Yeah, it's as weird as it sounds.
The Call of Karen is a free-to-play comedy Simulation Game sprinkled with Lovecraftian elements created by Trumbus Games and released in July 2020.
1950s suburban housewife Karen is trapped in an unhappy marriage with a workaholic husband and taking care of her ungrateful son day after day. Though she notices strange things happening in her own house, she struggles to maintain some sense of normality.
But when the chaos gets way out of hand, she is forced to take matters into her own hands and clean up what's causing the disruption in the first place.
Due to the length of the game, spoilers will not be hidden on this page.
The Call of Karen just wants a happy trope, happy life:
- Awful Wedded Life: Karen doesn't get the attention she really wants from her husband, who is always working or participating in activities with friends than spending time with her.
- Black Speech: Throughout the game, garbled speech is heard by Karen as her home life gets more chaotic over time.
- Cassandra Truth: Susan's message to Karen is pointing out there's something eldritch taking hold of her house. Karen doesn't give much thought to it until the influence grows stronger.
- Deadpan Snarker: Karen is prone to this when she is alone or ignored by her family time and time again.
- Demonic Possession: The meatloaf, of all things, is possessed and had to be exorcised before being put in the oven.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Karen singlehandedly beat Cthulhu with a vacuum cleaner empowered by silver bullets and powerful magic. AND SHE WON.
- Epunymous Title: The Call of Cthulhu, except the title character is Karen.
- Gravity Screw: A variant of Fun with Gravity. Anything in the house that isn't furniture is subjected to gravity defiance due to eldritch forces at work.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Karen experiences - and even voices - her jealousy of Susan because of her position in society and her son Francis liked her cookies more than his mother's.
- Here We Go Again!: When her husband notices something weird happening to the house, Karen sees eldritch activity start up again and readies her magic vacuum cleaner to start cleaning house yet again.
- Holy Water: Stored in abundant numbers of spray bottles in the closet for exorcism needs, especially misbehaving meatloaf.
- Housewife: Karen's role in the family. Though, she isn't happy with how she's been treated.
- Improvised Weapon: Karen's weapon to fight off Cthulhu and its eldritch influence is a vacuum cleaner.
- Large Ham Radio: Charles, the radio host, gives out the daily goings-on and interviews with other housewives in an over-the-top personality. But then his behavior takes a weirder turn each day...
- Lovecraft Lite: Karen is an ordinary housewife who has to stop Cthulhu from causing chaos in her own house, and she has the resources to do so.
- Mundane Made Awesome: Karen keeping the house in order took a trip down Lovecraft Lane as she had to clean up the mess Cthulhu is making for her.
- Nuclear Family: Downplayed. The family consists of Karen, her husband, and her son Francis.
- Sanity Slippage: Charles, the radio host, gradually goes crazy as he rambles about the stars being right, speaking the language of R'Lyeh and generally talking nonsense.
- Silver Bullet: Karen orders a bundle of silver bullets, which helps her fight off the eldritch influence invading her house and subsequently Cthulhu.
- Snarking Thanks: Karen couldn't help sarcastically remarking how thoughtful Susan was for giving her a tome to help fight the eldritch influence.
- Stay in the Kitchen: This is a given since the game is set in the '50s. Francis even outright says this to his own mother.
- Tome of Eldritch Lore: Karen uses one (delivered to the home by Susan) to magically power up her vacuum cleaner.
- Wooden Stake: Not used in-game, but Karen has a supply of them for some reason.
