingame more powerful and less action points consuming than the Mauser C96), as a number of British officers personnally owned Mauser C96 bought before the war and used them in the conflict.
** [[http://redwaspdesign.wordpress.com/2012/01/25/lovecraft-cthulhu-the-great-war/ The official website of the game]] shows the developers put great effort in documentation about the era.
** On the other hand, some levels include mustard gas as a gameplay element. The game is set in 1915, gas were already used but the infamous mustard gas was first used in 1917.
* SkillScoresAndPerks: Skill scores, with a skill cap of 99, [[PointBuildSystem through points earned at the completion of each level]]. Fighting skills also level a bit when used.
* SpiritualSequel: According to a developer:
-->"When we started out, we were aiming for something in the style of ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' or ''[[VideoGame/NintendoWars Advance Wars]]'', but it's evolved into something more like ''VideoGame/XCom'' as we've gone on. The closest parallel is probably with an old PC game called ''Incubation'', which was more storyline-based than ''X-Com''."
* TakeCover: Standing in trenches and bomb craters provides some protection against attacks. [[spoiler: In the last mission, the deep summoning circle has the same effect to the creatures emerging from it.]]
* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: The Elephant Gun, most powerful rifle of the game. It is a weapon intended for elephant hunting...
* TimedMission:
** One level gives the player 35 turns to make Hill and Brown reach the exit of a German-occupied town, as a British bombing is about to begin.
** The penultimate requires to cross a scorched and surreal no man's land and reach the exit in 25 turns, as [[spoiler: Kaul is about to summon an abomination which would serve as a "general" for his monstruous army.]]
* TomeOfEldritchLore:
** In the inventory, spells are represented with a book (the spell being represented by an occult symbol drawn next to the book). When an offensive spell is equiped, we see the party member wielding a book in his right hand.
** There is an implicit allusion to the Necronomicon in a dialog near the end of the campaign.
* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: The trailer shows the Dark Youngs, (which only appears in the middle of the campaign), magic as a weapon, and [[spoiler: the human-Star Spawn hybrids]].
* TurnBasedTactics: With an Action Points system.
* VideoGameCaringPotential: You are not required to keep your whole starting team alive (as some party member cease to be part of a HeroMustSurvive mission objective while the plot goes on), but it's still heartwarming to keep them and make them progress further. There's actually a Steam achievement for finishing the campaign without losing any of the main investigators.
** Averted in ''Kaul's Diary'', in which you only manage Kaul's stats and inventory, the other player-controlled unit being expendable.
* VideogameCrueltyPotential: Luring enemies through mustard gas clouds, hacking them with shovels or mauling them with spiked clubs.
* WarIsHell
* UsefulNotes/WorldWarI: The setting of the game.
* YouCantThwartStageOne: No matter how good and fast you succeed in reaching [[spoiler: Kaul's summoning circle]] during the last mission, he'll still succeed to [[spoiler: summon a Star Spawn of Cthulhu, which is the final boss of the game, at the exact moment Brightmeer reaches the circle in order to stop the summoning. Even if you killed Kaul several turns before.]]
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