Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth [Xbox]

You Say "Ka-Tool-Ah," I say "Cuh-Thool-Hoo"

When you're attempting to visualize the unimaginable, faithfully re-create early 20th century Massachusetts the way a deranged cultist intended, and you're emulating the cerebral meanderings of reclusive bizarro-world creator Howard Phillips Lovecraft, you're likely to fail. Ever since a young Dean Stockwell starred in the slightly embarrassing The Dunwich Horror back in 1970, mediums outside printed literature have struggled to bring the sheer scale of other worldly inter-dimensional delusions without resorting to over-simplified clichés.

Hell, even our own Shadow of the Comet (the last time Chaosium -- the purveyors of Lovecraft's role-playing game and the licenser for COC:DCOOE -- let their well-guarded franchise into the hands of game developers) lacked a certain polish, with its characters based on horror legends such as Vincent Price, and a less-palpable fear in a main character with about five frames of animation. No, it's been left up to Alone in the Dark, Resident Evil, Silent Hill, and various under-the-radar attempts (such as the classic PC offering Sanitarium) to fill the void.

Then, after almost six years, developer/publisher in-fighting, constant delays, and almost no proper marketing (all of which ironically caused sanity-sapping that developer Headfirst hadn't imagined), the game has landed on software shelves with a soft, wet thud. And by Nyarlathotep, it's pant-crappingly good.

Something Fishy Going on at Innsmouth

This 15-hour unhinged exploration stars you as Jack Walters, a no-nonsense gumshoe who turns -- literally fifteen minutes into the adventure -- into a full-of-nonsense babbling idiot after witnessing things that should not be named (The Great Race of Yith -- ack, I've said too much!). The build-up of tension in these initial moments sets the scene for the rest of the experience; a gripping fear interspersed with anomalous sounds, whistling winds, and hard-to-place growling that really plays on your nerves, and sense of isolation.

The date is 1917, and Walters has been called to a Gothic mansion off the Atlantic coast where he finds cultists, alien technology, and well … a gruesome experiment too unpleasant to put into words. Investigating the dilapidated dwelling further results in the aforementioned incursion with other-worldly entities, and it takes five years and a spell in Arkham Sanitarium for Walters to partially recover. This should tell you everything you need to know about the pacing of the story for the rest of the adventure; the merest glimpse of a tentacle-flapping polyp results in a strapped-in bedtime and morphine for half a decade. At once, the novice player learns that foes are far more powerful than in any first-person game previously, while students of Cthulhu should be standing up and applauding how well the subject matter is handled. Serious Sam with Shoggoths this is not.